Amid growing calls for transparency, inclusivity, and sustainability in Open Science, training emerges not merely as a support function but as a core activity for developing the capacities of scholarly communities. This work presents a structured framework for designing, delivering, and sustaining training on Open Science, open scholarly communication, and service use, with a strong emphasis on empowering communities to build shared competencies and practices. (Avanço, 2025).

Introduction

OPERAS’ mission is to make Open Science a reality for Social Sciences and Humanities research and to ensure that knowledge is freely accessible to benefit society at large. Central to fulfilling this mission is the transition toward becoming a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), a step that not only guarantees legal and financial stability but also establishes OPERAS as a permanent, high-quality, Pan-European structure. This process implies the need for consistent, high-quality training to support its services, national nodes, and broader Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research community. At the core of OPERAS lies its service-oriented approach (Holsinger 2023), designed to support the entire scholarly communication lifecycle. Training plays a critical role in the development and sustainability of a research infrastructure’s service portfolio. It empowers users to navigate and utilize services more efficiently and significantly enhances their overall experience and satisfaction. Training is also essential for the effectiveness and sustainability of OPERAS national nodes. National nodes are responsible for presenting and integrating OPERAS services within national research ecosystems, by disseminating expertise and fostering shared practices. They are equally responsible for translating local needs into aligned responses. Both activities require knowledge transfer and depend on structured training efforts. Training enables national nodes to deliver targeted solutions, evaluate impact, and ensure broad, equitable access to OPERAS services through effective onboarding and support.

The federated aspect of OPERAS is the key to the framework. As OPERAS continues to further develop its service portfolio and strengthen its national nodes, training becomes the mechanism through which users, providers, and partners gain the skills and confidence to engage effectively with services, while adopting open science practices, implementing FAIR principles, and supporting the OA diamond publishing model. Training initiatives have been and will continue to be federated.

Methodology

This framework follows the ADDIE approach for developing training. The model is widely used by many educational designers and training programmers to develop education and training programs. The acronym ADDIE stands for Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate, denoting five phases of a course design (Spatioti et al., 2022). ADDIE model provides a logical sequence of steps for developing high-quality educational programs, adaptable to different formats (distant, face-to-face, self-paced, etc.) and approaches (Abuhassna et al. 2024).

ADDIE was chosen because it allows a learner-centered approach as the steps keep the learner in the center of the process, from the needs analysis to the evaluation of training effectiveness.

Also, it becomes a tool to facilitate collaboration and co-creation of training as training designers and subject matter experts can work together in iterations. The model assures flexibility and continuous refinement of training programme and material, informed by feedback from experts and from the community at large. It is also compatible with other training methodologies which can be used at each step, thereby giving flexibility to trainers to use different approaches.

The framework for developing training for OPERAS takes the form of a toolkit composed of a series of articles and guides that provides people with a methodology and guides them step by step when they need to implement training. This format was chosen to offer more autonomy and flexibility to address different needs and keep up with further developments. The toolkit was produced by participants the OPERAS Plus project. The material was then revised by the community, mostly Open Science and/or training experts.

Outline of the framework

The toolkit comprises a series of articles, guides and checklists organised as a higher-level guideline to assist training designers and instructors in producing training. The material is intended to be a starting point for training teams to produce their own programme. The sections of the framework toolsuite correspond to ADDIE steps (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation). The framework toolkit comprises a series of 16 short articles of 500-1000 words each, with a further reading session that signposts to other resources. The structure of the article was inspired by the one used in the DIAMAS toolsuite (Armengou, C. et al., 2024a). The articles also point to other related articles in the toolkit and to the respective templates. In total there are 11 templates and supporting material (guides, checklists, tables, etc.), that assist the training designer in the different phases of training implantation.

To ensure openness, the framework for developing training recommends the adoption of the FAIR-by-Design methodology (Filiposka, 2023a, 2023b). This methodology helps designers and instructors to deal with topics, such as: (a) legal issues, intellectual property, licensing and attribution; (b) material description and referencing, including the use of a metadata schema and relevant controlled vocabularies and persistent identifiers; (c) interoperability issues; (d) design and structuring of the learning content, thus ensuring the most appropriate level of granularity for maximum reusability; (e) accessibility issues. Following the FAIR-by-Design workflow ensures efficient collaboration within the community and maximum reusability of developed learning materials.

Developing collaborations, metrics, and scalability and sustainability strategies

As a federated organisation, OPERAS relies on the establishment of meaningful collaborations to use a training framework, which requires planning, trust-building, and shared ownership across all phases of training design and delivery. Defining roles, contributors, and expectations for each stage can make the collaboration clear. Co-creation can be enabled through joint sprints, workshops, or hackathons to co-develop training. Furthermore, the activities can be documented and shared by keeping collaboration processes visible and replicable, sharing templates, and even publishing case studies to help others build similar partnerships.

After rolling out a training program, it is essential to evaluate and adjust the program regularly to address any emerging issues or gaps. Collecting feedback from users helps identify these gaps and reduces issues later on, ensuring that the training program remains relevant and effective.
The effectiveness of a training programme can be measured by evaluating learners’ engagement with the training, knowledge retention, or a return on investment demonstrating the value of the training programme for the research infrastructure.

Scalability focuses on growth and expansion. Sustainability aims at maintaining long-term value, relevance, functionality, and embedding the programme into the broader ecosystem. This framework was built to allow both scalability and sustainability of training programmes because it enables standardisation without standardising the content. This ensures quality and coherence without imposing a one-size-fits-all solution. The strategy focuses on the following topics: (a) reusable content formats and licensing; (b) monitoring and evaluation; (c) modular design; (d) localization, multilingual support, and inclusion; (e) training delivery and train of trainers programme; (f) technical /technological infrastructure; (g) collaborative partnerships and community engagement; (h) funding and resources.

Conclusion
This framework constitutes an essential component of OPERAS’ strategic development. It not only strengthens the infrastructure’s capacity to deliver high-quality training to its stakeholders but also contributes to advancing the broader objectives of the ERA by promoting openness, inclusivity, and excellence in scholarly communication across the Social Sciences and Humanities.