The OSIRIS project is delighted to announce our alliance with the TIER2 project! In March 2023, members of the two Horizon Europe consortiums converged in a virtual meeting with the objective to define synergies to achieve greater impact and to further strengthen the ultimate goal to increase evidence based Open Science and Reproducibility. The meeting was marked by an outpour of ideas and excitement for what’s to come! The goal of the meeting was not only to present the OSIRIS and TIER2 projects but also to scope the perspective of each consortium and discuss the main differences and overlaps between the projects to better understand the areas in which we can develop collaborative efforts to further enhance Open Science and Reproducibility.

Over 30 participants from OSIRIS and the TIER2 project gathered for a 3-hour virtual meeting to discuss the objectives and aims of each project and define synergies to achieve greater impact.

As stated by Tony Ross-Hellauer, Coordinator of TIER2. “All of us in TIER2 are delighted to collaborate with OSIRIS. Not only because it makes sense to join forces and the spirit of collaboration we already have makes it great fun but also because, in pooling our range of perspectives and activities, we think both projects really stand to benefit! “

The OSIRIS Coordinator Dr Inge Stegeman, also shares her thoughts on this alliance stating that “The aim of OSIRIS perfectly aligns with the aim of TIER2, which aims to build an evidence base on the extent and efficacy of existing reproductivity practices and co-create new tools to enhance reproducibility across diverse contexts. The OSIRIS/TIER2 partnership will contribute to Open Science and Reproducibility by making evidence important “.

The event started with a brief introduction and presentation of each consortium (TIER2, OSIRIS) followed by Break-out groups that covered areas such as Literature scoping, Indicators/metrics/Observatory, Audit/autoethnography tasks and Inclusion of funders/publishers.

The break-out groups focused on the core overlapping topics between the projects, specifically in:

  • Literature scoping – where the goal is to share protocols between the projects and collaborate on screening the literature and create a concrete plan for forming a working group.
  • Indicators/metrics/Observatory – further meetings will be needed to define these, but the OSIRIS consortium would test some tools developed in TIER2. So we can have a core outcome set which may apply in many fields.
  • Audit/autoethnography tasks – a wealth of potential for collaboration were OSIRIS sees potential for folding autoethnography into their audit. OSIRIS could also participate in TIER2 autoethnographic processes.
  • Inclusion of funders/publishers –objectives of both projects also However, paths towards achieving them are different. So, collaboration on this topic will be aimed primarily at intervention and piloting to achieve optimal outcomes.

The event concluded with a plenary session focused on the topic: ‘How to measure interventions, what to measure’. The main goal of the session was to clearly define a core outcome set. What really matters in terms of reproducibility at the end of the day, and what are the differences across the fields?

Stay tuned for more details on the OSIRIS/TIER2 partnership focused on evidence-based accountability and reliability in science!