OPERAS Rated as Key Research Infrastructure within the European Union

With enthusiasm, we share the announcement made by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Committee on June 30th that OPERAS will be added to the ESFRI Roadmap 2021 (https://www.esfri.eu/latest-esfri-news/new-ris-roadmap-2021). A milestone in the development of the OPERAS infrastructure, this decision confirms that OPERAS is officially recognized by the 27 member states of the European Union as a key research infrastructure with excellent scientific value and with sufficient maturity. As part of the ESFRI Roadmap 2021, OPERAS will be one of 11 infrastructures slated to make significant contributions to addressing European scientific challenges. ESFRI is a strategic instrument to develop the scientific integration of Europe and to strengthen its international outreach; being selected for the ESFRI Roadmap is a high-level recognition for a European Research Infrastructure (RI).

OPERAS, supporting open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the European Research Area, has the mission to coordinate and federate resources in Europe to efficiently address the scholarly communication needs of European researchers in the field of SSH. OPERAS is already established as an emerging infrastructure in SSH, and is proud to be rated high, especially on scientific excellence and pan-european relevance. 

To be recognized as mature enough will allow OPERAS to further coordinate SSH in the field of scholarly communication and open the opportunity to further develop its business model and community-led governance scheme. This is a significant step not only for OPERAS but most importantly for open scholarly communication in Europe.

The OPERAS co-coordinator Suzanne Dumouchel (Huma-Num) describes the role of this step for the future of the OPERAS RI:

Being part of the ESFRI roadmap 2021 makes the OPERAS community very proud. But first, it gives responsibility to us. We now have the necessary environment to realise our mission, which is to support Open Scholarly Communication practices in the field of SSH. And we will live up to this commitment. For us, it is the beginning of a new adventure!

OPERAS is looking forward to reaching out to more countries to broaden its diversity and  expand its efforts in increasing bibliodiversity in the social sciences and humanities as roadmap for the future.

The members of the OPERAS Executive Assembly have been deeply involved in the preparation for the OPERAS application. Marina Angelaki (Chair of the OPERAS Executive Assembly, National Documentation Center, EKT) commented on the announcement:

The inclusion of OPERAS to the ESFRI Roadmap strengthens further the European commitment to making open access a reality in SSH. We are excited with this new opportunity and look forward to working together towards this common goal. We are also very proud as this success lies in the work of a dynamic, vivid and supportive environment, now ready to embark on this new journey.

For more information please contact Pierre Mounier (pierre.mounier[a]operas-eu.org).