Our vision
A Netherlands where research hardware is documented, shared, and reused by default — not as an afterthought, but as a normal part of doing science.
Why?
Be honest for a second. Could a stranger rebuild your last instrument from what you have published? Could you, in two years, after you have forgotten the details? If the answer is no, it was not open science. It was a demo.
Somewhere right now, three labs are building the same device from scratch, and none of them know about the other two. That is not innovation — it is a coordination failure, and we pay for it with public money. Our vision is to make that failure a thing of the past.
Goals
What we are working towards
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Findable by default
One searchable national repository where any Dutch researcher can check whether the thing they need already exists.
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Trustworthy by design
A clear quality stamp, so a tested, well-documented design is easy to tell apart from a work in progress.
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Reproducible and democratic
Designs that anyone can study, build, modify, and improve — cheaper instruments, better science, wider access.
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Recognised work
Building an instrument can take years and earns one line in a methods section. We want hardware properly credited as a research output.
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Built to last
A network and funding model that keeps the infrastructure alive long after the founding grant ends.
Questions
The open questions
We do not pretend the hard parts are solved. The questions we most want to explore with the community are exactly the ones that decide whether this works.
- Documentation: what would make researchers actually document their hardware, instead of meaning to?
- Standardisation: how much standard should we impose, and where does it start to get in the way?
- Recognition: how do we get hardware properly credited?
- Sustainability: what keeps a national network alive after the funding ends?
- Reuse: how do you find out whether the thing you need already exists somewhere in another Dutch lab?
Your turn
An open invitation
OSHNED is being built in the open, by and for the research community. Access to the platform and documentation will always be free. If you work with research hardware, develop your own instruments, or simply want to help draw the map, there is room for everyone. The islands are about to be connected.
Document your hardware. Share it openly. Turn your screwing around into science, and your science into impact.
Keep up with our progress through the useful reads page and the monthly newsletter.