Ireland is on the path to Open Access - The Irish Times - Thu, Oct 25, 2012

In Ireland there is open access to publications from the seven universities and DIT through the Rian portal ( rian.ie). This site harvests the content of each of the institutions’ publications repositories to a single portal. It is an international resource for researchers in academia and enterprise. In addition, Waterford Institute of Technology, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Teagasc and the Marine Institute have open repositories for their publications. Earlier this week, Minister of State with responsibility for Research and Innovation Seán Sherlock launched The National Open Access Statement. The aim of this policy is to increase the visibility and improve access to the outputs of publicly funded research. The next steps for this committee will be the planning of a sustainable national infrastructure for open access. Irish national policy is designed to support the global free flow of information; to support the principle of research-enabled teaching and learning; to contribute to open innovation through more effective knowledge transfer and diffusion; and to support greater transparency, accountability and public awareness of the results of publicly funded research.