The State of Open Data 2025 Webinar: A Decade of Progress and Challenges

For ten years, and as part of a collaboration between Digital Science, Figshare and Springer Nature, The State of Open Data has surveyed and reported on researchers’ experiences of – and attitudes towards – data sharing. Over that time, the report has become a key reference point for research stakeholders seeking to understand the open data landscape and to support meaningful change.In 2025, we marked this milestone with The State of Open Data: A Decade of Progress and Challenges - a special edition that looked back across ten years of findings. The report highlights where real progress has been made, where momentum has stalled, and which new pressures and opportunities are reshaping the future.This webinar, held during Love Data Week, shared headline findings from the 2025 report and explored how researcher behaviour and sentiment have shifted over the last decade. Speakers discussed the policies, infrastructures and community initiatives that have helped to advance open data - and where gaps remain - alongside ongoing challenges around incentives, recognition, and support for data sharing across disciplines and regions. The session concluded by considering what the next decade of open data could look like, and how funders, institutions, publishers and infrastructure providers can work together to drive equitable, sustainable progress, followed by an audience Q&A.Speakers:Mark Hahnel, VP Open Research, Digital ScienceGraham Smith, Open Data Programme Manager, Springer NatureBrian Nosek, Co-founder and Executive Director, Center for Open Science; Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia (USA)Hilary Hanahoe, Secretary General, Research Data Alliance (RDA)Joy Owango, Founding Director, Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa) (Kenya)