Proposal for a Pilot Project on Enhancing Global Open Access to Agricultural Research Publishing

CTA and FAO agree on a common project to enforce the capacities of institutions in ACP countries for open access publishing of scientific and technical knowledge. The project should have two phases:

1. 12 months pilot with  3 selected institutions. During this pilot phase it is planned to:

   1. define and adopt  institutional  open access publishing  policy commitments;

   2. adapt   technologies and information management standards widely used in the agriculture and related sciences framework for the implementation of digital open access repositories;

   3. perform capacity building activities for information management specialists, researchers and managers who determine institutional policies;

2. the write up of a report about the pilot project outlining a full fledged project to create an international network and infrastructure of agricultural open archives. This report should be the basis to approach donors to finance a 3 years project

The proposed pilot will be funded by FAO and CTA.  Whereas FAO will contribute in kind to the project through seconding staff to assist participating institutions in achieving the pilot goals, CTA will finance the associated costs (workshops, travel, consultancies) with a cash budget of   xxxxxxx Euro.

The institutions will be selected through an open and competitive call and will be selected by CTA in consultation with FAO. The call will be published on the appropriate websites of CTA, FAO and other partners. It is planned to issue the call in early February 2011 and to start the project in June 2011.

Call for Proposals “Support to Open Access Publishing”

___________________________________________________________________________

The CTA and the FAO of the United Nations invite proposals for ACP countries on  implementing digital open access repositories

___________________________________________________________________________

Access to appropriate scholarly research outputs in a timely manner plays a critical role in the development of any country. For developing and emerging countries this statement is of particular importance in the agriculture sector which belongs to the important  income source. However, while the barriers for accessing peer-reviewed scholarly communication outputs begin  to crumble, the visibility and dissemination of the research undertaken in developing and emerging countries remains still insufficient. New methods for providing Open Access (OA) together with rich institutional information management policies can address and increase the usability, accessibility and visibility of those resources.

Within the OA framework several tools have been developed to allow the creation, management, and interoperability of institutional document repositories. These efforts result in a wider dissemination, hence in a higher impact of research results, generating vast and predictable benefits both for researchers and their institutions, from individual carrier advancing, to further research funding, from the enhancement of each institution's visibility to promoting general research progress.

The purpose of this call is to provide mechanisms to 3 selected institutions for capturing, managing, preserving and disseminating digital scholarly research output resources. Goals, which the project wants to achieve are:

• definition and adoption of institutional  open access publishing  policy commitments;

• adaptation of technologies and information management standards widely used in the agriculture and related sciences framework for the implementation of digital open access repositories;

• capacity building activities for information management specialists, researchers and managers who determine institutional policies;

with the strategic objective to increase the usability, accessibility and visibility of the intellectual outputs of the 5 selected institutions.

The pilot projects will include the following activities

• A week training program on existing information management standards, tools and open access policies and practices organized in Rome (Italy) or Wageningen (The Netherlands) in June 2011.

• A suitable platform will be created via the Agricultural Information Management Standards (AIMS) website to share experiences and knowledge on the project activities

The grant is being offered to research institutions, universities or associations from ACP countries.   The selected projects will have a duration of 12 months, starting date June 1, 2011.

Organizations interested in the call should submit a concept paper of two or three pages. Special consideration will be given to proposals in partnership with two or more institutions. Every concept note should contain at least the following information:

• Name and description of the applicant organization
• Contact person and full contact information
• Project Executive summary
• Rational
• Objectives
• Technology and standards
• Expected outputs
• Indicators
• Draft budget
• A letter of intent

To Apply

Concept papers should be submitted by no later than February 28, 2011 to [email protected] and [email protected] . Decisions on moving to a full proposal will be given no later than March 31, 2011.