Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Friday, May 09, 2008

More on California-funded stem-cell research

California has started to distribute the $3 billion it has pledged for stem-cell research.  So far, I can't find any report that the state will put an OA condition on its publicly-funded research grants.

Comment.  I mention the possibility of an OA mandate for this research because many people (including myself) have proposed one, and for a time California was seriously considering it.  I haven't heard any new developments on this front for about 16 months, but here's a short summary I wrote in September 2007:

...[T]he University of California Academic Senate urged California policy-makers to mandate OA for this research (April 2005).  The UC President supported the Academic Senate with his own letter (May 2005).  After the research-funding agencies agreed to a data-sharing policy, industry lobbyists succeeded in watering down (July 2006).  California citizens were invited to make their own case for OA directly to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and many did so, apparently with some effect, using background materials prepared by OA advocates at the UC (September 2006).  But as far as I know, the campaign is still stalled at partial success --a story with depressing similarities to the NIH policy.  For more detail, see my blog posts on the campaign....