Meet Your Award Terms with the Public Access Service

Most U.S. government agencies and an increasing number of private foundations require the published results of funded research be made publicly accessible through federal institutional repositories. These award terms ensure that the results of grant funding are open and accessible, providing transparency and increasing the speed of scientific discovery.

Our Story

In April 2008, the National Institutes of Health introduced a public access to publications requirement for all of its research grants. This condition, which has since been replicated by almost every other federal agency, impacts the thousands of principal investigators on the UW-Madison campus who receive over $577 million in federal funding annually.

Originally launched by Ebling Library in 2008, the Public Access Service, with the support of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, has grown into a campus-wide unit serving researchers and grants management staff from all of the University’s schools, institutes and centers. 

While who the unit serves has changed over the last decade, our mission has remained the same: we help researchers and research staff navigate this legal requirement through consultation, training, and submitting manuscripts to funders on behalf of investigators.