On 12 September 2025, ROBOPROX Principal Investigator Prof. Zdeněk Hanzálek (CIIRC CTU) delivered a presentation at the public hearing “Making Sense of Open Science”. The event was organised by the Czech Academy of Sciences and the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry within the AMULET project and took place in Prague under the auspices of the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Scientific Council of the CAS.
The full-day hearing was dedicated to Open Science as one of the key pillars of European science policy. It gathered academics, policymakers, and representatives of major Czech scientific institutions to discuss urgent topics such as data management, publishing regimes, and public engagement in science. The programme included panel discussions with international experts, contributions from Czech researchers, interactive workshops, and the presentation of findings from a sociological study on the Czech research community’s experience with Open Science.
In his talk, Prof. Hanzálek presented ROBOPROX’s experience with open access publishing in projects funded under the OP JAK Excellent Research programme. He highlighted the difficulties caused by the strict enforcement of CC BY licensing rules and their consequences for the Czech scientific environment, including high publication costs, sustainability concerns, and unintended negative impacts on researchers. His conclusion stressed that while Open Access is the right direction, it should not be imposed at any cost.
