A major development for Open Research Europe (ORE) – a free-to-publish platform based on open peer review

In January 2025, ten European funding agencies and research organisations, including the French National Research Agency (ANR), signed a declaration of intent^[1]https://zenodo.org/records/14624287 to collectively support Open Research Europe (ORE). ORE was launched in 2021 by the European Commission and is an innovative publishing platform that is free of charge for readers and authors and fundamentally based on the principle of open peer review. ORE was initially set up for publications deriving from projects funded by the European Commission. Signing the declaration of intent means these research agencies and organisations have committed to collaborating to extend the use of ORE to other publications than those from EU-funded projects. This is in line with the developments set out in the Scoping Report: Open Research Europe (ORE): Towards a collective open access publishing service ^[2]https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/3603e219-6a65-11ef-a8ba-01aa75ed71a1/language-en. The signatory agencies and organisations have also committed to making sure that ORE gradually aligns with the principles of diamond open access, as defined in the Action Plan for a Diamond Open Access Model (https://zenodo.org/records/6282403). This new version of ORE is announced today.

Since January 2025, other research agencies and organisations have joined the project, including the CNRS. Today, the consortium is made up of 16 major institutions: the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the French National Research Agency (ANR), the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and the Universe (BMFTR), the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Research Council of Norway (RCN), the Foundation for Science and Technology – Portugal (FCT), the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS), the Swedish Research Funding Bodies (Forte, Formas and the Swedish Research Council), the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

The aim of this new declaration is to gradually expand the consortium to include countries outside Europe.

The new version of the ORE platform will be operated by the CERN and accessible by the end of 2026. From that date, authors affiliated with a French institution will be able to publish in ORE.

In the compliance the French National Plan for Open Science’s stated objective, the National Fund for Open Science (FNSO) has supported the ANR’s initiative in favour of ORE with a grant of €300,000.

Find out more:

• Open Research Europe (ORE)
• The CERN is hosting a major open-access publishing platform in Europe
• The ANR press release on its commitment to the ‘Open Research Europe’ platform
• The CNRS supports the launch of the Open Research Europe platform