SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications - 2008

From: David Prosser <david.prosser_at_BODLEY.OX.AC.UK>
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:20:50 +0100

(*Apologies for cross-posting*)

 

 

Press Release

 

Leo Waaijers Receives SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding Achievements
in Scholarly Communications, 2008


April 22, 2008

For more information, contact: David Prosser,
david.prosser_at_bodley.ox.ac.uk

LUND, Sweden - As part of the Fourth Nordic Conference on Scholarly
Communications, held at the University of Lund in Sweden, Dr Leo
Waaijers has been presented with the 2008 SPARC Europe Award for
Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications.

 

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)
Europe initiated the Award in 2006 to recognise the work of an
individual or group within Europe that has made significant advances
in our understanding of the issues surrounding scholarly
communications and/or in developing practical means to address the
problems with the current systems. In making the Award to Dr Waaijers
the judging panel noted his tireless support for new models of
scholarly communication and his innovative approach to repositories
and their promotion, especially as initiator of the DARE programme
and manager of DAREnet.

 

As manager of the SURF Platform ICT and Research, Dr Waaijers has
initiated a number of important projects within the Netherlands,
including the original DARE programme, the Keur der Wetenschap (Cream
of Science) initiative and the honDAREduizend - or HunDAREdthousand -
project.  In addition, his influence as been felt throughout Europe
and beyond as a widely-travelled advocate, initiator of the 2007
petition to the European Commission, and an important player in the
DRIVER and DRIVER II programmes.

 

Wim Liebrand, director of SURF commented "Leo Waaijers deserves this
tangible recognition for his work in the world of libraries,
information technology and Open Access. We all know that Leo has been
highly effective in his energetic attempts to improve the easier
dissemination of knowledge. And that has had a direct and beneficial
impact on both research and educational environments. Leo has guided
the Netherlands to a lead position in supporting the fast changing
world of scholarly communication and we, at SURF, are proud of that."

 

Leo Waaijers said "Open Access is also about sharing inspiration,
best practices and knowledge within the OA community itself. This has
been the key success factor of DAREnet. For me, the SPARC Europe
Award is recognizing exactly this. It is a great stimulus to proceed
with this modus operandi.'

 

This is the third time the SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding
Achievements in Scholarly Communications has been made.  The first
Award, in 2006, went to the Wellcome Trust and the second in 2007 to
the SHERPA Group. 

SPARC Europe is an alliance of 110 research-led university libraries
from 14 European countries. It is affiliated with SPARC based in
Washington, D.C., which represents over 200 institutions, mainly in
North America. SPARC Europe and SPARC work to develop and promote new
models of scholarly communication that increase the access to and
utility of the research literature.

About SURF

SURF is the collaborative organisation for academic universities,
universities of applied sciences and research institutions aimed at
breakthrough innovations in ICT. SURF supports higher education and
research in taking optimum advantage of the possibilities offered by
ICT to improve the quality of education and research. SURF provides
the foundation for the excellence of higher education and research in
the Netherlands.

 

More information on DRIVER: www.driver-community.eu

More information on SURFshare: www.surf.nl/surfshare

 
Received on Tue Apr 22 2008 - 19:10:10 BST