Open Access Policy Alignment Strategies 
for European Union Research 
Louise Farragher, Health Research Board 
 
Open Access and Research Data Management: Horizon 2020 
and Beyond. UCC Library 15 April 2015 
The European OA environment 
• There are different levels of progress in European 
countries at the level of OA policy development and 
implementation 
• Lack of awareness about OA among policymakers is a 
reality and OA may not be a priority for policymakers 
in some European countries 
• Lack of information on policy effectiveness may still 
be acting as a strong barrier to the further 
development and alignment of OA policies across 
Europe 
 
 
PASTEUR4OA 
• Open Access Policy Alignment Strategies for European Union 
Research funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for 
Research and Development (FP7)  
• The PASTEUR4OA project supports the development and 
alignment of Open Access strategies and policies at the 
national level to promote the implementation of the 
European Commission's 2012 Recommendation on Access to 
Scientific Information and the Open Access Mandate for 
Horizon 2020 
• PASTEUR4OA will improve coordination in developing OA 
policies that align to the European Commission’s 
Recommendations and Horizon2020 rules by realising 
measurable and verifiable objectives 
PASTEUR4OA proposes to: 
• Potentiate a network of national centres of expertise – the Knowledge 
Net – that collaboratively monitor and champion an aligned OA policy 
environment across Europe 
 
• Perform OA policies analysis, measure OA policies effectiveness and 
identify policy-related gaps to provide evidence based arguments 
 
• Facilitate coordinated action in OA policy development in Member States 
and neighbouring countries 
 
• Engage with and inform policymakers at the national level about the EU’s 
OA policy and infrastructure 
 
• Liaise with related projects and activities to promote coordinated and 
joint efforts in advancing OA policy development and alignment 
PASTEUR4OA: Deliverables to date 




OpenData and PASTEUR4OA 
• Open Access and Open Data are well aligned concepts related to enabling 
access to publicly funded research 
• Open Access and Open Data have in the past been two parallel projects – 
these projects are converging  
• In the 2012 communication Towards better access to scientific 
information the European Commission announced that it would “provide 
a framework and encourage Open Access to research data in Horizon 
2020”. 
• Horizon2020 has launched an Open Data Pilot 
• Open Access to scientific peer reviewed publications has been anchored 
as an underlying principle in Horizon 2020 
• PASTEUR4OA is in full support of projects working for Open Access to 
research data  
– FOSTER (Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research), 
– RECODE Project  (Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data 
in Europe) RECODE recently published a series of recommendations the first 
of which is to ‘Develop aligned and comprehensive policies for Open Access 
to research data’.