In January 2023, OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe, and COAR unveiled a joint strategy to strengthen the European repository network. This aim is to further strengthen the open science landscape in Europe by reinforcing and enhancing repositories across Europe by emphasizing their value, spreading best practices, and supporting the establishment of national networks.

Open Consultation – European Repository Strategy

As the first step, a comprehensive survey of the European repository landscape was conducted from February to March 2023. The survey revealed that European repositories collectively acquire, preserve, and provide open access to tens, if not hundreds, of millions of valuable research outputs, serving as critical, non-profit infrastructure in the European open science landscape. However, the survey also identified several areas needing improvement.

Specifically, repositories face three primary challenges:

1. Maintaining up-to-date, highly functional software platforms.
2. Implementing consistent and comprehensive best practices in metadata, preservation, and usage statistics.
3. Achieving appropriate visibility in the scholarly ecosystem.

Crafting a Vision for European Repositories

Based on these findings, it was agreed to prepare a position paper outlining our collective vision for the future of repositories in Europe. To achieve this, we are seeking input from various communities to gather insights and feedback. This open consultation is specifically designed to collect input from a variety of stakeholder communities, and your participation is vital.

We can’t do it alone—we need YOUR insights and feedback to shape this vision.

Your valuable contributions will help to inform the initial draft of the position paper, which will be refined through focus groups. Together, we can build a stronger, more connected European repository network.