Open Science Research Infrastructures (RIs) are not only technical platforms for data sharing, but social ecosystems that rely on active, inclusive communities to be impactful and sustainable. The FOSSR project (Fostering Open Science in Social Science Research), funded by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, offers a case study of how strategic communication and engagement can support the development of such communities. FOSSR integrates the Italian nodes of CESSDA-ERIC, SHARE-ERIC, and RISIS into an open, FAIR-oriented platform providing access to social science data and services.
This contribution outlines how FOSSR’s communication strategy was designed to build long-term engagement, not just visibility. Drawing on the “productive interactions” framework (Spaapen & Van Drooge, 2011; Fabrizio et al 2019) the project adopted a multi-level approach: from one-way dissemination to dialogic practices, co-design sessions, and capacity-building strategies. Communication efforts are evaluated not only by reach, but by their contribution to trust, co-responsibility, and knowledge co-production among producers (RIs developers), users, stakeholders, and policymakers.
The FOSSR case shows how RIs can become engines of community formation when communication is recognized as an infrastructural function. This approach challenges linear models of impact and highlights the importance of mutual learning, interdisciplinary openness, and social embedding for the future of Open Science infrastructures.
The community-oriented design of FOSSR explicitly blurs the boundary between science and society, recognising each actor as both user and producer of knowledge, and aligning communication with a transformative, impact-driven vision of social science research.