The European Commission (EC) has adopted a Communication that sets out open access (OA) policy objectives for the research funded by the Commission through the "Horizon 2020" initiative. An accompanying recommendation sets out a complete policy framework for improving access to, and preservation of, scientific information. Together these two initiatives feed into the wider context of achieving a European Research Area. This builds on a 2007 communication on scientific information in the digital age (see IP/07/190) and on Council conclusions of that same year.
EC’s measures are aimed to improve access to scientific information produced in Europe. Broader and more rapid access to scientific papers and data is expected to make it easier for researchers and businesses to build on the findings of public-funded research. This will boost Europe's innovation capacity and give citizens quicker access to the benefits of scientific discoveries. This in turn is projected to give Europe a better return on its €87 billion annual investment in R&D.
As a first step, the Commission will make OA to scientific publications a general principle of Horizon 2020, the EU's Research & Innovation funding programme for 2014-2020. As of 2014, all articles produced with funding from Horizon 2020 will have to be accessible. The Commission has also recommended that member states take a similar approach to the results of research funded under their own domestic programmes. The goal is for 60 percent of European publicly-funded research articles to be available under OA by 2016.
The Commission will also start experimenting with OA to the data collected during publicly funded research (e.g. the numerical results of experiments), taking into account legitimate concerns related to the fundee's commercial interests or to privacy.
