The Brits have a deal with Elsevier, “for a significant reduction” on current institutional spends 

JISC (the Joint Information Systems Committee as was), which handles data and digital content for UK HE has agreed on terms with for-profit journal giant Elsevier. It appears UK research will now be free to read from publication in Elsevier journals. What this means for article processing charges and university subscription packages is not clear in the announcement CMM could access. However, the fundamental is that “journal subscription budgets (are) converted to pay for a suite of open access publishing services.”

This appears broadly in-line with a range of agreements reached with minor through major publishers by the Council of Australian University Librarians, which make content by researchers at member universities free to read without publishing charges (CMM January 21 2022).

And it creates a question – if Elsevier will do a deal in the UK, will it do one here?