Free and open access to the outputs of publicly-funded research offers significant social and economic benefits. The Government, in line with its overarching commitment to transparency and open data, is committed to ensuring that such research outputs should be freely accessible. As major bodies charged with investing public money in research, the Research Councils take responsibility in making the outputs from this research publicly available – not just to other researchers, but also to potential users in business, charitable and public sectors, and to the general public.