Scientific research is a complex system based, increasingly, on the possibility of collecting and exchanging information, knowledge and data with ease and reliability.

In this context, research infrastructures are crucial elements for scientific and technological development, as they provide the necessary resources not only for the collection, analysis and sharing of data, but also to enable collaboration between researchers and a variety of essential services, such as access to data itself, possibilities for analysis, portability and federation in large-scale systems.

Research infrastructures for Open Science, considered one of the fundamental pillars in the UNESCO Recommendation for Open Science, was the focus of an entire session during GenOA Week, the national event organized annnually on the occasion of the international week dedicated to Open Access. 

The session, organized by ISTI and held on 7 November 2024 at the CNR headquarters in Genoa, aimed to explore the contribution of research infrastructures to the implementation of open science practices, promoting inclusivity, transparency and reproducibility. During the speeches, the leading role of the CNR in creating and maintaining research infrastructures of different types emerged, from horizontal ones, which offer services to research communities in different disciplines, to thematic ones. Horizontal research infrastructures include, for example D4Science (ISTI) and OpenAIRE (in which ISTI is one of the major technical partners). While among the thematic ones there are IPERION HS, E-RIHS and H2IOSC, dedicated to cultural heritage, ETIP geothermal for geothermal energy, ITINERIS for environmental sciences, RISIS, for studies on development and innovation policies or FOSSR for the social sciences and JERICHO, EMSO and ICOS for marine sciences. 

Speeches highlighted how CNR-ISTI's expertise and services have been successfully reused to provide communities with a variety of digital tools for open science. This approach not only enhances the concrete results of CNR research in the field of Open Science, but also improves the sustainability of infrastructures, especially for those that cannot follow the path of ESFRI, the European forum for high-level research infrastructures in Europe. 

Also in this case it is worth mentioning some examples. The D4Science infrastructure provides IPERION HS, ITINERIS, FOSSR and RAISE with tools for collaborative research and thematic virtual research environments that guarantee the reproducibility of the results, and the transparency of the digital processes applied for their production.
Among the OpenAIRE services used by research infrastructures such as IPERION HS, ETIP geothermal, RISIS and DARIAH are: the repository Zenodo, used for the FAIR publication of search results; The service OpenAIRE CONNECT, to facilitate the discovery of research products and promote good practices within the community; and OpenAIRE MONITOR to monitor the adoption of open science practices and the impact of the infrastructure itself in the scientific landscape. 

During the speeches, representatives of thematic infrastructures underlined the importance of transnational access (TNA) programmes to ensure free access to physical infrastructures such as marine observatories, not only for researchers but also for businesses, stimulating innovation. 
Equally shared was the need to involve research communities in the creation of infrastructures through processes of co-creation, personalization of services, and collaboration on innovative, inter- and multidisciplinary research topics. These issues may in fact require an evolution of thematic and horizontal research infrastructures to be addressed efficiently and effectively.

We would like to thank all the speakers who spoke at the session representing their research infrastructure.