(16-12-25) NWO Open Science Infrastructure Funding for Brightlands Open Data Hub (BODH)

On 16 December 2025, Open Science NL announced the results of its largest funding round to date, awarding 45 projects that strengthen the Dutch open science infrastructure. Together, these projects aim to improve the accessibility, transparency, and reuse of scholarly data, software, and publications across disciplines. The funded initiatives span a wide range of infrastructures, from enhancing research software and repository discoverability to developing open platforms for cultural heritage, astronomy, and AI-driven reproducibility.

In total, 25 small projects received grants of up to €250,000 (€6 million total), and 20 large projects received up to €1.5 million each (€29.5 million total). Out of 174 submitted pre-proposals, 22% of small and 30% of large proposals were funded, reflecting both strong competition and a clear national demand for open science infrastructure. The total budget was increased from €17.5 million to €35 million through an additional one-off contribution from NWO.

One of the funded projects is the Brightlands Open Data Hub (Maastricht University), led by Kumar Saurabh Singh. This initiative will develop a 5-star linked open-data platform for interdisciplinary crop science research and education, enabling secure, sample-centric integration of real-time plant phenotyping data with biological datasets. Starting as a pilot, the platform is intended as a foundation for a future national infrastructure that supports open, collaborative, and reusable plant science research.

We are very excited to begin work on the Brightlands Open Data Hub and to explore its potential as a pilot for a new generation of open, interoperable research infrastructures. This project represents an important first step toward building a scalable, national platform for crop science and plant research. In the coming years, we envision expanding this infrastructure in close collaboration with researchers, research software engineers, and data stewards from other Dutch universities and research institutes. By growing this initiative into a shared, community-driven resource, we aim to support sustainable open science practices and enable long-term reuse of data, tools, and knowledge across disciplines.