Seeking funding from SCOSS -- input from LG members
Dear Members of the Open Science Community,
A year into an important initiative to help shore up vital, non-commercial services within the Open Science community; the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) is now beginning our search for new potential candidates to help fund. If you are a non-profit essential infrastructure for Open Access or Open Science of international significance and are concerned about your sustainability, this mail is for you.
SCOSS launched in late 2017 as a response to a growing concern over the security of the infrastructure underpinning Open Science today. The intent? To ensure that key services like the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and SHERPA/RoMEO, services that aid the scientific and scholarly community in the accessing and sharing of research, have the solvency to exist as well as innovate and evolve well into the future.
In short, this is how the initiative works: SCOSS provides the framework and funding structure, vetting potential candidates based on a defined set of criteria. The most eligible of those that pass the vigorous evaluation are then presented to the global OA/OS community of stakeholders with an appeal for monetary support in a crowdfunding-style approach.
To date, more than 750 thousand Euros have been pledged to help fund DOAJ and SHERPA/RoMEO, the first services selected in our pilot funding call.
We’re reaching out to you now as we are preparing to pre-screen services for eligibility for SCOSS’s second funding cycle; perhaps you are with a SCOSS relevant organisation, well-established but concerned about your sustainability. At this point, the board is seeking to identify a field of such potential candidates to vet; among the basic qualifications: eligible services must have a non-profit status in the country in which they are based and/or be affiliated with or owned by a research or educational institution.
Services that are interested in seeking SCOSS funding are invited to send us a pre-application as a formal expression of interest in applying. The following information should be included:
Name of the person applying on behalf of the service/organisation and contact details
Organisation name
Year the organisation was established
Legal status of the organisation (e.g. non-profit)
In short descriptive form, the organisation’s aim
A description of the organisation’s financial situation and how SCOSS might be able to support efforts toward gaining sustainability (500 words max)
DSpace North American User Group Meeting discussion
Texas Digital Library plans to host a DSpace North America Users Group Meeting in Austin, Texas in February 2019.
California has implemented a ban on travel to states with discriminatory laws. Because of anti-LGBT laws passed in 2017, Texas is on the list of banned states, and as a result, it’s unlikely that DSpace users from California institutions would be able to attend.
Several library organizations have chosen not to hold events in Texas -- both as a result of the ban and out of principle -- or have faced some level of controversy for hosting events in Texas.
DuraSpace has historically allowed projects to make their own decisions on issues like this one, provided they abide by the DuraSpace Code of Conduct. That code states that DuraSpace is “an international community dedicated to providing a welcoming, inclusive and positive experience for all members of our community,” but does not refer explicitly to event hosting locations.
There is urgency to release DSpace 7 and ensure that the enhancements are effectively promoted to the community in order to reinvigorate DSpace’s reputation.
2) Seeking funding from SCOSS -- input from LG members
Duraspace will be submitting an Expression of Interest.
3) DSpace North American User Group Meeting discussion
Based on the California ban on travel, the Leadership Group decided to reach out to the community to see if another institution would like to host a User Group Meeting, or perhaps several institutions could host a number of meetings later in the year. This would spread the opportunity to attend a User Group Meeting to other states, not specified.
If no other American institution(s) step forward, then the Texas Digital Library would move forward with their planning. We would have communicated to the community an understanding of the issue and the possible ramifications on attendance of the User Group Meeting.
4) Updates and next steps
South America (Michele)
Tremendous interest in South America, including Brazilian User Group meeting with 100 people in the room and 300 and 250 people in Peru for meetings within a couple of months. Events and slack channels in Portuguese and Spanish facilitate the sharing of ideas.
Germany (Pascal)
The 5th DSpace Anwendertreffen 2018 had almost 100 attendees to discuss DSpace and DSpace-CRIS over 2 days.
Next Steps
Our November agenda is almost set. The Future Roadmap of DSpace will take 30-40 minutes at the next meeting.
ACTION ITEMS
1) Discussions on Priorities and Task for SG
Before COB October 10, 2018 (Wednesday) Leaders are to add/edit/suggest tasks to the SG under the top 3 priorities that we've agreed to in the Google Doc (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qBWUWDccNh1Vke9r0z8tAZ9M9COoI0nDcr-5lOFjZ8c/edit). Please let the group know if there are questions or other ideas. Salwa will send the document to the Chair of the SG to discuss at their next meeting.
2) Seeking funding from SCOSS -- input from LG members
Questions/concerns should be sent to the leadership group so that Erin and Tim can incorporate our feedback into the Expression of Interest and subsequent application.
3) DSpace North American User Group Meeting discussion
Salwa will put together a document that summarizes Georgetown's experience and the level of effort required to host a User Group Meeting
Salwa, Erin, Tim and Mich will work on draft language for a request from Duraspace Leadership to ask for other User Group Meeting host(s).
Kristi will write a letter to inform Texas Legislators of the financial opportunities that may have been lost.
4) Next Steps
We already have a strategic plan for 2015-2018 here. Please review the plan before our meeting, if possible.
represents who will be taking notes for a given meeting. It rotates after each meeting to the next person in the attendee list.