Project: open-access.network

About the Project

The project open-access.network, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), is creating a new information and networking offering that will activate and transregionally connect existing initiatives and sustainably improve exchange within science on open access. Information on open access will be available in a transdisciplinary, centralised, and reliable way. Newly developed, freely accessible materials as well as continuing professional development and training offerings will broaden the skills of actors and multipliers in science and libraries and transfer competencies in practical, organisational, and legal matters.

To achieve this, a group of project partners have come together that have extensive and diverse expertise in information provision, competency development, and networking in the area of open access and have been very active members of the open access community for many years. The collaborative project is managed by the Communication, Information, Media Centre (KIM) at the University of Konstanz. The other project partners are the Open-Access-Büro Berlin at the Freie Universität Berlin; the Helmholtz Open Science Office, which is located at the Helmholtz Centre – German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ); TIB – the Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library in Hanover; Bielefeld University Library; and Göttingen State and University Library.

Information, Competence Transfer, and Networking

The three central objectives of the project are to provide information, to transfer competencies, and to network the existing community. In the coming three years, the project partners want to create a new platform with many new offerings, such as a forum, a help desk, moderated focus groups, and new databases, that provide information on key topics. With the help of barcamps, thematically focussed workshops, regional networks, train-the-trainer bootcamps, and webinars or online workshops, the open access community and actors from science will be networked. The new platform will build on and further develop the existing information platform, open-access.net.

Scientific Advisory Board

The project consortium is supported by an interdisciplinary Scientific Advisory Board with a high level of competence in open access.

Project Partners

Funding period: 2019–2022

The BMBF is funding the project until the end of November 2022 within the framework of the Directive on the Promotion of a Competence and Networking Platform in the Area of Open Access (Richtlinie zur Förderung einer Kompetenz- und Vernetzungsplattform im Bereich Open Access).