Shaping the Future of Knowledge Sharing
When?
- Date: 11 March, 2025
- Time: 15:00-16:30 CET / 14:00-15:30 GMT
What?
This webinar, by the lead Principal Investigator (PI) of Project SCOIR, Prof. Eoin O’Dell, in association with Knowledge Rights 21, will discuss the draft Research Outputs and Open Access Bill, which marks Ireland’s progress towards incorporating Open Access Policies.
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The Webinar
SCOIR stands for Secondary rights, Copyright, Open Access, Institutional policies, and Rights retention). The term SCOIR means “unharness” in Irish, and reflects our mission of freeing the potential of open research. Project SCOIR’s work aims to address the balance between institutional policies and researchers’ rights, supporting the global push for increased transparency and access to academic knowledge.
Through the drafting and consultation process for the Research Outputs and Open Access Bill, the project team has been able to clarify various misconceptions about not only open access publications but also other essential aspects of rights retention that can be included in the bill so as to facilitate the interests of researchers from various disciplines.
Project SCOIR has made substantial progress in advancing our goals of creating a model Open Access and Rights Retention policy framework for Irish institutions and funders. This proposed Bill has undergone intense consultation, and it is gaining momentum in building relationships with key stakeholders.
Some of the key themes covered by the draft bill are:
- There are two new definitions in Section 2: “open repository” and research “outputs”.
- Section 4, on making research outputs available, is the heart of the Bill. The intention here is to ensure that publicly funded research outputs are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).
- Section 5 provides for limitations upon the obligations and rights in section 4.
- Section 7 envisages that compliance mechanisms will be made available consistently with the Higher Education Authority Act 2022 and the Research and Innovation Act 2024.
- Section 8 permits enforcement by the Ombudsman.
Curious to know more? Whether you’re a librarian, a researcher, an academic or someone who barely knows anything about the research world and is just getting started, then join this webinar to learn how you can make a difference and contribute!
Why You Should Attend
While conversations about open access are ongoing across the globe, here’s the solution that Project SCOIR has come up with: a Draft Research Outputs and Open Access Bill, which is the first of its kind in the Irish Copyright Law. The aim of this draft Bill is to underpin and vindicate the rights of researchers and their employers and funders to publish publicly-funded research outputs on open access platforms.
“Incentivising employers to develop workflows to encourage and support authors in making their research outputs available by means of an open repository….
The Bill is careful not to trench upon copyright, and it specifically provides in section 4(1)(d), that, where ‘an act is required or permitted under this Act, any term or condition in any agreement which purports to prohibit, exclude or restrict that act shall be void’.” – Eoin O’Dell, Project SCOIR
This webinar will help you understand the nuances of Open Access publishing in Ireland and the reasons why this Bill has the potential to create a significant impact when it is implemented in the Irish regime.
Programme
Speaker:
- Eoin O’Dell – Associate professor of law at Trinity College Dublin; Lead PI for Project SCOIR, Ireland
Presentation of the draft Research Outputs and Open Access Bill followed by a Q&A session.
10 February 2025
