OPEN ACCESS FUND

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

The aim of the OPEN ACCESS FUND is to promote the free access to research results from FNR-(co)funded projects. 

The programme provides financial support to cover article processing charges that may arise through the publication of peer-reviewed research results in Open Access. 

An Open Access publication is one that is made freely available to any potential reader or user with access to the internet, with the only limitation that the work is properly attributed to its author(s). 

Open Access publications contribute to a more efficient and effective use of research results, maximises the potential for innovation, increases the visibility of researchers and their research institutions and provides the conditions for a bigger return on invest of public money. 

The OPEN ACCESS FUND also helps FNR-(co)funded researchers to comply with the FNR Open Access Policy.

Important notes

All thresholds for the capped amount of funding that the FNR can contribute to cover Open Access associated fees for eligible scientific publications were adapted and will be applied starting on 1 January 2023. 

Submissions to ChronosHub after invoices have been paid by the host institution (e.g. reimbursements) are no longer eligible starting January 2023 and are turned down by ChronosHub without further evaluation. 

For peer-reviewed scientific monographs that result directly from an FNR (co-)funded project, the FNR mandates their publication under Open Access starting on 1 January 2023.  

If an FNR (co)-funded grant falls under an Open Access Policy, all peer-reviewed scientific articles resulting from this FNR (co)-funded grant must be published Open Access.

The date on the acceptance letter defines which Open Access Policy applies to your research publications:

Grants accepted before 1 January 2017

• No Open Access Policy applies
• Compliance Criteria: None

FNR grant was accepted between beginning of 2017 and end of 2020, including all PRIDE grants

2017 FNR Open Access Policy

Compliance Criteria

• Acknowledgement of FNR (co)-funding if the publication is a direct result of the FNR grant and is directly linked to the accepted grant proposal.
• Authorship assignment: At least the grant owner or a member of the project team must be listed as a (co-)author of the publication. For PRIDE grants, at least one of the PhD students funded by the FNR must be (co-)author of the publication.
• Peer-review according to international standards.
• CC-BY licence.
• Repository deposition and publication embargo period of max. 6 months.

FNR grant was accepted in 2021 and after

FNR Open Access Policy (updated 2023)

Compliance Criteria

• Acknowledgement of FNR (co)-funding if the publication is a direct result of the FNR grant and is directly linked to the accepted grant proposal
• Authorship assignment: At least the grant owner or a member of the project team must be listed as a (co-)author of the publication. For PRIDE grants, at least one of the PhD students funded by the FNR must be (co-)author of the publication.
• Peer-review according to international standards.
• CC-BY licence.
• Repository deposition and no publication embargo period (through Rights Retention Statement).

FUNDING SPECIFICS

Eligibility requirements for funding:

Open Access publication costs are covered by the FNR Open Access Fund under the following conditions:

The publication reports findings that are directly resulting from an FNR-funded project:

• Projects from all FNR programmes are eligible that fall under an Open Access Policy.
• Only projects where the project funding decision was taken after 1st January 2017 are eligible. Exception are PRIDE projects funded in the 2016 Call, which are also eligible.
• At least one of the Luxembourg-based members of the project team must be co-author of the publication. In case of PRIDE, AFR, or Industrial Fellowship grants, the PhD candidate must be a co-author of the publication.
• Funding is eligible for up to 3 calendar years after the end date of the project, as stipulated in the grant contract with the FNR.

The publication is an Open Access peer-reviewed scientific article or monograph:

• The publication must be compliant with all aspects of the FNR Open Access Policy. For all compliancy criteria, please consult the FNR guidelines for the conform publication of Open Access Research Results on the FNR Website.
• The publication must contain the proper acknowledgment of FNR funding, including the Rights retention statement.
• The publication must include a data availability statement containing information on how to access the relevant data underpinning the findings.

Eligible costs are article processing charges (APCs) or similar fees, up to a maximum amount.

• Not eligible are: Submission fees (charges levied on articles submitted for publication) | Page charges | Charges for colour figures | Printing costs.
• Where the publisher does not provide transparent information on the standard costs for publication on its website, the FNR may not pay for the costs.
• No double funding: where another institution or funder already covers publication costs (or part thereof), the FNR will not fund costs for the same publication (or will only fund the part not covered by the other institution or funder).

The publication (manuscript) must be submitted in real-time through the ChronosHub platform.

Submission via ChronosHub

The FNR has partnered with ChronosHub and makes the platform usage mandatory for all researchers and institutions that want their eligible APCs covered by FNR through the Open Access Fund. This collaboration will facilitate the compliance check with the FNR Open Access Policies and the direct payment of APCs for authors and institutions. 

ChronosHub is an Open Access management platform for researchers, institutions, funders, and publishers. Their mission isAcc to transform the publishing process by maximizing automation to let researchers focus on the research and not the process of publishing research. Since the launch in 2017, ChronosHub is managing over 20 thousand grants and ten thousand Open Access articles along with over 15 million dollars in APCs. For more general information, please visit: https://chronoshub.io/. 

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