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THE NATIONAL RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT

Research in Greece is carried out primarily by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Research Centers (RC). HEIs are independent public law bodies comprising what is referred to in Greek as AEI (universities, polytechnic schools and the school of fine arts) and TEI (technological educational institutions, and the higher institute of pedagogical and educational training). Currently there are 22 AEIs and 14 TEIs with 268 and 168 departments respectively. Research is also carried out in research centres, supervised by the General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs. A number of specialized research centres are nonetheless supervised by other ministries. In addition to the above, research is carried out within other organisations like public and private hospitals, museums, private companies, etc. albeit to a smaller extent when compared to universities and research centers. The GSRT, the main public funder, supports the activities of research organisations and productive sectors of the economy through competitive funding.  

OPEN ACCESS POLICIES

Open Access policies are at a nascent stage in Greece. In 2016 only two AEIs, the Technical University of Crete and the International Hellenic University had adopted an Open Access policy, following support provided by EKT. Public funders have not yet adopted Open Access policies. Nonetheless, researchers funded under the “Diversity, inequalities and social inclusion” programme of the EEA financial mechanism (with GSRT being the programme operator) are expected to provide open access to their research outputs. The GSRT is planning to include in its future calls open access requirements similar to those of Horizon 2020.

EKT is supporting the development and adoption of Open Access policies in Greece through the elaboration of policy templates, training and awareness-raising activities targeting key stakeholder groups.

OPEN ACCESS REPOSITORIES

While institutional Open Access policies are at a nascent stage, the picture is different in relation to infrastructures. OpenDOAR currently lists 34 repositories: the majority of them are institutional ones (repositories of AEI, TEI and research centres). The list also includes some digital collections.

The increase in the number of institutional repositories over the previous period is linked to the availability of funding for their development. Despite the increase in most cases deposited items are limited to master and PhD theses, highlighting that further effort is required in bringing about cultural change.

OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING

Since 2007 EKT operates a nation-wide institutional ePublishing infrastructure for open access publications, aimed at supporting open access publishing for Greek scholarly institutions, such as universities, scholarly societies, and research centers. It collaborates with more than 25 Greek publishers and operates three platforms, for journals, proceedings and open access monographs with an emphasis on the SSH (http://epublishing.ekt.gr)



USEFUL LINKS AND RESOURCES

The Greek Portal on Open Access

EKT’s ePublishing infrastructure

The national open access archives harvester (openarchives.gr) with access to Greek repositories and journals

The National Archive of PhD Theses (more than 25000 in open access)

The National Portal of Open Access Textbooks, Kallipos



CONTRIBUTORS CONTACT DETAILS

Dr Marina Angelaki

National Documentation Centre (EKT)

Vas. Konstantinou 48

116 35 Athens

Greece