European Commission
The European Commission requires grantees to ensure open access to the publications it funds and calls for the underlying data to be made freely accessible. Up to date information on the status of Switzerland in participating in the European framework programmes of Horizon Europe can be found on the external pagewebpage of SERI.
Open-access directive Horizon 2020
You can meet the open-access obligation of the European Commission's Horizon 2020 research framework program by making all peer-reviewed publications freely accessible no later than six months after initial publication (or twelve months in the humanities and social sciences). This is possible via the Golden Route in an open-access journal or via the Green Route in an open-access repository, e.g. the Research Collection.
All projects in the Horizon 2020 research framework program are concerned by this open-access policy, as are all projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC).
Open-access directive Horizon Europe
You can fulfill the open-access obligation of the European Commission's Horizon Europe (2021-2027) research framework program by making all peer-reviewed publications freely accessible in a repository (e.g., the Research Collection) at the same time as the first publication. Both, the Golden Route via an open-access journal or the Green Route are possible. Journal articles must be published under a CC-BY license, while more restrictive licenses are permitted for books and book chapters (e.g. CC-BY ND).
All projects in the Horizon Europe research framework program and all projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC) from 2021 onwards fall under this open-access policy. This regulation also applies to project partners in Switzerland which are financed on a national level during the time of non-association.
Open-access funding
For Horizon 2020 projects, publication fees in open-access journals or in subscription journals with open-access option (hybrid journals) can be claimed as project costs during the project duration.
For Horizon Europe projects, only publication fees in pure open-access journals can be claimed as project costs. Please include costs for open-access in the project application.
Open research data
Already within the framework of the Horizon 2020 Open Research Data Pilot, the European Commission called for making accessible research data on which the publications are based and required the submission of a data management plan.
With the research framework programme external pageHorizon Europe, the following steps are now mandatory, which also apply to project partners in Switzerland that are financed on a national level during the time of non-association:
- a description of open-science practices as part of the grant proposal that will be evaluated with it;
- establishing a data management plan (DMP) and submission of a first draft within the first six months from project start;
- as soon as possible and within the deadlines set out in the DMP, depositing the data in a trusted repository, e.g. the ETH Research Collection;
- as soon as possible and within the deadlines set out in the DMP and legal restrictions, ensuring open access —via the repository —to the deposited data;
- information is given via the repository about any research output or any other tools and instruments needed to reuse or validate the data;
- metadata of deposited data must be open under CC0 license or equivalent (to the extent legitimate interests or constraints are safeguarded), in line with the FAIR principle.
Further information
For more information, we refer to the external pageOnline Manual of the European Commission and the Reference Documents on external pageHorizon Europe. You can also find a summary of the main requirements for open access and research data management in a Downloadfactsheet of the EU GrantsAccess-Office (PDF, 289 KB).