MedOANet addresses the necessity for coordinated strategies and policies in Open Access to scientific information in Europe. The project will enhance existing policies, strategies and structures for Open Access and will contribute towards the implementation of new ones in six Mediterranean countries: Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal. It will also promote national and regional coordination of policies, strategies and structures in these six countries and beyond.
The consortium comprises organizations from nine countries with key roles in issues of access to, dissemination and preservation of research.
The project
- will strengthen and coordinate current Open Access strategies, structures and policies in each of the six Mediterranean countries and regionally
- will identify and map existing strategies, structures and policies of Open Access in the six Mediterranean countries
- will engage key policy-makers and stakeholders of Open Access, with the ability to affect change, thus increasing awareness on the key issues that require action.
- will produce guidelines for policy makers for the effective implementation of the Commission’s recommendations on Open Access to scientific information.
MedOANet builds on a network established with the seminar called "Policies for the development of OA in Southern Europe", organized and hosted by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), and supported by SELL (Southern European Libraries Link), held in Granada in May 2010.
The consortium will use the advice of an External Advisory Board (AB), chaired by the Coordinator of MedOANet, who will offer external expert
advice and reviewing to the project. The project’s Advisory Board members are the following:
- Alma Swan, Key Perspectives Ltd, SPARC Europe and Enabling Open Scholarship
- Norbert Lossau, University of Goettingen, State and University Library, Scientific Coordinator/OpenAIRE(plus) project
- Lluís Anglada, Director of the CBUC (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitàries de Catalunya)
A series of activities will enhance the support of existing strategies, policies and structures and their coordination. They will promote stakeholder engagement, will facilitate interaction with other relevant initiatives and projects, and will disseminate project outcomes.
- National Task Forces will be formed as a means of engagement of policymakers and major stakeholders and of capturing the momentum to promote the implementation of policies and the practice of Open Access
- A Partner Workshop will provide a forum for discussion and conclusions regarding the mapping of existing policies, strategies and structures in the six Mediterranean countries
- National workshops will serve as forums to debate the course of action in each country in a coordinated fashion.
- A European workshop will bring together key policy makers from the six countries and other European experts, and will contribute towards regional coordination across the partner countries and beyond.
- A European conference will serve to place the project outcomes in a wider context, as well as bring together stakeholders from the six Mediterranean countries and the rest of Europe in an effort to further coordinate discourse towards policy actions that will strengthen the Open Access paradigm.
- A platform will host project-related information and the data resulting from the mapping
Overall, MedOANet will significantly advance the policy and implementation agenda on Open Access in the six Mediterranean countries in a coordinated fashion, in line with the European Commission’s recommendations. It will also significantly reinforce regional coordination among these Mediterranean and other countries and will forge systematic and close relationships with European projects and other initiatives that support and promote Open Access internationally.
