On 7 December 2022, the Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) published the new funding guideline "Richtlinie zur Förderung von Projekten zur Etablierung einer gelebten Open-Access-Kultur in der deutschen Forschungs- und Wissenschaftspraxis". According to the BMBF, this guideline is intended to actively promote the change in scientific publishing towards more open access. With this measure, the BMBF aims to establish a comprehensive open access culture in all areas of research and science, as it is lived jointly and shaped in collaboration. Among other things, the focus is on significantly increasing the number of research results published in the open access publication format and on establishing several sustainable, science-based funding models for open access. In addition, the guideline aims to increase the tools, services or infrastructures available to support the establishment of OA and, last but not least, to increase the recognition of OA in the scientific community.
Three subject areas of funding
The funding guideline awards grants to projects that are active in at least one of the following subject areas:
- Subject area 1 "financial establishment": development, testing and establishment of science-based funding models
- Subject area 2 "institutional and socio-cultural establishment": researching and increasing the recognition of OA in the scientific community
- Subject area 3 "open funding field": addressing the diverse needs of an OA culture.
In the third subject area, funding is to be provided for project ideas that cannot be assigned to the first two thematic areas, but which can convincingly demonstrate innovative contributions to the establishment of a living OA culture in Germany and in doing so can set new accents in the shift towards more OA.
Eligible applicants can submit their applications to the commissioned project management organisation VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH via the easy-Online platform by 25 January 2023 at the latest: https://foerderportal.bund.de/easyonline/reflink.jsf?m=DW&b=KOA-ANTRAG.
Further information can be found in the BMBF announcement (in German) under the following link: https://www.bmbf.de/bmbf/shareddocs/bekanntmachungen/de/2022/12/2022-12-07-Bekanntmachung-Open-Access.html