EKT participates in two new European projects on Open Access and Open Science

The National Documentation Centre (EKT) actively participates in the formation of the European framework for Open Science and contributes catalytically to the promotion of Open Access and scholarly communication in the country, through its participation in relevant European projects. The OPERAS-PLUS and DIAMAS projects are two new research projects, with a duration of 36 months, in which EKT is participating and which will contribute to strengthening open scholarly communication in Europe and promoting Open Access to scientific publications.

Since 2002, when it signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access, EKT has recognised the importance of Open Access and Open Science in disseminating research results and conducting scientific research more effectively. In this context, EKT has always participated in some of the most important European research projects on Open Access and Open Science, while it is the national node of the OPERAS infrastructure. The two new projects that started in September 2022 with the participation of important organisations from many European countries, work towards the promotion and strengthening of Open Science in the European Research Area.

The OPERAS-PLUS project is directly linked to the OPERAS (Open scholarly communication in the European Research Area for Social Sciences and Humanities) infrastructure, the European Research Infrastructure dedicated to support open scholarly communication for the Social Sciences and the Humanities in the European Research Area (ERA). EKT is a core member of the OPERAS infrastructure, with responsibility for the development of the OPERAS national hub. OPERAS was selected in 2021 as new infrastructure on the ESFRI Roadmap for the excellence of its scientific case and for its strategic importance for the European Research Area and the structuring of the European research infrastructure ecosystem.

The project aims at supporting this process and the development of the infrastructure in its preparatory phase and on its way towards implementation as an ERIC. It will empower OPERAS to further

• Strengthen its governance structure in regard to financial, legal and human resources
• Support the network of national nodes and their national activities
• Develop the services portfolio providing both required technology and a monitoring system for services development
• Maximise OPERAS’ impact in the ERA and at the international level by extending it beyond its current scope and onboarding new members and countries in the infrastructure.

The OPERAS-PLUS project, with a budget of EUR 2.7 million, will stand in the continuity of work already realised in the former projects (OPERAS-D, OPERAS-P, HIRMEOS) and collaborate with the running projects COESO, TRIPLE, and DIAMAS, and soon with other projects to come in 2023. The duration of the project will be 3 years, while the consortium that will implement it consists of 13 members from 12 countries, including EKT, and two associated partners from the United Kingdom.

The European project DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication), with a budget of € 3 million, gets funding in the context of Horizon Europe and has a duration of 3 years. The project brings together 23 European organisations, from 12 countries, that will map out the landscape of Diamond Open Access publishing in the European Research Area and develop common standards, guidelines and practices for the Diamond publishing sector. The project partners will also formulate recommendations for research institutions to coordinate sustainable support for Diamond publishing activities across Europe.

The term Diamond Open Access refers to publications that are freely accessible to all, without requiring either a subscription from readers or publication costs from authors, as is the case with Gold Open Access. The aim with regard to Open Access is to achieve as much Diamond Access as possible, and the DIAMAS project will make a major contribution in this direction.