Setting up a Diamond Open Access fund: budgets, policies and practicalities

Anne van den Maagdenberg; Louise Otting; Andrea Tarchi

doi:10.7557/5.8186

Authors

Anne van den Maagdenberg Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Louise Otting Delft University of Technology
Andrea Tarchi Erasmus University Rotterdam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/5.8186

Keywords:

Diamond OA, insitutional fund, diamond fund

Abstract

In the last few years several Dutch universities have created a diamond open scholarly communication fund. These funds support diamond open access initiatives, both focussed on content and on infrastructure. With a panel of representatives from four different universities we want to discuss:

The motivations behind setting up these funds

What differences and similarities there are in the policies and practicalities of these funds

How we measure success

Lessons learned in setting up such a fund

We discuss why we create and maintain these funds even when we face budget cuts and what steps were necessary to be able to sway the library or university to approve these funds. We talk about how funds like these can be used in the universities’ strive towards sustainable Open Science & academic sovereignty in these turbulent geopolitical times.

The session will begin with a brief introduction of the panelists and the funds of their respective libraries, followed by an interactive discussion based on the topics of budget, policies, and practicalities. We hope to inspire other universities/ libraries to also consider setting up funds like these and advise them on how to start.

Author Biographies

Anne van den Maagdenberg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Anne van den Maagdenberg is the Open Access Librarian at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She acts as advisor on open scholarly communication both on a policy level and for researchers of the VU. She is a project lead within the VU Open Science program and manages the implementation of the VU Research Strategy. She is the secretary of the UKB Working Group Open Access and a member of the OSNL Advisory Panel Open Scholarly Communication. She has a background in Egyptology.
Louise Otting, Delft University of Technology

Louise Otting is the Collections & License Manager at Delft University of Technology (TUD) Library, where she negotiates with publishers for access to sources and publishing. In close collaboration with the Open Access Advisor and the diamond University Press (TU Delft Open Publishing), she writes the policies regarding collection & publishing management. She also manages the collection & publishing budget, which includes a dedicated OA fund and an Open Scholarly Communications fund. She contributes to several national and international groups like UKB, the national consortium, Library Advisory Boards and is dedicated to advance open, sustainable & equitable scholarly communication.
Andrea Tarchi, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Andrea Tarchi is the Open Science Coordinator at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) Library, where he leads initiatives to support community-led and non-commercial publishing models. His work focuses on developing sustainable institutional strategies for diamond Open Access, including EUR’s dedicated OA fund, and aligning local efforts with national and international policy frameworks. He contributes to the editorial board of openaccess.nl and is a member of the UKB Working Group for Open Access. With a background in research support and policy, Andrea is committed to strengthening library infrastructures that enable equitable scholarly communication. He holds a Ph.D. in History of Law from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.