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Our policies

Our policies

We are committed to developing Open Science

At CCMAR, we work to implement an Open Science policy, promoting the sharing of scientific data and knowledge to enable greater scientific and industrial innovation and to increase public understanding of the importance of our science to society and social policy.

We promote the principles of Open Science in all our research activities, except where data may be restricted by private contract. In particular, we are improving our digital data management, an objective that has become increasingly important as national and European research infrastructures promote Open Science policies throughout the European research area.

To achieve this, we strive to publish scientific results in open access, deposit scientific data in repositories and catalogues according to FAIR data principles, and disseminate scientific knowledge to the public through communication and citizen science initiatives.

Find out more:

Open Science policies across the European Union aim to promote:

  • More efficient research by openly sharing data and knowledge
  • The transparency of the scientific work process
  • Academic rigour and research quality
  • The development of new cross-cutting research themes
  • The development of public scientific literacy
  • The economic and social impact of science
  • Scientific recognition of research institutions and infrastructures

A useful guide to data management issues is provided by Science Europe's Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management.

It is mandatory for all research results from ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) research infrastructures to follow the Open Science principles of open access and FAIR data publication, so that data is "as open as possible, as closed as necessary".

At national level, the publication of research studies in open access is mandatory, while strict adherence to FAIR's data publication policy depends on the type of funding. It is widely expected that future calls for scientific projects will impose a FAIR data publication policy, so adherence to these principles for current research is strongly advised.

A Data Management Plan describes the data management lifecycle for the data to be collected and the protocol to be followed to make the data localisable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). Currently, EU funding agencies require researchers to provide a DMP; a requirement that is likely to become standard at national level in the near future, as has happened in the PT2020 calls.

A DMP should include information on:

  • what data will be collected, processed and/or generated;
  • what methodologies and standards will be used;
  • how the data will be made openly accessible, complying with the FAIR criteria;
  • how the data will be curated and preserved at the end of the project

Several online tools are available to help researchers design an effective DMP - the most appropriate service for CCMAR researchers is OpenAIRE's ARGOS.

The FAIR data principles encourage the publication of scientific data in a way that is localisable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. These principles emphasise the need for scientific data to be accessible to automated computer systems. In short, these objectives can be achieved by providing sufficient metadata and depositing the data in appropriate Open Science repositories. Metadata is information that describes data for publication and usually includes unique identifiers and descriptors that follow standardised protocols, vocabularies and ontologies. Many protocols and ontologies have been designed by research communities for specific research fields. For example, the Minimum Information About a Plant Phenotyping Experiment (MIAPPE) describes a conceptual list of the metadata needed to adequately describe a plant phenotyping experiment using a pre-agreed vocabulary that has been developed by the research community. Similarly, individual research fields and topics may have dedicated open access data repositories where researchers can deposit their FAIR data, for example the European Nucleotide Archive (EMBL-EBI). However, there are also general data repositories, such as EUDAT (EOSC) and Zenodo (CERN, OpenAire).

FCT Open Science in Portugal: https://www.ciencia-aberta.pt/home

Portuguese National Bioinformatics Infrastructure BioData.pt|ELIXIR.pt: https://biodata.pt

Portuguese Forum on Research Data Policy: https://forumgdi.rcaap.pt

EOSC-Synergy Landscapes (Portugal): https://comum.rcaap.pt/handle/10400.26/32849

National Open Access Repositories: http://projecto.rcaap.pt

Registry of Research Data Repositories: https://www.re3data.org

EUDAT (EOSC): https://b2share.eudat.eu

Zenodo (CERN, OpenAire): https://about.zenodo.org

OpenAire (Portugal): https://www.openaire.eu/os-portugal

Dryad Digital Repository: https://datadryad.org/stash

PlutoF Data Management and Publishing Platform: https://plutof.ut.ee/#

FAIRsharing: https://fairsharing.org

EOSC Marketplace: https://marketplace.eosc-portal.eu

OpenAIRE Argos DMP: https://argos.openaire.eu

Data Stewardship Wizard (portugal): https://biodata-pt.ds-wizard.org

The Ontology Lookup Service (OLS): https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols/index

Research Data Management (RDM) Kit: https://rdmkit.elixir-europe.org

FAIRcookbook: https://fairplus.github.io/the-fair-cookbook

FAIRassist: https://fairassist.org/#!

CESSDA Vocabulary Service: https://vocabularies.cessda.eu/#!discover

Foster Open Science Training Courses: https://www.fosteropenscience.eu/toolkit

European Biodiversity Information System (EurOBIS): https://www.eurobis.org

Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS): https://www.vliz.be/en/imis

Marine Data Archive: https://mda.vliz.be

EMBL-EBI Magnify Marine Domain: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metagenomics/browse?lineage=root:Environmental:Aquatic:Marine#studies

Pangea: https://www.pangaea.de

German Federation for Biological Data (GFBio): https://www.gfbio.org

World Register Of Marine Species (WoRMS): https://www.marinespecies.org

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBif): https://www.gbif.org

Dataverse (Harvard): https://dataverse.harvard.edu

DMPTool: https://dmptool.org

DMPOnline: https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk

INIST DMP Tool: https://dmp.opidor.fr

Animal experimentation and welfare

CCMAR is one of the Portuguese signatories of the Transparency Agreement promoted by EARA in collaboration with the Portuguese Society of Laboratory Animal Sciences (SPCAL) and more recently issued a Declaration on Animal Experimentation in the same vein. By signing this agreement, we are defending a policy of transparency in relation to the use of animals for research purposes.
 
The ethics and welfare of the animals used in our facilities for scientific research purposes are central to the performance of our activity. All research projects that use animals are subject to prior assessment and authorisation by the animal welfare bodies of ORBEA (Organismo Responsável pelo Bem-Estar Animal CCMAR - CBMR), ethics committees and the competent DGAV (Direção Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária).
 
All people whose work involves animal handling and experimentation must have the appropriate qualifications, training and competence. To this end, CCMAR regularly organises courses that confer certification for this purpose, authorised and certified by the DGAV.

The use of animals for experimentation and scientific research is regulated in Portugal by Decree-Law no. 113/2013 of 7 August, amended by Decree-Law no. 1/2019 of 10 January, which transposes Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the European Council of 22 September 2010, on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.

CCMAR has an ORBEA Committee, together with the CBMR, which is governed by the following Regulations: Regulations of the Animal Welfare Committee (ORBEA CCMAR-CBMR) - 2020 

Projects that involve animal experimentation and require approval from the DGVA need a supporting statement issued by ORBEA. As such, you must first submit this request by e-mail to ORBEA, whose opinion can take between 3-4 weeks to be issued.
 

ORBEA Committee

Adelino Canário ( President and head of the establishment)

João Reis (facilities manager)

Pedro Rego (veterinary surgeon)

João Saraiva (animal behaviour and welfare)

Luis Faísca (statistics and experimental design)

Vítor Fernandes (facilities manager; animal welfare of mammalian vertebrates)

Seahorse in a seagrass
We have implemented the 3 R's method

 

replace

Animals are not used if an alternative research method is available that produces comparable effects to those obtained using the same animals in their research.

 

reduce

The number of species used is the minimum necessary in order to obtain robust statistical and research data.

 

refine

Researchers ensure that the animals used will not suffer any kind of discomfort, pain or stress, whether physical or psychological.