Our University – the first among domestic higher education institutions – also signed the petition released by the League of European Research Universities (LERU) on October 12, 2015, which calls the attention of the next Dutch presidency of the European Union to the need for a greater role for Open Access in the publication of scientific results. The petition also conveys an important message that there is a need to create a business model that is acceptable to all stakeholders (publishers, researchers, research funders, readers, libraries, state governments).

Nowadays, fewer and fewer journals are available in libraries, as high subscription costs cause libraries to cancel their subscriptions. The costs of medical, natural, and technical science journals have quadrupled over the past twenty years, while library budgets have virtually remained unchanged. The spread of open access offers a solution to the resulting information shortage.

The petition was supported by several entities, including the Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Charles University in Prague, University College London, ETH Zurich, the Catholic University of Leuven, as well as the universities of Barcelona, Utrecht, Helsinki, and Leiden, and numerous research institutes.

LERU is an alliance of 22 leading European universities that carry out high-level educational activities alongside internationally competitive research activities. Established in 2002, the initiative aims to create a strategic community of universities that are pioneers in the enhancement of innovation and research in relation to higher education, the economy, and society.