About

 

 

Open(ing) Research in Central Asia: Consolidating a Culture of Research Ethics, Data Management, and Open Science in Eurasia and Beyond (ORCA) is a Horizon Europe project funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Staff Exchange (MSCA-SE) programme. The project runs from 1 March 2025 to 28 February 2029 with a total budget of €1,656,000.

The project is coordinated by University of Latvia (Latvijas Universitāte) and brings together an international consortium consisting of 8 beneficiary institutions and 9 partner organizations from Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.

ORCA is designed as a pilot research and mobility initiative aimed at strengthening research ethics, data management, and open science cultures in Central Asia. The project focuses on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, where access to internationally recognized research performance standards remains uneven and insufficiently institutionalized.

In the contemporary academic landscape, universities’ international visibility and rankings are increasingly shaped by indicators related to research performance, open access publishing, data governance, and scientific integrity. ORCA addresses existing structural gaps in the region by supporting research institutions in developing capacities aligned with open science principles, ethical standards, and transparent research management practices.

With a strong emphasis on economics and social sciences, ORCA equips researchers with new skills and institutional tools, promotes open access and data sharing, and contributes to the creation of a sustainable and ethically grounded research ecosystem across Eurasia.

Marmara University participates in ORCA as a Beneficiary Partner and serves as the National Coordinator for Türkiye, with a total project share of €184,000. The university actively contributes to secondment activities, knowledge transfer, ethical oversight, and dissemination processes.  Within the framework of the project: 5 researcher-months are carried out as outgoing secondments from Marmara University. 17 researcher-months are hosted at Marmara University as incoming secondments.