U.S. Chamber Applauds NIH Open Access Proposal

January 1, 2005

CONTACTS: Rozett/ Wohlschlegel

(202) 463-5682 / 888-249-NEWS

Thursday, September 9, 2004

Action Will Make Taxpayer-Funded Research Freely Available to Public

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce welcomed

news by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that it plans to

provide enhanced public access to all NIH-funded research

information. The Chamber has long been an active advocate of more

open and transparent access to government information.

" This is great news for American taxpayers and businesses, " said

Kovacs, Chamber vice president for environment, technology

and regulatory affairs, which strongly supports the NIH

proposal. " The Chamber encourages the free and timely dissemination

of scientific knowledge produced by the NIH as it will improve both

the public and industry's ability to become better informed on

public policy issues that impact them. "

NIH is seeking comments on its request concerning all final

versions of research publications that were funded in whole or in

part by NIH, including all research grants, cooperative agreements,

contracts, as well as National Research Service Award (NRSA)

fellowships.

While welcoming free public dissemination of NIH-funded research,

Kovacs also urged NIH to provide free access to all models and data

used in support of the research, without which he noted, would make

establishing the scientific findings impossible.

The Chamber previously supported an amendment that required all

federally supported research be made available in the public domain,

and plans to submit comments to NIH concerning this proposal.

The Chamber is the world's largest business federation,

representing more than three million businesses of every size,

sector, and region.

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