The development of a national open science monitor for the Netherlands has officially started with a project meeting held in Leiden on 9 October. With funding from Open Science NL, the consortium comprising CWTS and Dialogic will develop a robust, context-specific framework for monitoring and evaluation, as well as a prototype dashboard to visualise such an open science monitor. The consortium was awarded the European tender from Open Science NL in July, with a total value of EUR 330,000. In the following months, all necessary preparations were made for the kick-off meeting in Leiden. This meeting marked the start of a joint effort to better understand and support the transition towards open science. Transparency and community engagement Transparency and active participation are central to this initiative. To support this, a synopsis of the project plan is now publicly available on Zenodo (this record). The consortium invites feedback and expressions of interest from the community during the co-creation of the framework for monitoring and evaluating open science. This open approach ensures that the framework is shaped by those it is meant to serve. Join the conversation Throughout 2026, the consortium will organise a series of co-creation sessions to gather input from researchers, institutions and other stakeholders. For questions or to participate, you can contact the consortium by email via the project leads: Louise Bezuidenhout from CWTS and Timon de Boer from Dialogic. The project is supervised by Jeroen Sondervan on behalf of Open Science NL. Contact address: openscience@dialogic.nl