The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding a Germany-wide collaborative project to create a new national competence and networking platform in the field of Open Access with about 2.4 million euros.

The 'open-access.network' project is intended to create a new information and networking service that will activate existing initiatives and help network them across regions. It is also intended to improve the exchange on Open Access within the scientific community. The three central objectives of the project are the provision of information, the transfer of skills and the networking of the existing community. The BMBF is funding the project under the "Guidelines for the Promotion of a Competence and Networking Platform in the Field of Open Access" until the end of November 2022.

The new platform will build on and further develop the existing information platform open-access.net. Over the next three years, the project partners intend to provide information on key topics with new services such as a forum, helpdesk, moderated focus groups and new databases. With the help of 'barcamps', thematically focused workshops, regional networks, train-the-trainer bootcamps and webinars or online workshops, the Open Access community and actors from science are to network.

For 'open-access.network', six partner organizations formed a consortium: The Communication, Information and Media Centre (KIM) at the University of Konstanz with the project lead, the Open Access Office Berlin at Freie Universität Berlin, the Helmholtz Open Science Office at the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ, the Technical Information Library (TIB) in Hanover, and the libraries of the universities of Bielefeld and Göttingen.

The Helmholtz Open Science Office at the GFZ, together with another project partner, is responsible for the three work packages 'Editing Internet Platform', 'Helpdesk' and 'Thematic Workshops'. As part of the 'Thematic Workshops' work package, the Helmholtz Open Science Office will offer 24 workshops on Open Access throughout Germany. (ph)

Further information:

• Project website "open-access.network"