You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
The European Commission has responded to growing demand in the science community for unfettered access to research by launching a pilot project to make European Union (EU)-funded research in seven key subject areas available free of charge on the Internet.
According to the Commission, the move should help the EU step up its use of the latest scientific developments by ensuring that businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), have access to the latest research results. It should also help the EU's researchers by making their work more widely known.
The pilot project will cover health, energy, environment, information technologies, research infrastructures, socio-economic sciences and humanities, and science in society. All are part of the generously funded EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for research and have been picked out, said a Commission statement, "because of their high societal impact and their importance in helping Europe address major challenges such as climate change." Between them, the targeted areas account for some 20% of the total FP7 budget. If the pilot - which will run until the end of FP7 in 2013 - is successful, it will be extended for the next research funding scheme – the Eighth Framework Programme.
Under the rules of the new access policy, researchers getting FP7 grants will be required to deposit peer reviewed research articles arising from the projects in the open access repository of their choice. Brussels says articles must be freely available either 6 or 12 months after publication, depending on the subject area: in fast moving fields such as energy, environment, health and ICT, the deadline is six months.
While the access pilot has been proclaimed by the Commission as an important step towards achieving what it likes to call the "fifth freedom" for European citizens guaranteed by EU institutions and law - the "free movement of knowledge". In fact the linking of research grants with open publication requirements is now well established in several EU member states and the US.