The article highlights aspects that should be considered during an open Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) process cycle to improve the utilization of research data and foster open cooperation between higher education and businesses. The viewpoint here is in publicly funded joint research projects of the universities of applied sciences (UAS), the concept is, however, applicable in other higher education and research organizations as well. There are various challenges related to research data management in general as well as to the openness and reuse of data and results. The findings of this article are based on the results of a two-day expert workshop, and these results are interlinked with five phases of an open RDI process cycle: planning, implementation, documentation, sharing, and commercialization. Various drivers and barriers can be identified in different stages of the process. On a general level, special attention must be paid to critical factors such as ownership and sharing of data and results, confidential information and business secrets as well as following the requirements of the Open Science (OS) policies of the participating organizations and funders. This article also highlights several best practices that should be considered in each phase of an open RDI process cycle with businesses.