Open access
EFPSA train the 
trainers programmes
Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research
Iryna Kuchma
EIFL Open Access Programme Manager
Presentation at the Joint Executive Board & Member 
Representatives’ Meeting of the European Federation of 
Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA), October 28, 
2014,Dobra Voda, Serbia
 Attribution 4.0 International
http://www.fosteropenscience.eu 
Funding 
opportunities
Two train the trainers 
programmes supported in 2014 
in Germany and Poland
OA Ambassador training 
programme @Max Planck Society
to disseminate and multiply the principles 
of OA & open data among young 
scientists;
to integrate OA principles as a standard 
process in the research work-flow of 
early career researchers; and 
to create a real change and a 
sustainable transition towards OA in the 
long term.
OA Ambassador training 
programme @Max Planck Society
OA Ambassadors (PhD students) of 
each Max-Planck-Institute (about 80 
ambassadors in total) are trained at the 
two-day FOSTER training-the-trainers 
workshop, become OA multipliers & 
are responsible for OA and related 
topics within their institute. 
OA Ambassador training 
programme @Max Planck Society
Each OA Ambassador should give 1-2 
workshops/lectures per year about OA & 
open data tailored to the particular needs 
of their institutes. 
They directly support young researchers 
and help them to integrate OA practices 
in their daily work-flow as well as they 
act as OA experts & contacts. 
http://www.fosteropenscience.eu/event/open-access-oa-ambassadors 
Training the trainers for OA & 
Open Science, Centrum Cyfrowe 
The project starts with a two-day training for 
10 future trainers from different academic 
centres/research institution.
The project addresses the need of the 
Polish OA community for more trainers, 
able in particular to reach different regions 
and academic centres. Training the trainers 
also strengthens the institutional training 
capacity of OA advocates.
Training the trainers for OA & 
Open Science, Centrum Cyfrowe 
Each trained person afterwards conducts 
a one-day workshop for at least 12 
researchers in their home institutions 
(altogether at least ten workshops for 
approximately 120 researchers, 
students, librarians). 
http://www.fosteropenscience.eu/event/training-trainers-open-access-oa-and-open-science-0  
“At our faculty researchers publish a number of 
publications. But we do not have access to 
them. Sometimes it is even hard to find out that 
they actually exist. The same thing happens 
with the scientific works written by students. OA 
is not only about increasing citation, which 
refers to professors and researchers. Through 
our actions we show a variety of practical 
benefits of OA, both for students and 
researchers. Because OA is our common 
cause.”  –  Ewa Majdecka, student, Opener Initiative, 
Institute of Applied Social Sciences at Warsaw University
“In Poland, students get access to the results of 
research mainly through unauthorized 
reproduction: scanning and copying. Still only 
small part of educational materials is available 
online. Bottom-up initiatives based on the OA  
idea such as the Open Science Library replace 
this model by providing access, but with the 
consent and on rules defined by the authors. 
Our experience shows that scientists are willing 
to share their knowledge, you only need to 
create favorable conditions in order to make it 
more visible.”  –  Klaudia Grabowska, project 
coordinator, Open Science Library
"Implementation of OA in Poland is necessary 
not only to adapt Polish learning system to 
European standards. It is primarily an 
opportunity to increase innovation flowing from 
the free exchange of knowledge. And the 
possibility of reducing the cost of studying and 
research.” – Alek Tarkowski, Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt: 
Polska Foundation, Creative Commons Poland
How to
Conducting a series of workshops & a 
promotional campaign focused on the student 
community – representatives of students councils, 
journalists from student media, student 
organizations working in the field of law and young 
researchers (PhD candidates). 
The goal was to build an internal capacity of 
student organizations and connect them with 
OA advocates in Poland. 
How to (2)
Fundacja Projekt: Polska, Centrum Cyfrowe 
implemented the project in partnership with the following 
organizations: The Citizens of Science, University of 
Warsaw Library, Polish Culture Institute at Warsaw 
University; media partners: Tytul Ujednolicony and 
Bibliosfera.net; and students organizations: Opener 
Initiative, Student Scientific Group of Intellectual 
Property at the University of Warsaw, Libertas et Lex 
Scientific Group and Scientific Group of Library Science 
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. 
UwolnijNauke.pl 
How to (3)
Over 50 graduate/undergraduate students 
– representatives of student leadership 
organizations/scientific groups – from 
universities all over the country took part in 
series of workshops. 
A community of the most active students 
who drive the bottom-up decision-making 
processes at their universities. 
And it was the first OA project targeting 
students in Poland. 
Open Science 
Library
How to (4)
Opener initiative at Warsaw University 
was established as a result of 
workshops promoting OA among the 
students/researchers at the Institute of 
Applied Social Sciences, Warsaw 
University.
How to (5)
A toolkit on the basics of OA was created, 
which includes the following:
a presentation on the most important issues of 
OA, 
a short animation movie, 
a brochure, posters, bookmarks and social media 
posters. 
All the materials are available under 
Creative Commons Attribution license, so 
that everyone can share and remix them.
Students for OA in 
Poland
Connecting students and leading OA 
advocates: Workshop „OA. Free 
admission to knowledge”: 
to prepare OA awareness raising 
campaign and 
to develop strategies and tools for 
opening research output and educational 
materials at their universities 
Students for OA in 
Poland (2)
Organised “OA Sprint”: students, PhD 
candidates, graphic designers & experts of 
openness gathered together to brainstorm 
about the most creative ways to promote 
OA at Polish universities. 
Students for OA in 
Poland (3)
Based on the projects developed during „OA. 
Free admission to knowledge” workshop, 
various teams got together to work on 
graphic material: presentations, posters, 
bookmarks and a brochure that explain in 
simple ways the most important issues of OA. 
 As a result they have created a set of 
materials (the toolkit), which everybody can 
use and re-use to organize a meeting about 
OA on their own. 
Students for OA in 
Poland (4)
OA Campaign 
calling students to 
advocate for OA: 
“OA. You can do it 
better than 
hamster”
Lessons learnt
OA is a difficult topic and we should talk 
about it using simple & attention grabbing 
messages.
Workshops are essential part of community 
building within a network of students & 
provides them with an opportunity to meet 
in person. The workshops are also vital to 
identifying active students and training 
them as OA advocates. 
Acknowledgments
The work presented would not be possible without the key 
contribution of the OA advocacy campaigns managers & 
authors of EIFL-OA case studies 
http://www.eifl.net/eifl-oa-case-studies : Miriam Wanjiku 
Ndungu (Kenya); Rosemary Otando & Evans Njoroge (Kenya); 
Katarzyna Rybicka, Fundacja Projekt: Polska, Centrum 
Cyfrowe (Poland), Adam Sofronijevic (Serbia), Gintarė 
Tautkevičienė (Lithuania); supported by the Information 
Programme, Open Society Foundations, & Spider, the Swedish 
Program for ICT in Developing Regions DSV, Department of 
Computer & System Sciences, Stockholm University as a part 
of EIFL-OA programme activities
Shall we design 
a training 
programme 
now?
Thank you!
Questions?
iryna.kuchma@eifl.net 
http://www.fosteropenscience.eu/