The Bridge of Knowledge – defining and implementing national Open Access policy by Polish universities. Gdansk University of Technology perspective

Abstract

The European Commission states that Open Access to scientific resources funded by the European Union shall facilitate the use of research results financed from the public funds. Moreover, it will cause an increase in the innovative capacity of Europe. The Open Access landscape is determined by several factors such as mandates. The open mandate may be voluntary or mandatory and implemented at the institutional, national or international level. It requires scholars to use open repository to deposit results of scientific research financed from public resources. The current paper addresses the role of European Commission guidelines regarding dissemination of scientific results financed by the European Union budget together with recommendations at the national level for Polish universities. The process of preparing and implementing Open Access policy at the institutional level and the role of libraries in this process were presented on the example of Gdańsk University of Technology. Gdańsk University of Technology implements a project called Multidisciplinary Open System Transferring Knowledge. The acronym of its name in the Polish language is „MOST Wiedzy”, which means „the bridge of knowledge”. The result of this project is a platform of the same name, whose aim is to provide free access to the resources created and gathered at the University. The objective of the platform is to promote widely the research and educational potential of the University. It will also be a solution supporting communication tool between researchers and a platform for cooperation between science and business. The platform will be made available to other universities in the region of Pomerania in order to create common knowledge resources. The paper also discusses the strategy of promoting Open Access and the repository within the university, in the scientific community of the Pomerania region and among entrepreneurs.