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The European University Association organised the webinar ‘Towards a strategic vision for open repositories in Europe’ on 3 December at 15.00-16.30 CET.
The availability of open repositories plays a crucial role in democratising access to knowledge and research outputs. By ensuring that data, publications and other forms of research results are accessible, repositories act as key enablers of the transition to Open Science at institutional, national, European and global levels. However, several questions remain regarding their implementation. What is the state of play of open repositories in Europe? To what extent are they are accessible to researchers, institutions and the wider public? Are they sufficiently interconnected or are there strategies in place to ensure their integration at a European and global scale?
The online event addressed challenges, opportunities and future directions for open repositories in Europe. Results from the report ‘Current state and future directions for open repositories in Europe’, published in December 2023 by OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe, and COAR, were presented to set the context for the discussion. Experts from European and institutional repositories were also invited to share their insights and experiences on challenges and the evolving needs of their repositories. Participants had the opportunity to discuss strategies for enhancing collaboration and integration among repositories, with the goal of building a more robust open repository infrastructure across Europe.
Speakers
Moderator: Caroline Schober, member of the EUA Expert Group on Open Science
This is the third event in a new EUA webinar series ‘The future of scholarly communication’, which follows the 2021 webinar series on the future of scholarly publishing. The series will address the rapid technological advancements and evolving scholarly practices which are reshaping the future of scholarly communication.
As detailed in the EUA Open Science Agenda 2025, the scholarly ecosystem is indeed moving at an unprecedented pace. The sheer volume of scholarly publications continues to rise exponentially, making it increasingly challenging for researchers to keep abreast of new developments in their fields. While a growing number of publications are openly accessible through various models such as diamond, green, or gold open access, a significant portion of research remains locked behind subscription walls, hindering knowledge dissemination. Moreover, scholarly communication extends beyond traditional research articles to encompass a diverse array of outputs, including books, software, and code. Efforts are being made to open the whole research process and bring it closer to society. This diversity underscores the need for innovative approaches to dissemination and access across various formats.
As universities navigate this landscape of change, they play a pivotal role in shaping the future trajectory of knowledge ownership, dissemination and academic discourse.
The recordings of the previous webinars of the series are now available. Please note that you can access them only if you have registered for at least one of the webinars.
Useful links:
Current state and future directions for open repositories in Europe
EUA Open Science Agenda 2025
