The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) has signed the statement of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) to promote Open Access policies in the dissemination of scientific results.

According to the manifesto, European universities allocate a significant portion of their budgets to scientific journals publishers. Hundreds of millions of euro’s. Money which is not directly spent on research and education. Harvard University reported in 2012 that many large journal publishers have rendered the situation “fiscally unsustainable and academically restrictive” with some journals costing as much as $40,000 per year and expenses per published article is about $ 2,000.

LERU calls to all universities, research institutes, funders and the researchers themselves to sign this declaration to give a clear signal to the European Commission and the Dutch Presidency of the European Union to work toghether in the promotion of Open Acces policies in research.