Open Research Europe expands eligibility for open-access scientific publishing

By the end of the third quarter of 2026, Open Research Europe (ORE) will expand its eligibility criteria for open-access scientific publishing. The platform will be opened up to a significantly broader research community, allowing any author affiliated with a Portuguese institution to publish on this platform.

ORE is a free, peer-reviewed European open-access scientific publishing platform launched in 2021 by the European Commission. It offers a scientific publishing model based on the principles of open science, enabling the rapid and transparent dissemination of research results.

Until now, the ability to publish on the platform was limited to researchers funded by European programs. With the change in eligibility criteria, in addition to researchers funded by European Union framework programs, such as Horizon 2020 and subsequent programs, researchers affiliated with institutions based in participating countries—including Portugal, which participates through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)—are now also eligible to publish on ORE.

This expansion also applies to international research teams. Whenever at least one co-author is eligible to publish in ORE, the entire team may submit and publish their results on the platform, at no cost to authors or readers.

This new model transforms Open Research Europe into a shared European scientific publishing and collective management infrastructure with much broader eligibility, promoting more open and inclusive research practices.

ORE will continue to uphold a publishing model aligned with open science, including rigorous pre-publication checks, rapid dissemination, post-publication peer review, and support for compliance with funders’ open access mandates.

The new phase of ORE will be supported by a collaborative funding model and a European consortium of funders and research institutions, reinforcing the platform’s role as a European open-access scientific publishing infrastructure. Authors and readers incur no costs for publishing or reading the content.