Open science, in particular open access scientific publications and data sharing, have sometimes been depicted as key assets in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular regarding the unprecedented speed at which vaccines have been developed. This report provides empirical evidence to explore whether and to what extent open science practices, most notably open access to publications and open research data have influenced the speed of COVID research. For this purpose, a literature review and a survey of more than 200 COVID researchers (phase 1) was conducted, followed by qualitative interviews with six scientists (phase 2).