Cyprus working group for Open Access: setting up a national mandate and OA coordinating body

On the 22^nd of April 2015 the first meeting of the Working Group for Open Access took place in the University of Cyprus, in Nicosia, Cyprus. The local National Points of Reference for Open Access, the main funding institutions for research in Cyprus, and representatives from almost all the academic institutions of Cyprus, were present.

The event was organized by the OpenAIRE2020 Cyprus NOAD, which is also the Key node organization of Pasteur4OA project in Cyprus. At the meeting, project Pasteur4OA was also represented by Dr Marina Angelaki, who gave a presentation about issues that the Working Group should focus on.

The agenda of the meeting included policies and practices of EU on Open Access, Open Access benefits, exceptions according to H2020, the necessity of the adoption of a national Open Access policy and the potential creation of a national repository, which will also function as a national harvester for the institutional repositories of Cyprus.

Participants had the opportunity to ask Cyprus NOAD and Pasteur4OA representatives questions and discuss the possible forms a national policy should and could have. Propositions for the next steps of the Working Group were also made. Among them is the creation of a communication portal between the coordinators and the members of the Working Group, and the creation of a draft policy document with the cooperation of the OpenAIRE2020 NOAD, Pasteur4OA project, the Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development and the Research Promotion Foundation of Cyprus.