NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

One of the biggest private foundations in the world just took a step toward becoming more open with the research it funds.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced last week it will adopt an open access policy in order to be more transparent and share the information discovered through its research. This new move toward transparency comes a year after one international aid advocacy organization slammed the foundation for not being open enough.

It also comes just months after Susan Desmond-Hellmann took over as CEO, after Jeff Raikes stepped down from the post earlier this year. The foundation has an asset trust endowment of $42.3 billion and has awarded $31.6 billion in grants since its inception.

The new policy, which begins Jan. 1, means that published research resulting from the foundation’s funding will be discoverable and accessible online, the foundation will pay the fees to make the information available and the data accompanying the publications will be available as well.