(22 Apr 2026) In December 2025, the South African government approved a National Open Science Policy requiring that all research outputs arising from public funding be made available through open access. The Department of Science, Technology and Innovation published details of the policy in March 2026.
The policy emphasizes that faster and less costly access to scientific results, data, and methods can accelerate discovery and uptake. It also highlights the importance of global interconnectedness in enabling rapid exchange of outputs.
The policy makes open access compulsory for publicly funded research, guided by the principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.” This acknowledges exceptions for security, ethics, and intellectual property while defaulting to openness.
In Australia, major funders have introduced new open science policies. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) released policies in February 2026 that allow grantees to submit preprints, publish negative results, share code and software openly, and adopt equitable practices.
Janet Catterall, program manager for Open Access Australasia (OAA), described these changes as significant. The NHMRC had already removed its 12‑month embargo in 2022, requiring immediate open access.
The Australian Research Council (ARC) has also revised its Open Access Policy to align with NHMRC, mandating immediate open access through repositories or Gold OA. ARC encourages openness for books and non‑traditional outputs. Both funders explicitly reference Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance, affirming commitment to the Maiam nayri Wingara Indigenous Data Sovereignty Principles. Their policies require free, prior, and informed community consent, ongoing involvement in research design and dissemination, and adherence to national guidelines.
The press release in full is here.
