Openness has become a key concept in many areas of human action in the last years. Open source software development and open access to scholarly publishing are two prominent examples of this. The application of the concept of openness to research poses significant challenges in the analysis of how research activities, institutions and methods can be made more open and transparent. The Open Research Society (ORS) is a non governmental organization pursuing the goals of experimenting open approaches to research, and analyzing in which ways research activities and outcomes can be considered "closed" today. Even though no single solution can make research -as a whole- more open, there is a need to reflect, test and promote concrete approaches that innovate in the field of openness, which would eventually lead to an evolution of shared practices, methods and institutions. The ORS provides an umbrella for such experimental and evolutionary approaches to inquiry in making research less closed than it is at present. This paper briefly discusses the main ideas behind the foundation of the ORS.