SPARC Innovator: Health Research Alliance (SPARC)

"While the debate continues over U.S. federal policies to ensure the results of scientific research are openly accessible online, a key group of critical, private research funders has moved quietly and steadily to make such policies a reality. The Health Research Alliance, a group of 52 not-for-profit, nongovernmental funders of health research and training - including the American Cancer Society, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and Autism Speaks - has made provisions to encourage its members to implement strong policies to make articles that report on the research that they fund openly accessible online to the public. The HRA member funders collectively invest more than $1.5 billion in research funding per year... HRA focuses on facilitating the exchange of information among member organizations, updating the membership on developments in the landscape for biomedical research and training, and, where appropriate, leveraging collective action. In 2011, one of the issues the Alliance tackled was public access to scientific research. Consistent with the founding principles of the HRA - to educate the membership on critical issues and to facilitate action for interested member organizations - the Public Access Task Group, a subcommittee of HRA’s Discovery Science Working Group, was formed to advance this issue by working collectively.  The Task Group’s exploration led to the 2012 HRA Public Access Initiative. A variety of resources were assembled and shared with the membership for interested members to use when adopting a public access policy. For its efforts in promoting the sharing of scientific information to the nonprofit community, SPARC recognizes the Alliance as its January 2013 Innovator..."