Science Foundation Ireland's Open Access mandate is now effective

ScienceFoundation Ireland's Open Access mandate is now effective (from February 1st2009).

Science Foundation Ireland is Ireland's largest funding council.

The policy is clearly outlined on the SFI website under 'Grant policies':http://www.sfi.ie/content/content.asp?section_id=471&language_id=1#oa

The full text of the policy is available here:
http://www.sfi.ie/uploads/documents/upload/SFI_OA_policy_2009_v3.pdf
It covers peer-reviewed papers, conference papers, reports, monographs anddatasets and generally follows the EURAB recomendations.

Now all Irish funding councils but one have open access policies: the HigherEducation Authority (HEA), the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineeringand Technology (IRCSET), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the HealthResearch Board (HRB) - the latter has OA recommendation which are expected tobecome mandatory later this year). All of the others have Open Access mandatesin line with the EURAB recommendations.

Apparently discussions are underway inthe only Irish research funding council without an OA policy, the IrishResearch Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS).

Columbia University joins NEREUS

Columbia University became the first U.S. institution to join the Network of European Economists Online (NEEO), an international economics research project to which UCD economic researchers are also participating with UCD Library

Spain to introduce OA mandate

Next Wednesday, [Spain's] Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, will formally present the draft of the new and awaited Law of Science and Technology ... Regarding the dissemination of results, Chapter III establishes the obligation to publish in open access texts that have been accepted for publication in scientific journals where these have been financed with public funds from the General Administration of State. ...

An OA repository for nanoscience

The project brings together partners from the EU, China, India and Russia and aims to...[create] an open access electronic archive of nanoscience publications and tools to facilitate networking between scientists in different world regions.....