The European Commission is one of the most important providers of financial support for science and research and has systematically promoted open access since the launch of the 7th Framework Programme (2007-2013). On 17 July 2012, the European Commission issued key documents – Communication and Recommendation, which define the importance of open access for European research and which recommend that Member States also work to create the conditions for open sharing of publicly supported science results. The EC is following the current debates and reactions to initiatives and documents such as the Cost of Knowledge and the Finch Report.

More information on OA and the European Commission:

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020 [online]. Version 1.0. European Commission, 11 December 2013 [cit. 2014-06-24]. Available online.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. Open Access to scientific information. THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. European Commission [online]. EC, [2014] [cit. 2014-06-24]. Available online.

A pilot project to promote open access publishing was launched in August 2008 in seven research areas (energy, environment, health, ICT, research infrastructure, science in society, socio-economic sciences and humanities).

More than €50 billion has been distributed to projects that have submitted peer-reviewed research articles or postprints resulting from FP7 projects to the online repository within six months (natural sciences and engineering) or twelve months (social sciences, socio-economics and humanities) of the date of publication.

The pilot project was supported and funded by the OpenAIRE project, which was also to provide the necessary data storage infrastructure and facilities for the participating repositories.

More information about the 7th Framework Program is available at http://www.fp7.cz/cs.

Horizon 2020 is followed by Horizon Europe, which will run from 2021 to 2027. In addition to calls for innovation and a new approach to partnerships, the program also includes an open science policy.

The aim of the call is to share research early and openly. Grant recipients should mandatorily share in open mode scientific publications, scientific data based on FAIR principles, information on scientific outputs and tools used to verify the conclusions of scientific publications or provide digital or physical access to the results needed to verify the conclusions of scientific publications. Where publications are not published in open access mode, grantees are strongly encouraged to use an open repository.

Open access to scientific output such as software, model, algorithm, workflow, protocol, simulation, etc. is not required but strongly encouraged. Access to physical research outputs such as cell lines, biological samples, compounds and other materials is also supported.

The ORION project or the Centre for open science can be used for pre-registration of publication outputs, preprints and crowd science

Guidance for Horizon Europe in English.

Presentation about Horizon Europe in English.

Implementation strategy in English.

Review of Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions unit costs in preparation for Horizon Europe.

Information about Horizon Europe in Czech.

Presentation about Horizon Europe in Czech.

Brochure about Horizon Europe.

On 29 April 2019, the Government approved the Action Plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for Open Access to Scientific Information of the Czech Republic. The Action Plan stipulates the obligation to make available in open access the results of type J - an article in a scientific periodical and type D - an article in the proceedings. After 2020, open access will also apply to research data. There will also be changes in the conditions for the provision of targeted and institutional support. The full text of the Action Plan can be found at https://www.vyzkum.cz/FrontClanek.aspx?idsekce=875884.

On 14 June 2017, the Government approved the document National Strategy for Open Access to Scientific Information of the Czech Republic for the years 2017-2020. An action plan should be developed for this strategy, which should indicate specific measures for the implementation of the national strategy.

In January 2004, the OECD Ministerial Meeting passed the Declaration on Access to Publicly Available Research Data. All 34 signatory countries, including the Czech Republic, committed themselves to promoting open access to data and to creating conditions for easy sharing.

At its 291st meeting on 28 February 2014, the Research, Development and Innovation Council approved the draft document Open Access to published results of publicly funded research in the Czech Republic, submitted by the Open Access Commission.

The document consists of three parts. The first part defines the concept of "open access to scientific information", the second part provides background information on the promotion of open access in Horizon 2020, and the third part presents recommendations to selected members of government, research organizations and research funders.

The recommendation instructs the government, specifically the Deputy Prime Minister for Science, Research and Innovation and the Ministry of Education, to take steps to adopt a national open access strategy in line with the European Commission's recommendation.

Recommendations to research organizations include in particular support for building open repositories, publishing science and research results in OA mode, adopting internal regulations to support OA, addressing the issue of storage and access to research data.

The Recommendation instructs the providers of R&D support in the Czech Republic to support the OA policy based on the provisions of the European Commission and to require open access to the results of publicly funded science and research.

According to the "National R&D&I Policy 2021+", the aim is to ensure open access to R&D results and data produced with public funds and to negotiate with major scientific publishers the rules for their publication in Open Access mode. On the basis of the analysis of the publication activity of Czech authors, documents are being prepared for the subsequent preparation of a strategy for transformation contracts to OA within the CzechELib project.

Open Access is also supported by Czech universities and the Academy of Sciences, which are building institutional repositories to make publications and university qualification theses available. Most of them have also signed the Berlin Declaration on open access to knowledge in the sciences and humanities.