Wilma van Wezenbeek, director of the TU Delft Library, will succeed Robert van der Vooren as Open Access Project Leader at the VSNU with effect from 1 January 2018. In recent years Van Wezenbeek has spearheaded national and international efforts to promote open access and open science. At the beginning of 2017, she was commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to lead the project team that wrote the National Open Science Plan. She has been involved in the VSNU project since its launch as a liaison for the VSNU and the consortium of libraries (UKB). Wilma has also been a member of a number of negotiating teams. Before she stepped into the library world, Van Wezenbeek gained a great deal of experience in the publishing industry. She will lead the project alongside her current position at the TU Delft.

Robert van der Vooren, who was appointed Open Access Project Leader in 2014, will stay connected to the project in 2018 as an adviser. He will combine his advisory duties with work for Radboud University in the area of open science, among others. While working with the VSNU, Van der Vooren developed a unique Dutch approach to open access which has yielded impressive negotiation results with publishers. In the space of three years, Dutch universities have published considerably more in open access. Internationally, the Netherlands is regarded as a model country. Van der Vooren will wrap up his time at the VSNU once open access and open science are formally adopted as standards in the recently published coalition agreement.