Presentation given at the event "Open Access und Open Data in Horizont 2020 - Sonderveranstaltung für Multiplikatorinnen und Multiplikatoren" which took place in Bonn on 10 September 2015. The event was organised by the German Horizon 2020 National Contact Point for Legal and Financial Matters.

1. Dr Dagmar Meyer
ERC Executive Agency, Unit A1
Open Access at the ERC
'Open Access and Open Data in
Horizon 2020'
Bonn, 10 September 2015
The European Research Council

2. Established by the European Commission
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EC and ERC – working together in
different roles
The European Commission is a...
• Policy maker
 Proposes EU legislation
 Legislates with other EU
institutions
 Invites Member States to act
• Funding agency
 Sets access and dissemination
rules for EC-funded research
 Research Framework
Programmes (Horizon2020)
• Capacity builder
 Funds infrastructure projects
relevant for open access and
Digital Science
 Funds projects that support EC
policy
The European Research Council is …
• Primarily a research funder
 No policy remit as such
 Primary objective: to fund the
best researchers conducting
the best research
 Scientific Council to develop
scientific strategy aimed at
achieving this objective
 Open Access promoted as a
means to further scientific
excellence

3. Established by the European Commission
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Why Open Access?
 The mission of the ERC is to support excellent
fundamental research in sciences and the humanities.
 The main outputs of this research are new knowledge,
ideas and understanding, which the ERC expects its
researchers to publish in peer-reviewed articles and
monographs.
 The ERC considers that providing free online access to
these materials is the most effective way of ensuring that
the fruits of the research it funds can be accessed, read
and used as the basis for further research.

4. Established by the European Commission
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ERC Statements on Open Access
 ERC Scientific Council Statement on Open Access –
December 2006
 ERC Scientific Council Guidelines for Open Access –
17 December 2007
 Open Access Guidelines for researchers funded by the
ERC – June 2012
 Revised Guidelines adopted on 22 October 2013
 Further revision adopted on 2 December 2014
(clarifying the ERC's approach to open access to
research data)

5. Established by the European Commission
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ERC Open Access Guidelines of
2 December 2014
 Open access required for research papers and monographs
that are supported in whole, or in part, by ERC funding
 Maximum embargo period 6 months (12 months for SSH)
 Use of discipline-specific repositories strongly encouraged
(Europe PubMed Central for LS domain, arXiv for PE domain;
no recommendation for SH domain)
 Alternatively institutional repositories or centralised ones such
as Zenodo
 Research data should be retained and researchers should be
prepared to share their data where possible
 Host institutions are encouraged to cover open access related
costs after the end of the project for up to 24 months

6. Established by the European Commission
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ERC Open Access Guidelines vs.
FP7 SC 39 ERC / H2020 Art. 29.2 & 29.3
 ERC Open Access Guidelines:
 aspirational (not legally binding)
 should be followed by all ERC funded researchers on a
voluntary basis
 Special Clause 39 ERC / Horizon 2020 Articles 29.2 &
29.3:
 legally binding, addressing beneficiary
 FP7 SC 39 ERC systematically included in Grants resulting
from 2012 & 2013 calls (6 months embargo for all
disciplines)
 Horizon 2020 Art. 29.2 integral part of all Grants from 2014
calls onward; Art. 29.3 on an individual and voluntary opt-in
basis for Grants from 2015 & 2016 calls

7. Established by the European Commission
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What applies to whom?
Type of ERC grant Work programme under which
the proposal was selected
Applicable rules related to Open
Access and Research Data
Frontier Research Grant
(Starting Grant / Consolidator
Grant / Advanced Grant /
Synergy Grant)
2007 – 2011 (FP7) No formal obligations
2012 – 2013 (FP7) Special Clause 39 ERC on Open
Access applies
2014 onwards (Horizon 2020) Article 29.2 on Open Access
applies; if the project has opted
into the Open Research Data
pilot: Article 29.3 applies.
Proof-of-Concept Grant 2012 – 2013 (FP7) No formal obligations
2014 onwards (Horizon 2020) Article 29.2 on Open Access
applies
NB: Although non-binding, the ERC Open Access Guidelines should always be
observed on a voluntary basis, even when there are no formal obligations related
to Open Access and/or Research Data.

8. Established by the European Commission
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Open access to publications in ERC
programme under Horizon 2020 (I)
 Open Access to publications – ERC mandate in H2020
• Article 29.2 of the ERC MGA almost identical to the one
in the general MGA
• Only difference:
• Metadata must include a persistent identifier, but
other requirements on metadata not mandatory
• Annotations clarify that metadata should ideally also
include details such as funder, embargo period, etc. if
repository allows this

9. Established by the European Commission
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Open access to publications in ERC
programme under Horizon 2020 (II)
 Other clarifications in annotations (current version)
• For monographs & books Article 29.2 only a 'best effort
requirement'
• Allowed embargos 6 months for projects in LS and PE
domain, 12 months in SH domain, with possibility to request
extension of the acceptable embargo to 12 months for
specific publications from LS/PE domain that have SH
'character'
• For publications after the end of the grant, no obligation to
choose 'gold' if 'green' is not possible within maximum
embargo period. In that case 'green' can be chosen with
longer embargo period.

10. Established by the European Commission
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Open Access support initiatives:
ERC and Europe PubMed Central
Europe PMC - repository for LS domain with added
services:
 Linked to PubMed Central in USA (huge number of
publications & users)
 Large number of journals automatically upload author
manuscripts or published version
 Funded by group of 27 European funders including
ERC
 ERC grantees can request set-up of PI account and use
manuscript deposition service to satisfy open access
requirements (more than 1400 ERC grants signed up
so far)

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Open Access support initiatives:
ERC and arXiv
arXiv – e-print server for PE domain:
 Hosted at Cornell University
 Long history as pre-print server for physics and
mathematics
 Some development work needed to become fully
suitable as OA repository – currently no possibility to
encode embargo periods
 Funded through Cornell University, Simons Foundation
and group of about 170 institutions, mostly from US and
Europe ("crowd funding")
 ERC joined the initiative in 2013

12. Established by the European Commission
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Social Sciences & Humanities
 Great diversity and fragmentation across the Social
Sciences and Humanities domain
 No specific subject-based repository recommended so
far; ERC Open Access WG is following the debate
 Monographs important means of publication (SSH
specificity) – presenting particular challenges
 ERC WP 2015 foresees grant to the OAPEN
foundation to support OAPEN library for open access
monographs

13. Established by the European Commission
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Thank you for your attention!
Questions? Comments?
ERC-OPEN-ACCESS@ec.europa.eu