Brussels Declaration on Open Access (2012), Federal Science Policy, Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and Flemish Ministry for Economy, Science, and Innovation

What is this about?

The declaration sets Belgium’s national framework for open access, making openness the default while balancing ethics, privacy, and intellectual property. It requires open access to publications through repositories or open journals, encourages Creative Commons licensing, persistent identifiers, and FAIR data practices, and outlines responsibilities for researchers, institutions, funders, and publishers. Exceptions for sensitive or commercial data are allowed but must be transparently justified. Monitoring emphasizes the quality of openness—metadata, persistent links, reproducibility, and data/code sharing—rather than just publication counts. The policy aligns with international initiatives like Plan S and the European Open Science Cloud, highlights equity and multilingual access, and promotes responsible openness with safeguards for sensitive data. Overall, it provides Belgium with a coherent reference to guide compliance and harmonize national open science practices within a European and global context.

For whom is this important?

ResearchersResearch institutionsJournal publishersPolicy-makers

Other information