To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of UK Research and Innovation’s open access policy on research-intensive universities.
Answered on
5 October 2020
Open Access is central to the Government’s ambitions for research and innovation, with openness being key to world class research. Public funding should result in public benefit, and therefore the Government and UKRI support the principle that published outputs of publicly funded research should be widely and freely accessible to all, under conditions that allow for maximum reuse, as recently reiterated in the R&D roadmap.
Understanding the overall economic impact of the Review’s proposed policy is important and UKRI has commissioned independent analysis to assess the possible implications for various groups such as Learned Societies, Research Organisations, Disciplines and Publishers. BEIS will consider the wider social and economic implications, using this independent evidence on costs and benefits, and the responses to the consultation on the proposed policy run by UKRI from Feb-May 2020.
UKRI’s mission is to work in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities and Government to create the best environment for research and innovation to flourish and to create social and economic impact. The Open Access Review will continue under these principles, with UKRI continuing to conduct further evidence gathering, analysis and stakeholder engagement and the issues raised by the Honourable Member are all being considered by UKRI as part of the ongoing process.