U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm has emphasized the necessity of openness, scrutiny and reexamination in fostering scientific advancements and innovation. In a recent Department of Energy (DOE) news release, she unveiled a plan to ensure federally funded research is more open and accessible to the public, journalists and researchers. 

“Science and innovation cannot flourish in the dark—they require openness, scrutiny, and reexamination so that we can build on them to create the knowledge and technologies that will change the world,” Granholm said in the release.  

The DOE has 17 national laboratories and a number of programs that fund private and university research, the news release said. This ensures that the department will be central to backing a number of research papers annually, and its plan ensures that the results of the research will be available to anyone who wants the information. 

Tearing down financial barriers helps the department distribute key information to drive innovation and scientific efforts in a fair and impartial way, according to the release.

“As one of the Federal Government’s leading sponsors of research, DOE is proud and excited to get our data and research out into the public’s hands faster and more efficiently, and we look forward to expanding and accelerating that access by engaging the American public in DOE’s mission,” Granholm said in the release.  

The DOE plan is lining up with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) memo from August 2022, which urged federal agencies to “make publications and their supporting data resulting from federally funded research publicly accessible without an embargo on their free and public release.” 

By providing public transparency and access, the DOE will meet many of the requirements to be set up by the end of 2024 and in operation by late 2025, the release said.