Regions

France has one of the most developed open-science policy environments in Europe, driven by the French National Plan for Open Science (Plan national pour la science ouverte) and the HAL open archive, which is widely used for green open-access deposit. French research funders and organisations are active in cOAlition S / Plan S, the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information, and CoARA (the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment). Responsible-assessment and narrative-CV approaches are gaining ground alongside these commitments.

4 major funders · 4 active mandates

The Netherlands is a leader in responsible research assessment through the national Recognition & Rewards programme (Erkennen en Waarderen), which broadens evaluation beyond publication metrics. Dutch funders are committed to Plan S and open access, and the country has a mature CRIS / research-information landscape (historically including NARCIS). Dutch organisations are prominent in CoARA and in open-science infrastructure provided by SURF.

4 major funders · 4 active mandates

Switzerland combines strong funder-led open-science policy with national coordination through swissuniversities. The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is a cOAlition S member and has championed open access and open research data, including a national strategy and action plan for Open Research Data. Swiss institutions are active DORA signatories and increasingly adopt responsible-assessment and narrative approaches.

3 major funders · 3 active mandates

South Africa has a long-standing open-access tradition, anchored by SciELO South Africa and a strong national open-journals ecosystem, supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Research-data management and responsible-assessment practices (including DORA) are developing across South African universities and councils, alongside growing adoption of persistent identifiers and structured contribution metadata.

3 major funders · 3 active mandates

The US research-administration environment is the world's most heavily funded (~$700B total R&D, 2024) and the most procedurally complex — NIH, NSF, DOE, NASA, USDA, and dozens of other federal agencies plus the National Science and Technology Council's NSPM-33 Common Disclosure regime. CRediT adoption is widespread on the publication side; SciENcv-driven biosketches are mandatory federally.

8 major funders · 4 active mandates

The UK research-administration landscape is shaped by UKRI (umbrella for 7 research councils + Innovate UK + Research England), the Research Excellence Framework (REF), Plan S alignment, and pioneering responsible-assessment work — including the Resume for Research and Innovation (R4RI) narrative CV format made mandatory for UKRI fellowships from January 2024.

8 major funders · 4 active mandates

The EU research-administration landscape centres on Horizon Europe (€95.5B framework programme 2021-27), the European Research Council, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), and CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment). Plan S originated here. Strong FAIR-data + open-access mandates throughout.

8 major funders · 4 active mandates

Australia is the home of RAiD (Research Activity Identifier, ISO 23527:2022) and the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) — one of the most influential national research-data infrastructure bodies globally. The Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) are the main funders. Strong commitment to FAIR + CARE + Indigenous data sovereignty.

5 major funders · 4 active mandates

Canada was the origin of CASRAI itself (Canadian Association of Standards in Research-Administration Information, founded 2006). The Tri-Agency (CIHR / NSERC / SSHRC) coordinates federal funding across health, natural sciences/engineering, and social sciences/humanities. Tri-Agency Open Access Policy (2015, updated 2022) and the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy (2021) shape the landscape.

5 major funders · 4 active mandates

China is the world's largest producer of scientific publications (since 2017) and second-largest R&D spender (~$680B, 2023 estimate). The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) are the main public funders. ORCID adoption has accelerated; CRediT awareness rising via internationalisation of Chinese journals.

4 major funders · 3 active mandates

Japan is one of the world's largest research economies, with a research-administration landscape shaped by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). National infrastructure includes J-STAGE (the electronic journal platform run by JST) and the Japan Link Center (JaLC) DOI registration agency. ORCID adoption is well established through researcher-number systems, and an open-access policy taking effect for publicly funded research from fiscal year 2025 is strengthening immediate open access.

5 major funders · 4 active mandates

Germany has one of Europe's largest and most institutionally rich research systems. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is the central self-governing funding body, alongside the major non-university research organisations — the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association, the Fraunhofer Society, and the Leibniz Association. Germany pioneered transformative open-access agreements through Projekt DEAL, and the DFG's open-access policy aligns with Plan S principles. ORCID, ROR, and FAIR-data practices are well established across the sector.

7 major funders · 4 active mandates

India is among the world's largest producers of research output. Its funding landscape is led by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) — established to expand and coordinate national research funding, building on the former Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) — alongside the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative provides centralised national access to scholarly literature, and ORCID adoption is growing across funders and institutions.

6 major funders · 4 active mandates

Brazil is the largest research producer in Latin America, with a federal funding system led by CNPq (the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and CAPES (the coordinating agency for graduate education), complemented by powerful state foundations such as FAPESP in São Paulo. Brazil is a global leader in open access through SciELO, the pioneering open-access journal platform, and maintains the Lattes Platform — a national researcher-CV system that is increasingly integrated with ORCID.

5 major funders · 4 active mandates

South Korea is one of the world's most research-intensive economies, consistently among the highest globally for R&D expenditure as a share of GDP. Public research funding is coordinated primarily through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). National infrastructure includes the Korea Citation Index (KCI), the central database of Korean scholarly journals and citations operated by the NRF. ORCID adoption is well established across funders and institutions, supporting researcher identity and output linkage.

5 major funders · 4 active mandates