Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) works to increase the investment in and adoption of open infrastructure to further equitable access to and participation in research. We do this by providing actionable, evidence-based guidance and tools to institutions and funders of open infrastructure, and piloting funding mechanisms to catalyse investment and diversify funding sources for open infrastructure.

Our approach and strategy

Our current approach focuses on three core programmes:

1. Data Room: tools for decision makers
   Evidence-based tools and products to support decision makers in adopting, developing, and investing in open infrastructure, including actionable reports, dashboards, and our new tool that enables users to discover and evaluate open infrastructure services. Learn more about IOI’s NSF-funded investigation into “reasonable costs” for public access to US federally funded research and scientific data.
   
2. Funding Pilots: catalysing investment
   Research-driven funding pilots to diversify the sources and mechanisms for funding open infrastructure and ensure a healthy, resilient, sustainable future for research and scholarship. Learn more about our recent Open Infrastructure Fund and the new IOI Fund.
   
3. Strategic Support: tailored application of research
   Targeted engagements with infrastructure providers, funders, and institutions to implement IOI research recommendations, further adoption of open infrastructure, and build the resilience and sustainability of the knowledge sector. Learn more about IOI’s engagements with the Catalyst Project and with arXiv.

Across these programmes, we focus on infrastructure that furthers open, immediate access to data and research publications, in line with UNESCO’s Open Science Declaration, the Nelson memo, G7 Communique, and EU Council conclusions.

The three core programmes build on our current strategic plan, which outlines our goals and objectives for FY2021-2024. Please see our brochure below for an introduction to our work. (Last updated: June 8, 2023.)

Defining "Open Infrastructure"

• By “infrastructure” we mean the sets of services, protocols, standards and software that the academic ecosystem needs in order to perform its functions throughout the research lifecycle — from the earliest phases of research, collaboration and experimentation through data collection and storage, data organization, data analysis and computation, authorship, submission, review and annotation, copyediting, publishing, archiving, citation, discovery and more.
• "Open infrastructure" is the narrower sets of services, protocols, standards and software that can empower communities to collectively build the systems and infrastructures that deliver new improved collective benefits without restrictions, and for a healthy global interrelated infrastructure system.

History of IOI

Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) arose as a concept and coalition from the 2018 Joint Roadmap for Open Science Tools (JROST) conference, held in Berkeley, CA. That event brought together over 86 participants from over 50 organizations in the open research sector, including developers, institutional leaders, publishers, and funders.

Between August 2018 and March 2020, IOI existed solely as a volunteer effort, led by a 20-person Steering Committee of leaders in this sector.

In late 2019, the effort secured initial funding from Schmidt Futures and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and was established as a fiscally sponsored project of Code for Science & Society (CS&S), a leading 501(c)3 supporting the public interest technology space. IOI’s inaugural Executive Director (Kaitlin Thaney) was hired in March 2020.

Read more about our organizational history, staff, governance, and funding here in our Orientation Packet (updated annually).