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Advocacy Resources for Policymakers: PASTEUR4OA Project

PASTEUR4OA (Open Access Policy Alignment Strategies for European Union Research) places strong focus on engaging with national policymakers to inform and assist them in developing and/or reinforcing Open Access policies and to emphasize the importance of aligning national institutional and funder policies with the European Commission’s Recommendation towards member states of 2012 on Open Access and preservation of scientific information and the Horizon 2020 framework to ensure Open Access to all outputs from publicly-funded research. In supporting the above task, PASTEUR4OA has produced a set of Advocacy Resources that present evidence-based, authoritative information to policymakers.

Why has PASTEUR4OA created these particular Advocacy Resources?
The choice of Advocacy Resources to develop was based on feedback received from Key Nodes (i.e., organizations at member state level with an expertise on Open Access and with a key role in promoting related issues at national level) some of whom requested very specific items to help them with policy development work, an assessment of project work done so far and the materials that naturally emerged from that work and a horizon scan to determine existing gaps in the general supply of advocacy resources.

What type of Advocacy Resources has PASTEUR4OA created?
On the basis of the above exercise, some 40-plus items have been developed so far in the form of briefing papers, policy templates, checklists, case studies, presentations and factsheets/reports.

As part of the Advocacy Resources the project has also created a series of data visualizations. These have been built primarily on data from the Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies (ROARMAP). The data visualizations can be embedded in websites and the infographics can be in turn used in presentations and documents.

It is expected that additional materials will be developed as the project progresses in response to requests and suggestions from policymakers and Key Nodes during the engagement process.

Where will the Advocacy Resources be used?
Project partners are using the materials in Regional Workshops (beginning September 2015 and continuing until April 2016), in meetings with policymakers (these have taken place throughout Europe and also include meetings held by Key Nodes) and in events outside the project where partners are promoting work done by the project.