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Our open policy

Beta version - February 2024

In general, it is often the case that copyrightable works produced for general and non-profit purposes, such as those for climate change adaptation and mitigation, are not openly licensed and disseminated widely to the public. We have found that many stakeholders and other members of the public are generally not aware of the resources created as a result of aid programmes, research projects and other international initiatives. Intentionally or unintentionally, the resources are often created and disseminated locally or disseminated to limited audiences. Even when the resources are known to exist, stakeholders and the public are not sure how to access them, what usage rights or permissions are necessary to use them, or how to obtain those rights or permissions.

The Open Policy we are adopting here addresses these key problems. It explicitly gives permission to the public to access, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display, and distribute the copyrightable work; prepare derivative works, and reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute those derivative works; and otherwise use the copyrightable work, provided that in all such instances attribution is given to the copyright holder.

We believe that the implementation of this policy will result in significantly enhanced dissemination and use of deliverables created and provide stakeholders and members of the public with a simpler and more transparent framework to access, use, and modify these deliverables for the benefit of their communities.

Open Policy

This open policy and its requirements apply to all data created or funded by the Open Earth Policy Initiative (OpenEPI) and all data and other works distributed or made available from other sources, on the OpenEPI data portal, or in any way referred to or recommended by OpenEPI.

As a digital innovation platform and digital public good, OpenEPI has adopted an open policy that:

  • Enables the unrestricted access (except for an attribution requirement) and reuse of all collected or produced digital data created or funded by OpenEPI, and all data linked or referred to, or disclosed, reused, recombined, recommended or shared by OpenEPI, including any underlying data sets in projects that collect or produce data, or are in any way made available by OpenEPI.
  • Enables the unrestricted access and reuse of software, algorithms and models created or funded by OpenEPI, and all software, algorithms and models linked or referred to, or disclosed, reused, recombined, recommended or shared by OpenEPI.
  • Enables the unrestricted access and reuse of all peer-reviewed published research created or funded by OpenEPI, including any underlying data sets.
  • Enables the unrestricted access and reuse of educational resources created or funded by OpenEPI.

The policy will apply both to the deliverables themselves and any support materials necessary to the use of the deliverables.

OpenEPI applies the necessary reviewing and endorsement mechanisms for the data, software, algorithms, models and research publications linked or referred to, or disclosed, reused, recombined, recommended or shared by the platform.

This policy is effective from March 2024.

As new practices emerge, this policy and guidelines will be reviewed and updated as needed. Any questions or suggestions should be sent to [email protected].

More details and guidelines on Open Policy: