NEWS

Springer Nature’s open access agreements now support researchers
in nearly three quarters of EU countries

Number of deals renewed and expanded shows continued demand from community

Springer Nature’s open access (OA) agreements now cover nearly three quarters of European Union (EU) countries (74% or 20 of the 27), enabling all researchers at affiliated universities to publish their work openly and benefit from greater reach and impact¹. In 2026, Springer Nature has renewed agreements with national consortia in Czechia, Greece, Finland – reflecting the sustained demand for, and value offered by these agreements.

Springer Nature is also continuing to further the wider European transition to OA, most recently with a four-year renewal with swissuniversities. This sits alongside a new national agreement in Iceland, and the renewal of its long-standing agreement in the UK.

Carolyn Honour, Chief Commercial Officer at Springer Nature, said:

“The continued signing and renewal of our agreements reflects not only the strong demand from the research community, but the impact that they continue to have. While the transition will not look the same everywhere, the progress achieved in Europe shows that locally tailored approaches can deliver a scalable, sustainable shift—one that offers real impact for the community.”

Beyond Europe, 2026 has also seen renewals and expansions in many markets across the globe, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and the US.

Springer Nature now has over 85 Transformative Agreements globally, covering researchers from over 4,400 institutions. Since 2015, these agreements have enabled the publication of more than 300,000 OA articles, delivering real benefits for researchers with:

Greater visibility: OA articles see 6x more downloads, with over 737 million downloads (2019–2024)

Increased impact: Articles published via these agreements receive 1.6x more citations on average

Wider social reach: 62% of Springer Nature’s SDG-related research was published open access in 2025

More on the publishers’ TAs and wider open access strategy and reach can be read in its latest Annual Report or 2025 OA report

¹ Springer Nature has OA agreements with 20 out of the 27 countries in the EU, accounting for 74% of all EU countries – all are national deals apart from the institutional led deal in Malta.