Status: 2025 report published
Partners: Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative
Team members: Full IOI team, led by Gail Steinhart and Sarah Lippincott

Overview

Through the annual State of Open Infrastructure report, IOI aims to surface trends, patterns, issues and gaps in investment in and adoption of open infrastructure for research and scholarship, in order to identify areas that may benefit from change or intervention. We also tell success stories of open infrastructures that demonstrate and elevate their value and viability. 

The 2025 State of Open Infrastructure report contains exclusive data, trends and insights on key issues related to open infrastructure characteristics, funding, policy, and community health. The report presents valuable insights from interviews with leading experts across diverse stakeholder groups in open infrastructure investment and adoption globally, tailored research by the IOI team, and thorough trend analysis on topical issues related to open infrastructure. Given the turbulent stretch that research is facing globally, we also provide some recommendations that stakeholders can implement which we believe will contribute to a resilient and sustainable research and scholarship ecosystem worldwide.

Explore the State of Open Infrastructure 2025
Download the report

State of Open Infrastructure 2025 Key findings

  • From an analysis of over $550M in open infrastructure funding from 2001-2024, governments are a critical source of funding for open infrastructures. Given the recent (and ongoing) research funding cuts, there is a need for coordinated action to plug the deficit caused by the cuts in government spending on research in the US and beyond. Explore the grant funding chapter.
  • From our analysis of open infrastructures listed in Infra Finder, there is a high level of reliance between open infrastructures which is a strength but can also be a weakness. Merging overlapping infrastructure solutions or strategically sunsetting redundant tools may strengthen the ecosystem, making it easier for users to make choices and infrastructure organizations to build resilient business models. Explore the characteristics of selected open infrastructures chapter.
  • Policy is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to furthering public access. There are technological and socio-cultural needs and dynamics that must be addressed alongside policy. In this chapter, we unpack some of these adjacent yet important costs to consider to enhance compliance with public access mandates. Explore the cost of public access chapter.

Research outputs