Last March, ICN2 took part in the II Jornadas Nacionales de Ciencia Abierta (JNCA 2026), contributing with several presentations, including oral communications and a poster. The first ICN2 presentation, “From Open Access to Open Code/AI: Consolidating the Open Science Strategy at ICN2 (2014–2027)”, was delivered by Laura María Flórez Corredor, Strategy Development Coordinator. Drawing from the institutional trajectory, she introduced ICN2’s evolution across more than a decade of Open Science implementation, beginning with the consolidation of Open Access and progressing through the development of a strong institutional Open Science culture and the adoption of responsible research assessment aligned with DORA and CoARA. The presentation illustrated how ICN2 has succeeded in materialising Open Science across its multiple dimensions—Open Access, Open Data, Open Science Culture, responsible evaluation, Open Code, and AI—ultimately forming an integrated and operational system that spans the entire research lifecycle. The maturity and coherence of this strategy were warmly acknowledged during the conference, where ICN2 was congratulated for its ability to turn Open Science principles into effective institutional practice.

The second oral contribution, “Implementation of a Scalable, Personalised FAIR Data Management Strategy to Enable Open Data in a Research Centre: The ICN2 Pilot Experience”, presented by Jan Rodríguez Dueñas, Data Steward and Architect, offered a detailed account of the methodology used to construct ICN2’s data architecture. The presentation described a personalised and continuous engagement model that replaced traditional workshop‑based approaches and instead focused on iteratively supporting research groups through direct interaction, real data workflows, and structured bimonthly follow‑up sessions. This methodology on Open Data was warmly welcomed during the conference by other centers as an example of how to reach the scientific community. The approach has enabled ICN2 to address practical data management challenges, adapt workflows to diverse scientific contexts, and progressively establish a FAIR‑aligned data ecosystem. This work was made possible through the FECYT María de Guzmán 2024–2025 funding (MDG23 11382).

In addition to the oral contributions, ICN2 also presented a poster titled “BIST Community Initiative for a Shared CRIS Oriented to Open Science”, describing a collaborative project funded through María de Guzmán – FECYT (MDG 25 12009), in which Robert Simeon, Documentalist at ICN2 participates in the Action 3. The poster, highlighted the development of a shared CRIS infrastructure among BIST centres, aimed at strengthening responsible assessment, improving public transparency and enabling the seamless interconnection of research outputs including projects, datasets, publications, theses and data management plans. The initiative marks a significant step toward building a federated scientific information ecosystem aligned with Open Science principles across the participating institutions.

The ICN2 delegation also included Francisco Molina, Machine Learning Engineer at the AI@ICN2 Platform, who attended the sessions to represent the institute’s efforts in Open Software, Open Code and transparent AI development. His participation reflects ICN2’s ongoing commitment to extending Open Science into AI‑driven research environments, ensuring reproducibility, openness and responsible use of advanced computational tools.

Beyond ICN2’s own contributions, the JNCA 2026 featured a rich programme that explored key themes in the national Open Science landscape. Sessions included presentations on the state of the National Open Science Strategy (ENCA), discussions on incentives and responsible evaluation, Spain’s integration into Open Research Europe, FAIR data governance through the PLATICA initiative, and insights into long‑term software preservation from Software Heritage. The conference also hosted roundtables on rights retention, sustainable infrastructures, and the evolving role of Open Science within research policy.

During the event, the ICN2 team also took part in the meeting of the SOMMA Open Science Committee, where they proposed initiating a discussion on the intersection of Open Science and Artificial Intelligence, reinforcing the institute’s leadership in shaping emerging national priorities.