Open Access is the immediate, online, free availability of research outputs without restrictions on use commonly imposed by publisher copyright agreements. It concerns the outputs that scholars normally give away free to be published – peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds. 
Two main European OA initiatives are in progress which will improve access to, and will accelerate the research and discovery process:
The OpenAIRE portal will set up the tools and will provide all the information to researchers for depositing their FP7 and ERC publications.
20 February 2010
European Countries join forces to realize the EC Open Access pilot: OpenAIRE
OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe), a three-years project funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission, has now taken up its work to implement Open Access on a pan-European scale. This ambitious effort unites 38 partners from 27 European countries.
The main goal of OpenAIRE is to support the Open Access pilot, launched by the European Commission in August 2008. This Open Access pilot, which covers about 20% of the FP7 budget, commits researchers from 7 thematic areas (Health, Energy, Environment, Information & Communication Technology, Research Infrastructures, Socio-economic sciences & Humanities and Science in Society) to deposit their research publications in an institutional or disciplinary Open Access repository, to be made available worldwide in full text. OpenAIRE will establish underlying structures for researchers to support them in complying with the pilot through European Helpdesk System, build an OpenAIRE portal and e-Infrastructure for the repository networks and explore scientific data management services together with 5 disciplinary communities.
Mark your calendar
| Thu Mar 18 GRNET Workshop on Academic Media Casting |
| Thu Mar 25 @10:00 - 04:30PM Open Access (OA) Informationstag |
| Mon Jun 28 @08:00 - 05:00PM OpenAIRE Liaison network meeting |
| Tue Jun 29 2010 LIBER Annual Conference |
| Tue Jul 06 Open Repositories Conference 2010 |