The opening of research data is – next to the open publishing of scientific papers – a central aspect of Open Science. Research data is recognized as one of the key outputs of the scientific process. Properly managed data is a valuable resource for scientists, who can then freely use, re-use and combine it. Open data benefit the society as a whole, enabling novel forms of scientific inquiry and non-scientific data usage, facilitating engagement in citizen science, and accelerating economical development.

With the growing tide of data, issues of preservation, annotation and sharing are gaining importance. There is an increasing need for common solutions both on the technical and political level. The conference “Open Research Data: Implications for Science and Society” will provide a forum for a broad debate on all issues related to opening research data. The topics covered will include:

• Data sharing, data publishing: policies, strategies and incentives
• Tools and methodologies for opening data
• Re-use of data for science and society: opportunities and challenges

The conference will take place in Warsaw, Poland, on May 28–29, 2015. It is organized by the Open Science Platform — an initiative of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling at the University of Warsaw.