Lithuania
The Research Council of Lithuania has a mandate of coordinating Open Access activities in Lithuania, whereas the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport has acted as National Point of Reference on Scientific Information. Both institutions are represented on the EOSC Governance Board.
The Research Council of Lithuania, the main national research funding body, supports the policy of the EU regarding OA, approves of reuse and content mining in OA publications and data, participates in the Open Science movement, advocates OA among policymakers, scientists and knowledge managers, supports global, national, regional and institutional initiatives fostering OA.
In accordance with the Law on Higher Education and Research of the Republic of Lithuania (2009, revised 2015 and 2016), “in order to ensure the quality of research conducted with funds of the state budget, the transparency of the use of funds of the state budget, to enhance scientific progress, the results of all research works carried out in state higher education and research institutions must be announced publicly (in the Internet or any other way), to the extent this is in compliance with the legal acts regulating the protection of intellectual property, commercial or state and official secrets” (Article 51).
The Research Council of Lithuania adopted the Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Data on the 29th of February 2016 and seeks further implementation of the document. The Guidelines include the policy on open access (OA) and open research data in full alignment with the Horizon 2020 (H2020) OA mandate, the Open Research Data Pilot, and the Commission's Recommendations on access to and preservation of scientific information.
Seven higher-education institutions have OA policies.
A Working Group for developing a national Open Access / Open Science Policy was set up on the 16th of January 2020 by the Minister of Education, Science and Sport.