PASTEUR4OA/Key Nodes

The Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) is a public body of the Central Administration under the ultimate authority of Ministry of National Education and Scentific Research in Romania. Its mission is to promote quality and leadership for higher education, research, development and innovation. UEFISCDI plays both roles of higher education funding agency, as well as of funding agency for research, development and innovation.UEFISCDI provides advice for policies in the areas of competence. Active regional and international, UEFISCDI implements foward-looking projects targeting, among others, internationalization of higher education, science and innovation, professions and skills, research infrastructures. In this manner, UEFISCDI recently developped ERRIS (Engage in the Romanian Research Infrastructure System), an online platform acting as the unique gate to accessing services provided by the Romanian research infrastructures, connecting the research infrastructure owners with potential clients (researchers and company representatives).

The Research Council of Lithuania (RCL), established in 1991, is a state budgetinstitution that acts as an expert on science policy and as an advisory body to the Parliament of Lithuania (Seimas) and the Government on strategic issues of research and higher education. RCL is a core body of Lithuanian R&D funding system reforms and is entrusted to implement the grantbased research funding. The goals and objectives of RCL: Part of RCL work results are in-depth reports on the most important issues of research, the efficiency and quality of R&D policy and higher education. RCL contributes to the science policy formation and is involved in legislative issues of the Lithuanian science and studies system. Major focus is on the development of a science-oriented society in the context of globalisation and internationalisation. RCL is deeply involved in restructuring research governance and funding mechanisms in Lithuania. For more information: http://www.lmt.lt/indexe.php   RCL carries out the legal requirement to make the results of budget funded research open for the society. Moreover, it participates in the activities of OpenAIRE, UNESCO regional OA group, delegates its members to the working groups of ScienceEurope for open data and open publications. Since 2010 RCL is a member of European Science Foundation, now is a member of Science Europe. At the moment RCL is a coordinator of FP7 project SPREE and a partner of 5FP7 projects, including ERA-Net projects (EuroNanoMed II, BiodivERsA, M-ERA.NET, HERA) andERA-NET plus project (BONUS).

Founded in 1826, the Library curates historical collections and provides public services as well. Now it is in the process of establishing new services, including a scientometric database and repositories. The Library organises access to journals subscribed by the national scientific journal subscription consortium.   The Library has established its repository at the request and by the requirement of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), in 2009. The repository was designed to be an orphan repository, supporting the OA mandate of the OTKA. The repository was also the place where final reports of the projects supported by the Research fund were to be archived and disseminated. Since 2009 Library has monitored the effectiveness of the OTKA OA mandate. In 2012 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has issued an Open Access mandate too, designed having learnt from the experience with the OTKA mandate. This mandate is effective from the beginning of 2013.   The repository of the Library - named REAL - has two other collections: books digitised in the eBooks on Demand project; and theses submitted for the title of "Doctor of the Academy". The Library operates the database of the Hungarian National Scientific Bibliography project. This database provides means for monitoring the compliance to the OA mandates, and in the future it will provide a portal to the OA research output of the Academy, and possibly of the whole country. The Library is a consortial member of COAR, and also participates in the Hungarian Open Access Repositories (HUNOR) group.

VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava (VSB-TUO) was founded in 1849, and has since grown into a modern institution of higher learning, offering the highest levels of education in technical and economic branches of study, based on the interconnection of science, research, education, and the creative activity. City of Ostrava has long been a hub of major industry in central Europe, and study and research at VSB-TUO is formed by historically close ties with major international companies. VSB-TUO is one of the largest universities in Czech Republic with over 20,000 students studying in seven faculties.

Founded in 2003, the University of Luxembourg is the first and only university of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Multilingual, international and research-oriented, it is also a modern institution with a personal atmosphere. The University of Luxembourg consists of 730 professional experts who support the roughly 230 professors, assistant professors and lecturers in their teaching. With respect to education, the University offers 11 bachelor degrees, 32 master degrees as well as doctoral studies based on the Bologna Accords, spread over three faculties and two interdisciplinary centres: ·        The Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication (FSTC); ·        The Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (FDEF); ·        The Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE); ·        The Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT); ·        The Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB).

In 2003, the Helmholtz Association was one of the original signatories of the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities". This commitment towards open access was then formally approved by the assembly of the directors of the Helmholtz Centres: „Publications from the Helmholtz Association shall in future, without exception, be available free of charge, as far as no conflicting agreement with publishers or others exists.“ (Resolution of the Assembly of Members, 27 September 2004) and the Helmholtz Working Group on Open Access was founded. Since 2005, the Helmholtz Open Science Coordination Office supports the scientists as well as the respective Helmholtz Centres in the implementation of open science. In this capacity, the Coordination Office is also representing the Helmholtz Association in national and international committees and regularly advises policy makers in research organisations and politics. See also Open Science in the Helmholtz Association.

The Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) is a Research Funding Agency that promotes and supports basic scientific research in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (formerly the Frenchspeaking community of Belgium, abbreviated FWB). Founded in 1928, it mainly receives public subsidies. The Fund supports individual researchers on the basis of the criterion of excellence by offering temporary or permanent positions; provides funding to research teams; grants and credits as well as scientific Prizes.   FNRS has recently adopted a policy regarding the mandatory deposit in institutional repositories of publications by funded researchers. It also chairs the Belgian Interuniversity Working Group on HORIZON 2020 for the monitoring of EU research policies. FNRS is a founding member of Science Europe (SE) and the European Science Foundation (ESF) and participates in several   relevant working groups initiated by these organisations such as the working groups on: ‘Open Access to Data’ (SE);‘Open Access to Publications’(SE) and the ‘EMRC Expert Group on Open Access in Biomedical Research’(ESF). F.R.S.-FNRS was also responsible for the organisation of a European-wide conference entitled ‘Open Access Management and Policy’ in 2011. As a member of the former EUROHORCs Steering Committee, F.R.S.-FNRS has contributed to the joint ESF-EUROHORCs Roadmap including the vision point on Open Access. It is involved in several international and European initiatives such as ERA-Nets, Joint Programming Initiatives, etc. Within these networks of funders, common principles of data sharing and open access are often adopted, in particular regarding the grant holders funded through common calls for proposals.

Belgrade University Computer Centre (RCUB) began its work in 1992, and it has been serving as a computer centre with the  primary function  to provide computer and information-communication services to faculties and other institutions members of the University of Belgrade. Additionally, RCUB represents a central communication node of the Academic Network of Serbia (AMRES). Besides providing the Internet connection and other infrastructural work, RCUB is also oriented toward the development and implementation of different services for institutions and individual users. RCUB is particularly dedicated to cultivating the research work, which is best reflected in the fact that RCUB has taken part in numerous international FP and TEMPUS projects. The University of Belgrade is the biggest state university. During the two centuries of its existence, the University of Belgrade has served its people, and its former students and teachers have greatly contributed to the development of cultural, scientific, educational, political and economic life in Serbia. The University of Belgrade is prepared to maintain and enhance its position as the leading institution of higher education in the region, by adapting to  modern-day challenges one hand, while  preserving its traditional values on the other hand.

The University of Cyprus (UCY) was established in 1989 and accepted its first students in 1992. It currently has about 6500 students and it aims to increase the number by 2000 students by 2015 with the final aim to count 10 000 students by 2020. It has 11 Research Units and it has a significant involvement in the implementation of European grants. In the report of the European research ranking for 2010, University of Cyprus was the No 1 Cyprus research institute in the number of FP7 grants received. Currently UCY is implementing 98 programmes funded by European and international funding, including seven research grants of ERC and another 231 programmes funded by the National Research Promotion Foundation. UCY runs also, as a proof of its dedication in European integration teaching, a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and three Jean Monnet Chairs –in European Political Integration, in European Economic Integration and in European Foreign and Security Policy. It has also an UNESCO Chair for Equality and Gender Empowerment. UCY is also member to many European and International Networks and Associations, namely: EUA, IAU, UNICA, ACU, Santander Group, AEUA, UNIMED, EAEC etc. The total research output of the UCY constitutes 62% of the country’s total output. Drawing from the experience gained through the active participation of the University of Cyprus (UCY) Library in OPENAIRE and OPENAIREPLUS programs, the Library has undertaken the project to identify, collect and organize all the scientific research output of the University in an open access repository. It is important to be noted that University of Cyprus Library is currently by far the biggest Library in Cyprus in terms of volumes, types of materials, computer facilities, in access to electronic sources of information, specialized personnel and know-how. The Library also undertakes initiatives for the support and coordination of the libraries, archives and information centers in Cyprus and organizes training programs for librarians and other scientific groups. The Library has more than 275.000  volumes of books, with an annual increase of approximately 12.000 new titles, approximately 4500 titles of printed scholarly journals, 30.000 full-text e-journals, 26 databases installed locally and an additional 204 databases installed at the producers'/suppliers' servers and more than 50.000 e-book titles. The University of Cyprus Library as a Cyprus National Open Access Desk, constitutes major research infrastructure in the country. The participation of the Cyprus NOAD in OA projects ensures the continuation of establishment of the EC Open Access policies. It reinforces and facilitates the ability of UCY Library NOAD to influence the rest of the research institutions and the policy makers, ministries and funders towards the establishment of a regional OA agenda. Due to OPENAIRE and OPENAIREplus activities there has already been established a collaboration mechanism among researchers, institutions, funding organizations, EC National Reference Point, repository managers, librarians and the librarians association – a real human network that ensures that the idea, spirit, approach and practices compliant with Horizon 2020 Open Access (OA) mandates will continue to spread and be served.

The Library’s mission is to support the University’s teaching and research programmes by providing adequate scholarly information resources, emerging technologies and user support services.  As a customer-oriented and service-driven organisation, the Library is actively committed to teach users how to identify, locate, evaluate, use and synthesise information as the pivotal element of a knowledge-based society which is an asset for the prosperity of Malta’s intellectual and economic growth.