LERU expresses its support to Open Access as a way to explore new models of scholarly communication and the dissemination of research outputs emanating from researchers. The LERU statement elaborates on the benefits of Open Access and the Green and Gold routes to it. The role that university strategies, research funders and institutional mandates play in developing Open Access is also presented in the statement. LERU’s position on Open Access is in line with the EC’s recommendations on access to and preservation of scientific information and further elaborated in the Roadmap “Towards Open Access” that LERU published in June 2011.