ORE offers ZonMw projects a free open access publishing platform

Since March 2026, NWO has been part of a consortium of 17 European research funders and organisations from 11 European countries. Thanks to this collaboration and joint funding, researchers across the Netherlands will be able to publish their research results open access and without publication charges on the Open Research Europe (ORE) platform from November 2026. This includes all project leaders leading a ZonMw-funded project.

ORE is hosted and managed by CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research). Previously, the platform was fully funded by the European Commission and the use was restricted to researchers funded through EU programmes. Today, national research funders and organisations jointly oversee its funding and strategic direction. NWO fulfils this role on behalf of the Netherlands. As a result, ORE is evolving into a publishing platform for the wider European research community.

Since 2 November 2026, all principal investigators of ZonMw projects, as well as researchers affiliated with Dutch universities, universities of applied sciences, and research institutes, are eligible to publish their research outputs through ORE without paying publication fees. The platform aims to make science more accessible, transparent, and inclusive, while maintaining high standards of quality and integrity.

ORE accepts a wide range of research outputs from different scientific disciplines, including research articles, methodological papers, study protocols, data notes, replication studies, and both positive and negative results. This enables researchers to publish throughout the entire lifecycle of a research project, increasing transparency and improving insight into the research process.

The platform follows a “Publish, Review, Curate” model. Before publication, all submissions undergo rigorous checks. Once published, articles receive a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), allowing them to be immediately accessed and cited by other researchers. Submissions are then evaluated through an open peer review process by expert reviewers. The review reports are made publicly available, promoting transparency, constructive scientific discussion, and recognition of reviewers' contributions. All published outputs remain openly accessible to readers, supporting the rapid dissemination, reuse, and further development of research.

The development of the Open Research Europe platform aligns with ZonMw’s Open Access policy. This policy supports, among other things, non-commercial alternatives for Open Access publishing and publishing models that do not rely on authors paying publication charges.