Scenario planning for an open access strategy

Open access is a polarising topic in the academic world. Open access is about free, online access to scientific information such as publications and data. The Dutch government has set the goal of realising 100% open access. As that has proven to be a challenge, the Association of Universities (VSNU) wanted to further stimulate the strategic dialogue on open access. They chose scenario planning to contribute to the debate in a neutral way.

Open access has many stakeholders, such as researchers, universities and publishers, but also society and even large technology companies like Google and Apple. In a working group with stakeholders from different organisations (universities, NFU, NWO, KNAW, VH, SURF, Promovendi Netwerk Nederland, VSNU) the scenarios were developed.

For a topic such as open access, scenarios are very much the instrument to stimulate dialogue between different stakeholders. In a complex stakeholder field, with conflicting and overlapping interests, future scenarios can offer a shared starting point for the conversation.