Open Access Repositories should be based on Subject, not Institution | In the Dark

"Just when we thought that the powers that be might be starting to see the light on Open Access, round comes another circular from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) that shows that policymakers have an unlimited ability to get things wrong at the most basic level.The document concerned opens a 'Consultation on open access in the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework' by putting forward a number of proposals ...   I had a look at the proposals for Open Access after 2014 contained in the document. Here is the summary of the proposals:

Aarrgh!  Why on Earth should the proposals favour national institutional repositories over international subject-based ones? ...  The UK Funding Councils need realize that the solution to many of the challenges of Open Access has already been found. In fact, the European Research Council seems to have acknowledged this and is now directly funding the arXiv. The UK Research Councils should be required to construct similar archives for their disciplines. That shouldn’t be difficult, because all the hard work has already been done. There is a working model.  I’ll be responding to the consultation document in no uncertain terms ..."