Contribute to the DSpace Development Fund

The newly established DSpace Development Fund supports the development of new features prioritized by DSpace Governance. For a list of planned features see the fund wiki page.

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March 2022; Updated March 2023 and April 2023 to reflect features added via this fund and additional anticipated features; Updated October 2023

In March 2022, DSpace launched the DSpace Development Fund (DDF) to build on previous fundraising efforts that directly supported paid development for DSpace.

About the DSpace Development Fund

The DSpace Development Fund builds on a successful fundraising campaign that began in 2020 to accelerate development for version 7.0, a major milestone in the history of DSpace.  Largely through generous contributions from member institutions, DSpace was able to invest more than $300,000 in targeted development to enable the accelerated release of DSpace 7 in August 2021 and several subsequent point releases. We gratefully recognize the institutions who generously contributed financially to support the DSpace 7 staged release program, and individuals who devoted time to fundraising.   

For nearly 20 years, DSpace relied exclusively on volunteers to contribute code for DSpace.  To ensure our ambitious 7.0 goals could be met, DSpace governance approved a plan to directly fund development work for DSpace 7. By funding the development work, DSpace Governance could more predictably stage releases, and better maintain community oversight of the development outcomes. While contributions from volunteers are very welcome and help tremendously with the development of DSpace, the funded development work brought DSpace to a completely new level.

Features and Functionality Supported by the DSpace Development Fund

Contributions to the DSpace Development Fund help support features prioritized by DSpace Leadership. Features and functionality we are seeking to fund include the following:

  • ORCID integration - Added
  • Tools for importing metadata from arXiv, CiNii, Crossref, PubMed, Scopus, OpenAIRE, etc - Added
  • Sherpa Romeo integration - Added
  • Full support of configurable workflows -  Added
  • Search support for hierarchical controlled vocabularies -  Added
  • Supervision orders (like JSPUI) -  Added
  • Disabling self-registration of users -  Added
  • Full support for custom workflow steps -  Added
  • Managing email subscriptions (to collections) -  Added
  • Context-specific help (like JSPUI) -  Added

New in 7.6

  • Advanced Policy management - Added
  • Item counts for Communities/Collections - Added
  • Primary Bitstream support - Added
  • Signposting and other interoperability technologies recommended by COAR's Next Generation Repositories project - Signposting Added

New for Fall 2023

  • Accessibility Audit and Remediation

And these are just some of the features we planned to include into DSpace. For more details, you can also see our development priorities and track progress via the GitHub boards where you can see all tiers and release boards. 

Are you interested in supporting the DSpace Development Fund? 

Here are some ways you or your institution can support DDF:

  • The best way to support DSpace is still through membership. A large portion of membership fees go directly into the development of DSpace. If your organization is not a member yet, please join us!
  • If your organization is already a member, increase your membership fee one time only or on a recurring basis. We'll count the increase toward the DDF.
  • If your organization can't commit to membership but would like to support DSpace development, you can make a one-time contribution of any size to the DDF.
  • If you would like to make an individual contribution (outside of your organization), you can make a one-time contribution to the DDF. 

Contact us at DSpaceDonations@lyrasis.org if you would like to know more and contribute.

DSpace continues to grow and evolve to support open repositories because of generous contributions of time and resources by the global DSpace community. Please consider contributing to help us maintain this critical development work and to enhance the software you use.

Thank you to our Funding Institutions

DSpace is excited to share that since we launched the DSpace Development Fund, members of the worldwide DSpace community have contributed to supporting continued funded development for DSpace, the software of choice for academic, non-profit, and commercial organizations building open digital repositories.

These contributions directly support software development of key features prioritized by the DSpace community.

DSpace gratefully acknowledges the following organizations for their contributions to the DSpace Development Fund.

Funding for Enhanced Accessibility in DSpace 7 (Fall 2023)

Previous Contributors

  • Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin - Medical Library
  • DuraSpace Community Supported Programs (Lyrasis)
  • Freie Universität Berlin, Universitätsbibliothek
  • Georgia Tech Library
  • Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
  • Indiana University, Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI)
  • National Library of Finland
  • The Ohio State University Libraries
  • Technische Universität Berlin
  • Technische Universität Hamburg
  • Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt
  • Universitätsbibliothek Kassel
  • Universität Konstanz
  • Universität des Saarlandes
  • University of Arizona Libraries
  • University of Cambridge
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Kansas 
  • Virginia Tech University Libraries


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