Opinion: Making COVID-19 research open to all

UCL's COVID-19 Research platform reached a landmark moment this August as it recorded its 500th entry. Dr Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost (UCL Library Services), explains why making research available and open to the world will benefit us all. At UCL, we have been applying the depth and breadth of our cross-disciplinary research and expertise to help the global effort in combatting COVID-19 and to make the world more resilient and equitable in the future. One of the specific ways we have supported interventions against COVID-19 has been through making our research and data freely available around the world. UCL has a long-term commitment to innovative Open Science principles as we recognise the wider benefits for advancing knowledge and discoveries. Determined to apply the Open Science ethos in the challenge to understand COVID-19, we were one of the first universities anywhere in the world to develop an online platform bringing together all our records for research on the pandemic into one place. The UCL COVID-19 Research platform is managed on behalf of the UCL community by UCL Press , the UK's first fully Open Access University Press.