Guidance for the implementation of the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation re. "Opening science to society" (FINAL)

The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science was endorsed in November 2021by all 193 member states of UNESCO after two years of preparation. The recommendation is extensive and supports many aspects of opening scientific practice, such as requiring scientists to publish their results as open access and the need for an infrastructure to support the sharing of data. The four pillars of the Recommendation are i) open scientific knowledge, ii) open science infrastructures, iii) open dialogue with other knowledge systems, and iv) open engagement of societal actors. The importance of opening science to society is particularly highlighted in pillars iii and iv, nevertheless, UNESCO is aware that a number of countries are unsure about how to progress their journey of opening science to society and engaging science with societal actors.Citizen science practitioners across the globe have extensive and diverse first-hand experience with the practice of engaging different groups of stakeholders in the scientific production and application of new knowledge. Under the umbrella of the Community of Practice on Citizen Science and Open Science (CS&OS CoP) of the Citizen Science Global Partnership (CSGP), a group of 63 citizen science practitioners from 24 countries contributed to the process of drafting the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. UNESCO has asked the CS&OS CoP and associates to provide guidance for country governments on how to embed the open engagement of societal actors in their (Open) Science policies to ensure that this pillar is suitably addressed and incorporated in the implementation of the Recommendation around the world. In response to this request, 35people from 21 countries collaborated in a short and concentrated effort to gather and review relevant resources and case study examples, and present these along with the below guidance on successful approaches and mechanisms for embedding the open engagement of societal actors in (Open) Science policy.This guide is structured as follows. Section 2 presents an overview of the range of approaches that the opening up of science to society comprises. Section 3 elaborates on concrete policy recommendations for embedding the opening of science to society in Open Science policy and proposes key aspects to consider when monitoring societal engagement as part of the larger UNESCO Open Science monitoring framework. Section 4 illustrates current efforts and advances of a number of countries and regions which include the opening up of science to society in their (Open) Science policies with case studies from the EU, Austria, The Netherlands, the US, South Africa, India, and New Zealand. Finally, section 5 includes useful links to resources such as inventories of (online) citizen science projects, tools and methodologies for setting up and implementing societal engagement initiatives, as well as a platform for measuring their impacts