The Horizon Europe project PathOS has reached its conclusion. Its mission was to trace the impact pathways of Open Science (OS) across research, the economy, and society. CSIL’s main contribution was the development and testing of a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) framework tailored to Open Science.
While Open Science has been promoted for its transformative potential, systematic evidence of its economic impacts has often been lacking. CSIL addressed this challenge by designing a robust methodological framework that adapts the principles of CBA to the specific features of OS.
The framework provides a structured roadmap for identifying and quantifying both costs and benefits, always benchmarked against a counterfactual scenario without OS. This approach ensures that assessments are not only comprehensive but also comparable across different OS practices.
The framework is presented in detail in the PathOS methodological note (Deliverable 4.2) and summarised in the dedicated factsheet.
To ensure that the framework could work in practice, CSIL piloted it on two open science practices: UniProt, a global protein database, and RCAAP, Portugal’s national repository network. These pilots demonstrated how the methodology can be applied in real-world settings, accounting for diverse stakeholders and complex ecosystems. The insights are captured in two case study reports, alongside a synthesis, all available in Open Access and summarised in dedicated factsheets (UniProt factsheet | RCAAP factsheet).
CSIL has actively contributed to disseminating the findings and methodologies developed within the PathOS project through a series of presentations, workshops, and training events at national and international fora. Key dissemination activities include:
CSIL will continue to disseminate the results of PathOS to ensure that the evidence and tools developed through the project inform future research and policy work on Open Science
On 27 November 2025, CSIL will deliver a presentation on the CBA framework and findings from the UniProt case study at the European Conference of the Society for Benefit–Cost Analysis, organized in Athens. This session will highlight how the methodology developed within PathOS can be scaled to other Open Science initiatives and incorporated into broader evaluation strategies.
CSIL also ensured that results were accessible and actionable. PathOS work fed into global debates, with a dedicated study on the economic impacts of Open Science now published in Royal Society Open Science: The economic impact of Open Science. This study provides fresh evidence on how Open Science practices generate tangible economic benefits, contributing to more efficient, transparent, and impactful research and innovation.
In addition, CSIL has contributed to the scientific publication “Towards a Framework for Assessing the Economic Impacts of Open Science”, included in The Economics of Open Science 2.0 (Springer, 2024).
Further publications are currently under preparation to showcase the application of the CBA framework in practice, with the aim of supporting its uptake and adaptation in future Open Science evaluation.
The CBA framework for Open Science developed by CSIL is a practical decision-support tool. By making both costs and benefits visible, it empowers funders, infrastructures, and policymakers to design better policies, prioritise investments, and build credible narratives about the value of openness. Read it on Zenodo.