The MedOANet (Mediterranean Open Access Network) project, funded by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme, released its Report on the National Open Access Workshops, organized in 2012 by the project partners, namely Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.

The goal of the National Open Access workshops was to actively engage policy-makers and other key players with the ability to effect change, in coordination of Open Access practices, strategies and policies, to increase awareness of and commitment towards Open Access, with the aim of making the outcomes of publicly-funded research freely available, according to the EC’s recommendations.

As a key component of MedOANet, the National Open Access Workshops brought together for the first time the main stakeholders from research funding organizations, research performing organizations, academic and research libraries, as well as from publishing industry, along with Open Access experts and speakers. The workshops increased the awareness of Open Access issues and energized the stakeholders to design and implement Open Access policies and regulations in the near future in the Mediterranean countries. Stakeholders agreed to follow a multi-faceted approach to streamline the development of Open Access policies and strategies.

The outcome of national Open Access workshops paved the way for MedOANet project partners to develop coherent Open Access guidelines that will help them design “down to earth” national action plans to support Open Access to publicly funded research publications and research data, thereby facilitating their compliance with the requirements of Horizon 2020.

The full text of the report on national Open Access workshops is available at http://www.medoanet.eu/sites/www.medoanet.eu/files/documents/D2.3%20-%20Report%20on%20National%20Workshops-3_final.pdf.