New digital technologies and tools, together with evolving open physical and digital infrastructures, are remodelling science and innovation practices at universities and challenging their existing cultures, cognitive norms, missions, and policies. The purpose of this empirical study was to understand how existing and recently adopted open science practices and the underlying principles and attitudes of research teams support the advancement of knowledge and the development of actions, solutions, and technologies for sustainable development. The results of this study provide novel insights and important suggestions to guide the advancement of open science and innovation policies at universities for a sustainable economy, society, and environment—in sum, for a sustainable world. We infer a new expansive normative structure—practices, norms, and institutional goal—for open science and a new role of researchers in the digital era. Based on our findings, we propose an expansive model of university research and innovation to guide the renewal of university governance in the digital era.