Funding to Knowledge Rights 21 Programme extended

We are really pleased to announce that the Arcadia Fund has extended its support of the Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21) Programme for a further five years. This continued funding will allow KR21 partners to leverage opportunities for positive reform under the new European Commission and Parliament, promote national legislation and regulation and practices that enable and support all stakeholders, expand and strengthen national networks and ensure that researchers, educators and libraries are best able to realise the potential of any reforms passed as well as take the lead in promoting openness and local policy change.

Since 2021, KR21 has been dedicated to reforming legislation and practices to ensure open access to research, education and cultural resources in the digital age. To achieve the mission of levelling the playing field between researchers, institutions and publishers, KR21 collaborates with SPARC Europe, IFLA and LIBER as well as independent experts and a network of national coordinators.

SPARC Europe has contributed by leading the Retain and Retain II projects, which intend to accelerate the uptake of rights retention and open licensing to enable researchers to share their work openly. With Project Retain, we created resources, including the Rights Retention Helper, to support institutions and researchers in navigating their rights. Now, with Retain II we are building a Community of Practice among policymakers, authors and universities to advance the implementation of rights retention policies across Europe. We look forward to doing more on local policy reform to facilitate Open Access with KR21 and its new network of many legal experts in the coming years.

Sign up for the Retain mailing list here to get up to date on Rights Retention.