What is the good practice about?

The Policy for Open Access to Research Infrastructures at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Banja Luka defines the nature of Research Infrastructure, its position in the Faculty, services provided by the Research Infrastructure, provisions for access and time allocation, formation of pricing, confidentiality obligations as well as dispute settlement procedure. 

By offering computing resources to a wider user base the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FEE) aims to attract researchers from both national and international institutions and to boost the collaboration of researchers from FEE with researchers from other scientific fields, ranging from those that are heavily computationally demanding, such as physics and chemistry, to the fields traditionally not involved with computing, such as life sciences, agriculture, social sciences and humanities. In this way, FEE expects to prepare for joining the Network of Open Research Infrastructures in the Western Balkans and, ultimately, the European Open Science Cloud, which will increase the international visibility of FEE.

Why is this initiative needed?

Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FEE) at the University of Banja Luka has considerable computing resources as well as expertise in building, maintaining, and running such research infrastructure (RI). By introducing an open access (OA) policy the Faculty aims to intensify inter-disciplinary research and international collaboration. These goals are expected to result in improved scientific output, as measured in the number and quality of publications and patent applications, which is one of the goals of the 2017-2025 Development Strategy of the University of Banja Luka.

What are the main objectives and activities?

The objective of the Policy is to define the nature of Research Infrastructure, its position in the FEE, services provided by this Research Infrastructure, provisions for access and time allocation, formation of pricing, confidentiality obligations and dispute settlement procedure.

Who is involved?

The Policy was prepared by FEE staff with feedback from the management, researchers, personnel operating and maintaining RI, and legal department. While preparing the Policy, Technical Assistance was provided by the Regional Cooperation Council in June-October 2020 under the Open Access Research Infrastructure in the Western Balkans Support Programme.

Can this good practice be replicated?

The development of Open Access policies is an essential part of the well-functioning research infrastructures (RI). During the development of the Policy, the team had to define the nature of the research infrastructure and to answer a number of questions regarding the services provided, to identify the key persons responsible for the management, operating and maintaining RI, as well as for administrative support necessary to make open access possible. The team also had to define the expected types of users, the procedures for obtaining access and the obligations of both sides. An important step in the development of the Policy is to define the prices for research infrastructure services and the ways how the operating costs should be covered. Finally, the obligations of the parties related to the confidentiality and protection of intellectual property should be clearly stated. The Policy is available in Serbian and English.

The development of the policy took around 3 months with the active participation of two staff members from FEE, feedback from the management, researchers, RI personnel, administrative staff and technical assistance provided by Regional Cooperation Council.

Further links:

Serbian version: https://etf.unibl.org/images/akta/ostali/Politika_otvorenog_pristupa_NII_UNIBL-ETF.pdf

English version: https://etf.unibl.org/images/akta/ostali/Policy_for_Open_Access_to_RI_UNIBL-ETF.pdf

Relevant RRI keys: Open Access, Open Science, Open Data

Type of practice: Dedicated plan, strategy document (e.g. Gender Equality Plan, Open Access Strategy, etc.) 

Target groups: researchers (starting from PhD-candidates, on the individual level), universities, research performing organisations, research and innovation funding organisations, innovators in the business sector, students (up to Master level)