Abstract

Since the European Commission (EC) launched its Open Access pilot under FP7, a plethora of funder Open Access mandates has materialised, from very stringent demands to more loosely formulated and monitored expectations.

In Flanders, researchers are confronted with different mandates (from the EC, national and regional funders) and an institutional Open Access policy, while RMAs are expected to support and monitor all these regulations and to report on institutional Open Access target KPIs to the Flemish Government.

Not only do mandates differ in expectations, but some also require a substantial knowledge of the publishing landscape, copyright and terminology on the part of researchers. Not surprisingly, researchers struggle to comply with and correctly report about their Open Access expectations.

At KU Leuven, the Research Office is responsible for informing and supporting researchers on Open Access funder mandates. During this presentation, we will briefly illustrate the complexity of Open Access requirements for (KU Leuven) researchers, what support we provide pre- and post-award, which different teams are involved and how we use Business Intelligence reports to render our work as RMAs more efficient and effective.

Learning outcomes:
- Have insight in the complexity of Open Access demands researchers face when successful in obtaining grants
- Showcase how our Research Office aims to proactively support researchers in Open Access compliance
- Showcase the workflows we have devised to work more efficiently and effectively
- Invite collaboration with colleagues to optimise workflows