The National Research Environment

In the past few years, research in Cyprus has increased considerably due to the integration of the country into the EU. The establishment of four more universities, both public and private, in addition to the University of Cyprus that already existed, has also contributed to this increase. Research in Cyprus at a national level is not coordinated by a central agency that keeps records for all researchers' activities. All researchers produce their research on behalf of the organization that employs them; while the majority of them are employed by academic institutions.

Nationwide, research is funded primarily by the Research Promotion Foundation (RPF), the EU, and academic institutions with their internal funds that are intended for research. RPF was founded in 1996 and was established by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus to promote the development of scientific and technological research in the country due to the fundamental importance of research in contemporary societies. At this time, RPF is not responsible for recording all researchers' activity in the island; however it is responsible for the promotion of research by funding a part of it.

Apart from the existence of some institutional repositories in Cyprus, at the national level Cyprus has not officially adopted any OA policies or mandates due to the fact that there does not exist a national repository yet that could record all publications that come from projects and research. The main funder of research in Cyprus is the EU, which has supported research in the past few years by providing the majority of the funding.

Since the EU has given a significant boost to research activity nationally by being the primary funder of research, its role is considered particularly important for further support of research both for researchers and the organizations that employ them.

Open Access and Repositories

There is no centralized or nationally wide awareness activity related to Open Access within the research community in Cyprus. Researchers are individually aware, mainly those from disciplines where well established international subject repositories already exist; and therefore, most of the scholarly communication is made through them.

An internal project called INTRA was started by the Library of the University of Cyprus (UCY) to aggregate and record all scientific publications by the academic staff of UCY. The outcome of this project will contribute to the institutional and the national repository.

Berlin declaration has been signed by only one university - the University of Cyprus (UCY).

The Cyprus Academic Library Consortium (CALC) has recently signed a nationwide subscription contract with BMC (Biomed Central) for an open access model to the BMC journals. According to the author-pay-model-contract the contribution fee for all authors from Cyprus institutes (public and private Universities, research centres, hospitals etc.) will be discounted by 50% for their future publications to BMC journals. All University Libraries will be informed accordingly.

There are only two institutional repository iniatiatives: one just recently launched by the Cyprus University of Technology; and one is under construction at the University of Cyprus.

Contributors Contact Details

Filippos Tsimpoglou
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