IOI is delighted to welcome Lyrasis as the newest contributor to the IOI Fund for Network Adoption, with a generous commitment of US$500,000. The Fund was designed to accelerate the shared adoption, implementation, and expansion of open data infrastructure to enable collaborative research, with a particular emphasis on Africa and Latin America.
Hitting the ground running
Last November, we announced the inaugural grantees of the IOI Fund for Network Adoption — LA Referencia and UbuntuNet Alliance, two leading regional research networks in Latin America and Africa respectively. Grantees will each receive up to US$1.5M in funding over the next three years to advance the adoption of open infrastructure and strengthen regional research ecosystems, with the respective projects commencing this month. In addition to funding, IOI staff will work in collaboration with the project teams to provide tailored governance support, sustainability planning, strategic guidance, and operational support to ensure long-term impact and resilience of the projects. Repositories are a central feature in both grantee projects and Lyrasis’ support for the Fund will be essential in optimizing their impact. Lyrasis is the organizational home to community-supported technologies like DSpace and serves a rich network of universities, institutions and cultural heritage organizations globally.
“The core of our work as an organization is helping cultural heritage institutions increase their impact while reducing costs through the use of open technologies, content services, and community-based solutions,” said John Wilkin, Lyrasis’ CEO. “We are excited to work with IOI to support the Fund for Network Adoption because it builds on our deep alignment in a belief that open infrastructures are essential in democratising knowledge.”
The proposal process revealed the scale of the challenge: US$148 million in unmet need across research networks. The Fund addresses this through a distinctive model: South-South peer collaboration between networks, coupled with hands-on support on sustainability planning and governance.
“Lyrasis’ leadership in and deep commitment to supporting community-based solutions and open technologies such as DSpace make them an exciting contributor to the IOI Fund,” said Kaitlin Thaney, IOI’s Executive Director. “Lyrasis’ contribution will go a long way to meeting the enormous demand for knowledge sharing infrastructure at a global level and community-hosted solutions that empower the local research community, tailored to their needs and context.”
A coalition of mission-aligned actors shaping the future of research
The Lyrasis contribution brings the total amount raised to over US$5M — over 80% towards our goal of US$6M. Lyrasis joins other organizations like Wellcome, Digital Science, the Kahle Austin Foundation, Arcadia, EBSCO, and the Karger Publishers Foundation in the shared vision of strengthening the global open research ecosystem through the IOI Fund for Network Adoption.
This coalition brings together supporters who believe research infrastructure should be open, equitable, and sustainable: philanthropies, mission-aligned research technology companies, and private donors who recognize that investing in open infrastructure is essential to enhance global participation in research.
If your foundation or organization is interested in supporting open infrastructure adoption, whether in specific regions, around particular technologies, or focused on certain communities, we'd love to have a conversation. We have a current, deep understanding of the landscape and a strong, global pool of networks ready for partnership. Please contact Emma Green, IOI’s Director of Development, at emma@investinopen.org.