The European Research Council (ERC) has joined the UK’s open-access repository service PubMed Central, joining 18 existing UK and European funders. The ERC becomes the third European funder to join UKPMC, following Telethon Italy and the Austrian Research Fund. As a result of this participation, the existing funders have agreed that the service will be rebranded as ‘Europe PubMed Central’ (Europe PMC) by 1 November 2012. A key aim of this initiative is to extend the repository further and encourage other European funders of life sciences research to make the outputs of the research they fund freely available through Europe PMC.

The decision of the ERC to join the expanded Europe PMC resource comes at a time when providing free access to research outputs is being championed at the highest levels within the UK and Europe.

The ERC’s Press Release can be read in full here: Press Release: European Research Council renews its commitment to open access by joining Europe PubMed Central