OA in the Netherlands
23 February 2010
The National Research Environment
There are 15 research universities in the Netherlands, organised in the VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands). 27 percent of all research is done on these universities. In addition there are several research institutes: 19 hosted by the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), 14 by TNO, 5 technical Top Institutes and 3 Top Institutes in the social sciences. The 39 universities of applied sciences are taking on a growing role in research and are organised in the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (HBO-raad).
Major research funders
In addition to direct funding by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science research is also funded by two organisations:
- the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) – in February 2010 NWO announced that it will make 2,5 million Euro available for the support of Open Access publishing. NWO does not have an OA mandate.
- the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) – the KNAW provides access to (open access) publications from all the Dutch universities, KNAW, NWO, and a number of research institutes through NARCIS; access to datasets through the institute DANS; and to descriptions of research projects, institutes and researchers. The KNAW does not have an OA mandate.
EC research funding
Dutch researchers are successful in obtaining funding from EU bodies. The ERC granted 219 applications in 2009 of which 15 went to Dutch researchers. In the first two years of the FP7 programme Dutch applicants received € 645 million, taking fifth place in funding received. With a 21% success rate, the proposals submitted by the Dutch are above the European average. The Netherlands are doing especially well in the areas Health, Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology, Energy and Environment. Complete details on research from the Netherlands funded by FP7 can be found on the website of SenterNovem (in Dutch).
Open Access and Repositories
There is widespread awareness of Open Access in the Netherlands. Since 2005 all Dutch universities, the HBO-raad (Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences), the KNAW, NWO, the Royal Library and SURF have signed the Berlin Declaration.
Open Access projects and initiatives
In 2009 the rectors of the Dutch universities have discussed ways of stimulating Open Access. At this moment only two universities have budgets reserved for Open Access publishing: Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University. Other universities are developing similar policies.
The VSNU has reached agreement with Springer that in 2010 all articles by Dutch researchers in Springer journals will be made available Open Access, subject to the author's approval.
The costs and benefits of alternative ways of scientific publishing were investigated by professor John Houghton, under the authority of SURFfoundation. The results have been published in Costs and Benefits of Research Communication: The Dutch Situation.
Open Access repositories
The Netherlands is one of the leaders in the development of research repositories. All Dutch research universities have one or more repositories. A benchmark of the situation of the Dutch repositories at the end of 2008 is available online (only in Dutch). In the Top 400 Institutional Repositories the Dutch repositories are doing well, with Utrecht University and the University of Groningen, in 11th and 13th position respectively.
Central access for these repositories is provided by the portal of NARCIS, hosted by the KNAW. NARCIS not only offers access to open access publications, but it also provides the main entrance to datasets, 70.000 restricted access publications, Dutch research descriptions, and experts and organisations. It also provides access to over 186.000 digital Open Access publications at 25 repositories.
At 9 universities the depositing of doctoral theses in the institutional repository is mandatory; on average 84% of the thesis output of the universities is covered. The section ‘Promise of Science’ on the NARCIS site provides access to 32.314 Open Access doctoral e-theses.
The universities of applied sciences work together in collecting the materials deposited in their repositories and presenting these through one portal, the HBO-kennisbank. This portal now provides open access to over 13.000 research outputs, educational materials and student theses.
Open Access publishing
35 scientific journals from the Netherlands are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (www.doaj.org). Igitur, Utrecht Publishing and Archiving Services is one of the main publishers of OA journals. Amsterdam University Press is primary partner in the OAPEN project, concerned with the Open Access publishing of humanities and social sciences monographs.
Open Access organisations and groups
An important organisation for the promotion of Open Access in the Netherlands is SURF, the collaborative organisation for research universities, research institutes and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. The goal of the SURFshare programme is to create a common infrastructure that will facilitate access to research information and make it possible for researchers to share scientific and scholarly information. The programme runs from 2008 to 2011 and aims to work with all the Dutch universities – both research universities and “universities of applied sciences”– the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) towards optimising the sharing of research results using the latest advances in ICT. Their publication Nederland loopt warm voor Open Access (‘The Netherlands are sold on Open Access’ – available online, only in Dutch) gives an overview of the Dutch status quo after the Open Access year 2009.
All information on Open Access in the Netherlands can be found on www.openaccess.nl.
Contributors Contact Details
The Liaison Office for OpenAIRE is based at Utrecht University. Contact is Marnix van Berchum, to be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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