Open Access Publication Funding / 2026-2028 / Technical University Darmstadt

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Stäcker
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 570832236

The Technical University of Darmstadt plans to continue its Open Access funding programme, which has been implemented by the University and State Library since 2017. The aim remains to increase the proportion of OA publications in the university's total publication output. The focus is on supporting quality-assured open access publications, but on the basis of a diversified strategy that emphasises cost transparency and cost sharing with the departments. APC-funded OA publications based on DFG-funded research will be funded with the funds requested here, while other OA publications will be funded from the ULB budget. TU Darmstadt is consistently pursuing the goal of a virtual information budget that brings together the funding needs and availability for open access in the context of information supply services and forms the basis for the strategic use of funds. In the long term, the aim is to transform scientific publishing into a scholar-led and scholar-owned open science publishing culture in which publicly funded research becomes (more) independent of large commercial publishers that are solely focused on stakeholder value and profit. A key factor in this transition will be to rethink and transform the current system of academic evaluation, which is based on inadequate metrics.

• DFG Programme: Science Communication, Research Data, eResearch (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)