The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) have joined the trend seen with many international research funders, such as the NIH and Wellcome Trust, and introduced an open access mandate.
The intent of both the NHMRC and ARC policies is to maximise the benefit of the Australian Government's investment in research funding through the widest possible dissemination, discovery and access to research findings in the most effective manner and at the earliest opportunity.
The NHMRC and ARC understand that the new requirements may not be able to be met in some cases due to current legal or contractual obligations. However, if a version of the published output cannot be made Open Access the researcher must say so in the Grant Final Report.