The winners were chosen based on their concrete contributions to more transparent, inclusive and accessible research practices.
From principle to practice
Across the ten projects, what stood out to the jury was the striking diversity of disciplines represented. The projects spanned fields as varied as bioinformatics, ecology, dentistry, communication, and psychology. This range shows how Open Science principles can be translated into concrete practices tailored to different contexts – from involving citizens and communities beyond academia to making data, software, and research materials openly available and reusable, or adopting practices such as preregistration.
“Perhaps the strongest message of this year's OSCAwards is that meaningful change does not depend on a single group or initiative. On the contrary, researchers, students and support staff, all play a role in advancing Open Science. The transition to Open Science is a collective effort.” - Alexandra Sarafoglou, co-founder and board member of OSCA
The 2026 OSCAwards Winners
The following VU projects received an OSCAward 2026:
- Making Interactive Science Accessible and Reproducible: AbSolution and ENCORE – Rodrigo García-Valiente, Charisios Triantafyllou, Barbera van Schaik, Aldo Jongejan, Samuel Langton, Sabrina Pollastro, Dornatien Anang, Jeroen Guikema, Niek de Vries, Huub Hoefsloot & Antoine van Kampen (Amsterdam UMC, Bioinformatics Laboratory, Epidemiology and Data Science)
Interactive tools have transformed data analysis by making complex methods accessible, but often at the cost of reproducibility. AbSolution is an open-source application that addresses this challenge by combining a code-free interactive interface with full computational transparency through the ENCORE reproducibility framework.
- Open Oral Radiology Education for Everyone – Julien Issa, Gerard Sanderink & Erwin Berkhout (Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Oral Radiology and Digital Dentistry)
This project provides freely accessible online learning modules in oral radiology which offers users an interactive, case-based training to improve diagnostic skills for dental students and professionals. Originally created for internal teaching, these resources have evolved into internationally used open educational tools.
- BuurtBrein – Galoeh Adrian Noviar (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Broader Mind Community Service Learning, Athena Instituut)
BuurtBrein is a community-based initiative in which residents learn how to become “wijkonderzoekers” (community researchers) in their own neighbourhoods and communities. Through workshops, collaboration, and hands-on research experience, participants develop practical research skills while exploring topics and issues that matter to them.
- Connecting the Dots: ShareTrait’s Open Data Synthesis – Jacintha Ellers & Wilco Verberk (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment (A-LIFE))
ShareTrait is a new, user-friendly platform designed to organize scattered ecological data into a "universal language" for easier, large-scale research. By focusing on essential traits like metabolism and growth, the initiative enables scientists to better understand ecological changes through collaborative data sharing and has already gathered more than twenty-five thousand records.
- Metapsy – Pim Cuijpers, Annemieke van Straten, Mathias Harrer, Wouter van Ballegooijen, Marketa Ciharova & Antonia Sprenger (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Clinical, Neuro-, and Developmental Psychology)
Metapsy is an open-source platform that collects and summarises scientific evidence on effectiveness of psychological treatments for mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and many more. Metapsy offers researchers reusable data and software, clinicians and patients a user-friendly and interactive meta-analytic tool, and the general public articles about psychotherapy in non-technical language.
Find more information on all the winning projects on the OSCA website.
About the Open Science Awards (OSCAwards)
The OSCAwards were established to recognise and reward contributions to open science and reflect on the many ways in which individuals bring about change towards a more responsible, transparent, and inclusive research culture. Ten prizes of €400 are awarded in four Open Science categories, with entries judged on their alignment with Open Science values, potential to improve science or benefit society, as well as their contribution to diversity and inclusion, and sustainability.
About OSCA
The Open Science Community Amsterdam (OSCA) is a collaborative initiative of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA), Amsterdam UMC and the Student Initiative for Open Science (SIOS). OSCA is part of the broader Open Science Community Network Netherlands (OSC-NL).
The aim of the Open Science Community is to create a platform where researchers and students from all institutes and faculties can connect and learn from each other about Open Science practices.
