National strategies by swissuniversities and the SNSF
swissuniversities supports various endeavours that enable open access to science and research, including free access to scientific publications (Open Access), shared use of research data (Open Research Data) and other innovative open science practices at the nexus of science and society, politics and the economy.
Open Access
The Swiss Open Access strategy was developed in 2017 and revised in 2024 by swissuniversities on behalf of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and in collaboration with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). It envisages immediate, machine-readable access to scientific knowledge at no charge and with no embargo. This shift to Open Access should be completed by 2032 at the latest.
Open Research Data
swissuniversities published the Swiss National Strategy for Open Research Data (ORD) in 2021, followed by an Action Plan for Open Research Data in January 2022 to concretise the measures outlined in the ORD Strategy. The Action Plan covers the years 2022-2028. The ORD Strategy and Action Plan were developed jointly by swissuniversities, the ETH Domain, the SNSF and the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.
Requirements of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
The Swiss National Science Foundation requires its grantees to publish their manuscripts Open Access and share their data as Open Data on data repositories.