Atlantic Technological University’s application for associate membership of OpenAIRE was unanimously ratified by the organisation’s General Assembly in October 2023. 
OpenAIRE is a network community of research-performing organisations across Europe, whose common vision is to transform society through validated scientific knowledge and allow citizens, educators, funders, civil servants and industry to find ways to make science useful for themselves, their working environments and society.
This aligns closely with ATU’s own vision for research. Our President, Dr Orla Flynn, recently signed the TU-NET Joint Statement of Open Research, along with the presidents of Ireland’s four other TUs. The statement asserts “that fully applying the principles of openness, collaboration, and accessibility to the research process is key to achieving optimum research outcomes and will more effectively catalyse regional economic and social development“. The work that went into agreeing and preparing this joint statement is an indication of ATU’s commitment to working collaboratively with other Irish RPOs, both sectorally and nationally, to advance open scholarship.
Another indication of this is ATU’s close engagement with Ireland’s National Open Research Forum (NORF). Staff from across the university were involved in the working groups that led to the publication of Ireland’s National Action Plan for Open Research in November 2022, and the university currently has members on the boards of two NORF-funded projects. ATU is also closely involved as stakeholders in NORF’s National Open Access Monitoring project. As members of the EU Green Alliance of technological universities, ATU’s commitment to collaboration and strategic alliances extends from the sectoral and the national into the European context.
Associate membership of OpenAIRE will both broaden and deepen ATU’s commitment to open research and allow the university to positively contribute to OpenAIRE’s mission of shifting scholarly communication towards openness and transparency and facilitating innovative ways to communicate and monitor research.
ATU is the second Irish member of OpenAIRE after Trinity College Dublin.
Go to openaire.eu/atlantic-technological-university fore more information.
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