From: David Prosser <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2011 10:00:56 +0000


The UK Government has just published its Innovation and Research
Strategy for Growth, outlining how it will support research and
development through the UK's universities:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/innovation/docs/i/11-1387-innovation-and-research-strategy-for-growth.pdf

Of particular interest to readers of this list will be section 6.6
onwards which deal with access to research outputs.  To quote:

"The Government, in line with our overarching commitment to
transparency and open data, is committed to ensuring that
publicly-funded research should be accessible free of charge. Free and
open access to taxpayer-funded research offers significant social and
economic benefits by spreading knowledge, raising the prestige of UK
research and encouraging technology transfer. At the moment, such
research is often difficult to find and expensive to access. This can
defeat the original purpose of taxpayer-funded academic research and
limits understanding and innovation. ... But we need to go much
further if, as a nation, we are to gain the full potential benefits of
publicly-funded research."

Taken together with the UK's Science Minister's recent interview in
the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/08/publicly-funded-research-open-access

this signifies the strongest commitment to open access we have seen
from the UK Government.

David