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The grant will support ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� in advancing and promoting principles of open access through scholarly communications amongst ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��’s membership and expert network. It will also allow ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� to digitize its back catalogue of publications and to develop an open access policy.

According to ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��-led , published in the open access peer-reviewed scientific journal Peer J, lack of access to scientific conservation knowledge is a major obstacle for roughly half of surveyed conservation experts. Under open access arrangements, scientific literature is made available to researchers free of charge. However, to date many in the field of conservation do not publish in open access journals nor deposit full-text copies of their papers in open access repositories or preprint servers.

“Our research makes it clear that access to literature is a major challenge in our efforts to strengthen the scientific underpinnings and ultimately, the impact, of nature conservation,” says Dr Thomas Brooks, ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��’s Chief Scientist. “This grant will help ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� raise awareness and establish the building blocks of open access – such as self-archiving, open access journals, Creative Commons licensing, and authors’ rights retention -- among the conservation community to steer it in this direction.”

The first engagement on this topic funded by the new grant will be a hybrid panel discussion on , to be held on 6 September 2021 at the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France and streamed online to Congress delegates.

������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� is the world’s largest environmental network, comprising 18,000+ experts, 1,500 Member organisations (including governments, non-governmental organisations, and indigenous peoples’ organisations), and around 950 staff. The is one of the Union’s founding principles, and ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� maintains one of the world’s foremost library collections on nature conservation. The grant from Arcadia Fund will shore up the historic efforts of the ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Library to facilitate access to knowledge on nature conservation.

is a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. It supports charities and scholarly institutions that preserve cultural heritage and the environment. Arcadia also supports projects that promote open access and all of its awards are granted on the condition that any materials produced are made available for free online. Since 2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $777 million to projects around the world.

For more information, please contact:

������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� Media Relations, [email protected]