New open access database announced in the UK

On Tuesday I mentioned that the Public Library of Science (PLoS) is providing open access scientific publishing in the US. Now the Guardian reports that UK-based Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation and the Arthritis Campaign are creating a database to provide open access to the research they fund. The foundations are also including funding in their research grants to pay for publishing services.UK PubMed Central will use the same software as the US version of PubMed, which is provided by the National Library of Medicine.The open access movement is gaining strength in Europe. According to the Wellcome Foundation, "the public is being 'double billed': 90 percent of research is paid for from public funds, then publicly funded libraries have to pay to see the results."