Horizon 2020 open science requirements

All scientific peer-reviewed publications must be published open access. It is encouraged to also open the other types of scientific publications.  

The articles should be made open in one of the following ways: 

• by publishing articles in the Open Access journals, 

• by self-archiving articles e.g. in an institutional repository (ACRIS in Aalto University)

• by publishing articles in the subscription-based journals that enable open access, i.e. the payment of an article processing charge (APC) is a condition for opening (hybrid open access).  

Embargoes (publication delay periods) for the opening of publications is allowed 

• Humanities and social sciences: 12 months 

• Other fields: 6 months 

Please also note that 

• The article processing charges (APCs) are eligible costs during the project 

• The project’s open access publications must be reported in the EU’s funding and tender opportunities portal. Further instructions. 

Data Management Plan (DMP) 

The data management plan is submitted within the first 6 months of the project. 

The DMP template is provided but the use of it is a recommendation.  

• In general, the template guides you to describe how you will make your research data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR).  

• If you have justified reasons not to open some parts of the data describe the reason in the DMP. 

• The DMP must be updated. Typically, updates are made at the same time as the periodic evaluations. The update needs to be made together with the final review if there are no scheduled reviews. 

• General guide on data management and the overview of the DMP template 

Open data requirements 

The current requirement is that the data must be published in a data repository to ensure the validation of the research results. If you are unsure whether you should publish your data or not, please check your project’s Grant Agreement (article 29.3 Open access to research data). 

It is possible to opt out of making the data open for justified reasons such as 

• to protect results that can be exploited commercially 

• to protect personal data 

• disclosure of data would jeopardize the achievement of the project objectives 

Please also note that 

• Open access to data is not an evaluation criterion of the project proposal 

• If it is not possible to open the data, explain the justified reasons in the application and opt-out to open the data 

• If you notice only after the funding decision that the data cannot be opened, you must request for an amendment to the contract 

The Horizon 2020 manual: open access and data management   

European Commission background note on open access to publications and data in Horizon 2020 

Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020 

Guidelines on FAIR Data Management in Horizon 2020 

The Model Grant Agreement 

Always check the up-to-date information from the funders' instructions.