Open Access Publication Fund NiedersachsenOPEN Takes Off

NiedersachsenOPEN is the new central publication fund to support Lower Saxony’s researchers to publish their research results open access. The state’s Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) allocates about 3.5 mil Euros to the new open access publication fund within the program zukunft.niedersachsen. The scientific libraries in the state act as facilitators and support institutions.

NiedersachsenOPEN comprises three funding lines:

• Funding line 1: Book publications (also in combination with commercial publications), compilations, scientific editions or book series;
• Funding line 2: Journal articles and proceedings publications

Funding lines 1 and 2 provide funding for publication costs for books and journal articles, for the transformation of book series as well as for the support of diamond open access publishers. Applications must be submitted through the local university libraries. Funding is available for

• researchers who are members of a university, a university of applied sciences, an archive or museum in state ownership (with special emphasis on junior researchers);
• authors or editors of of scientific works on Lower Saxony-related topics or on the holdings of a Lower Saxony memory institution.

Funding line 3 addresses libraries directly and offers funding for innovative projects e.g. to develop open access publication infrastructure or cross-media and infrastructure projects to develop or to enhance open access services.

For questions on funding within the lines 1 and 2 contact the university library’s open access office
at .
For questions on funding line 3 contact Mrs Heike Andermann, the University Librarian,
at .