Improving the quality of open metadata on research funding: an agenda for open science

FOLEC-CLACSO recommends reading Improving the Quality of Open Funding Metadata: A Call to Action, a document prepared by the Working Group on Funding Metadata of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information and published in May 2026. This recommendation is especially significant given that FOLEC participates in the Steering Group of the Barcelona Declaration, an international initiative that promotes open research information as a key element to strengthen transparency, equity and governance of scientific systems.

The document addresses a central challenge for open science: the need to improve the quality, availability, and interoperability of metadata on research funding. Its authors warn that, although this information is fundamental for understanding how knowledge production is funded, evaluating results, strengthening accountability, and reducing administrative burdens, in practice funding data is often incomplete, inconsistent, and difficult to connect across platforms, institutions, and actors within the scientific system.

Based on a consultation process that brought together funders, publishers, infrastructure providers, and research institutions, the document identifies three main obstacles: the lack of standards shared to record and report information on financing, the limited interoperability between the systems that manage this data and the limitations of resources, capabilities and incentives to improve its quality. Faced with this diagnosis, it proposes an action plan based on the adoption of open persistent identifiers, the strengthening of open scientific information infrastructures, the standardization of practices, and greater coordination among the various actors involved.

This is a particularly interesting read for those working in science policy, research evaluation, open science, and information infrastructures. The document is available in two complementary versions:

• A synthetic version, Improving the Quality of Open Funding Metadata: A Call to Action (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20190156), which presents the main findings and recommendations.
• An expanded version, Improving the Quality of Open Funding Metadata: A Call to Action. Background and Detailed Recommendations (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20189998), which develops in detail the diagnosis, challenges and action proposals for each of the actors in the scientific ecosystem.