New SPARC Europe Board Members for 2019 share their thoughts on joining the Board
Charlotte Wien, Professor of Scholarly Communication at the University of Southern Denmark
It is imperative that we make politicians as well as the public aware of how we work as researchers so they are properly informed to make qualified judgements about how public funds are being–and should be–spent.
Despite the fact of openness being one of the core values of the scientific world, we are far from a reality where all procedures within research are open. My focus as a member of the SPARC Europe Board will be growing awareness and understanding around the lack of openness and the resulting consequences to the public.
William J. Nixon, Assistant Director (Academic Engagement and Digital Library), University of Glasgow Library
I have been active nationally and internationally with open access and institutional repositories over the last 18 years and I am passionate around the role repositories can play in enabling Open Access. I am a member of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) Executive Board and a past member and chair of the Open Repositories Steering Committee.
At the University of Glasgow I provide strategic and operational leadership for Enlighten, the University of Glasgow’s institutional repository service. Enlighten is a key part of the University’s open research infrastructure and supports a wide range of key activities including the management of open access compliance and readiness for national research assessment exercises.
This is an exciting and challenging time for Open Access and the wider Open Science agenda not only in the UK and Europe but across the world.
The UK Higher Education sector faces several challenges (and opportunities) in Open Science around:
• Reasserting responsibility for research generated by their own researchers and students through engagement with initiatives like Plan S and the UK Scholarly Communications Licence (UK-SCL)
• Supporting the delivery of the Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) in particular around research outputs and knowledge exchange/impact – and open access compliance
• Working with research data and implementing the FAIR data principles
I was formerly a member of the board from 2013-16 but with the advent of Plan S and the growth in engagement and challenges around Open Science I am honoured to rejoin the SPARC Europe Board at this exciting time. I very much look forward to working with colleagues on the Board and to help to realise SPARC Europe’s vision to make “Open the default in Europe”.