Negotiation of supra-regional licenses with funding by the German Research Foundation

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek acts as a negotiating institution for supra-regional licenses and as such has been a regular project participant in the LIS funding programme "Supra-regional Licensing" of the German Research Foundation (DFG) for years. The focus of these licenses is on the acquisition and provision of research-relevant resources (current journals, databases and e-books) for scholarship on a national level. In addition to improving information provision, it is also important to further develop licensing standards, as reflected in the basic principles of acquisition defined for the funding programme and in the development of innovative licensing models. The model development and implementation of so-called "Open-access transformation contracts" also has to be considered in this context. These contracts have the objective to permit all scholars of an institution participating in the contract to publish in the open access format without expenditures of their own.

The subsidising activities of the German Research Foundation in the area of supra-regional licensing go back to the year 2005. In the period between 2005 and 2011, the German Research Foundation funded fully financed national licenses paid as a lump sum, from which licenses the members of all publicly funded scholarly institutions could benefit free of charge. From 2011 to 2020 the German Research Foundation took over around 25% of the overall costs of so-called alliance licenses for predominantly ongoing resources. From 2017 to 2020 there was the additional option to apply for the partial funding of agreements concluded within the scope of the funding programme "Open Access Transformation Agreements". Since 2021, the funding line for supra-regional licensing has permitted only continuation requests within the limits of the maximal funding duration, but no new applications.

A number of selected libraries with experience in handling large-volume licenses negotiate and manage these licenses, among them also the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Since 2005 and 2011, respectively, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has negotiated and managed numerous national and alliance licenses and since 2018 also open access transition agreements. An overview of national licenses, alliance licenses and open access transition agreements negotiated in Germany can be found on the website www.nationallizenzen.de.

Overview of the national and alliance licenses negotiated in Germany