EIFL is pleased to announce that it is a partner in a new European Commission funded project PASTEUR4OA (Open Access Policy Alignment Strategies for European Union Research) that will address policymakers and encourage open access policy alignment across Europe to simplify compliance for researchers. 

The 30-month PASTEUR4OA project will commence in February 2014 and the project will adhere to the spirit of the European Research Area’s harmonisation agenda.

The project will address the known shortcomings and barriers to open access policy development in Europe by:

• Developing a programme of network-building activities;
• The creation of expertise in Member States;
• The engagement of policymakers;
• Evidence-based advocacy to policymakers and the research community.

One of the main aims of the project is to support the European Commission’s Recommendation to Member States of July 2012 that they develop and implement policies to ensure open access to all outputs from publicly-funded research to anyone from anywhere in the world.

Working on the principle that policies should be aligned across Europe in the spirit of the European Research Area’s harmonisation agenda, ­ the PASTEUR4OA project will promote alignment as a key element of good EU policymaking practice.

Project partners:

• National Documentation Centre/National Hellenic Research Foundation (Greece; project coordinator)
• Enabling Open Scholarship (Belgium)
• University of Minho (Portugal)
• University of Oslo CRIStin (Norway)
• Stichting eIFL.net (EIFL) (Netherlands)
• EuroCRIS (Netherlands)
• Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary)
• Polytechnic of Turin (Italy)
• SPARC Europe (Netherlands)
• LIBER (Netherlands)
• Jisc (UK)
• Hacettepe University (Turkey)
• Open Knowledge Foundation (UK)
• FNRS (Belgium)
• Research Council of Lithuania (Lithuania)

For more information about the project, please check the project website in February. 

For more information about EIFL's role in the PASTEUR4OA project, please contact EIFL-OA Programme Manager, Iryna Kuchma, at iryna.kuchma [at] eifl.net.

For more information about the PASTEUR4OA project please contact Victoria Tsoukala, National Documentation Centre/National Hellenic Research Foundation, at tsoukala [at] ekt.gr.