Open science makes scientific research more accessible, transparent and efficient, benefiting both the scientific community and society as a whole. SCOAP3 has been key to achieving the objectives of the CERN Open Access Policy, which, since 2014, has required open access publishing of all CERN research papers. Encompassing the existing policies for open access and open data, the policy brought together other existing elements of open science – open source software and hardware, research integrity and open infrastructure and research assessment, as well as training, outreach and citizen science. The CERN and Society Foundation (CSF), created in 2014, has also been a key player in CERN’s open science endeavours. The Open Science Policy and the CSF serve to help the scientific community at CERN to understand and continue CERN’s legacy of open science.