Sloan Foundation awards grant to develop SHARE OA management initiative

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has been awarded $50,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to help develop SHared Access Research Ecosystem (SHARE). This initiative aims to build a cross-institutional coordination framework for the long-term management, expansion of access and preservation of the results of academic research.

SHARE is a joint initiative of ARL, the Association of American Universities (AAU), and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and is being developed partly in response to the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum in February that directed federal agencies to develop draft plans for the public deposit of research articles and data sets associated with federal funding.

'As the recipients of tens of billions of dollars in federal research investments each year, public universities are committed to making their federal research findings and advancements public and accessible for everyone to see,' commented APLU chief academic officer R. Michael Tanner. 'SHARE is the most logical and cost-effective way to assure long-term and comprehensive public access. By leveraging already existing university library systems and repositories, SHARE promises to make research findings more readily and lastingly accessible, which in turn, will facilitate further discoveries.'

Over the next few months, SHARE will engage the university, library, research, funding, technology, intellectual property, and publishing communities to develop the project roadmap. While many aspects of SHARE can be implemented now, its vision is ambitious and requires a thoughtful and inclusive implementation process, say the partners.