Jisc becomes OPERAS core member

Jisc has joined the OPERAS Research Infrastructure as a core member, representing the United Kingdom. Core members represent and help organize the national activities of their countries. At the same time, they have equal voting rights. The OPERAS core group has unanimously decided on Jisc as the new core member for the United Kingdom.

Jisc will be particularly involved in the OPERAS Open Access Business Models Working Group, drawing from its experiences and the work of Jisc Collections, which will be the contact point for this working group.

“I am very pleased to be joining the OPERAS Core Group on behalf of Jisc. As a trusted neutral organisation in the UK, many of the UK members of OPERAS are based at Jisc’s member institutions. In addition, the work of OPERAS fits in well with our current activity supporting a transition to Open Access monographs.”

Jisc is a not-for-profit providing the UK’s national research and education network, Janet, and technology solutions for its members – colleges, universities and research centres. It is funded by the UK higher and further education and research funding bodies and member institutions.

Jisc does three main things for its members:

• Operates and develops the super-fast and secure Janet Network and its built-in cyber security protection.
• Helps save time and money by negotiating sector-wide deals with IT vendors and commercial publishers.
• Provides trusted advice and practical assistance on digital technology.

Jisc’s vision is for the UK to be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world.

 “We welcome and are grateful to Jisc for its strategic decision to join the OPERAS Core Group where it will represent the United Kingdom. This move is particularly important as OPERAS counts 6 partners from the UK, amongst the most active in the development of innovative scholarly communication services for the social sciences and humanities. Scientific communities rely on research infrastructures to provide stable and steady services in spite of any kind of turbulence or uncertainty that can happen at other levels. For that reason, OPERAS and Jisc will work together to make sure that free circulation of knowledge across borders will continue to be a reality, in Europe and worldwide.”

The OPERAS core group will next meet in Marseille on 5 June 2019 to discuss and decide on OPERAS future strategic governance. The research infrastructure is currently preparing a transition to a legal entity as an international non profit-making association (AISBL). It currently has 40 partner organizations and is coordinated by 9 strategic core members:

• Croatia (University of Zadar)
• France (OpenEdition)
• Germany (Max Weber Stiftung)
• Greece (National Documentation Centre)
• Italy (University of Turin)
• Netherlands (OAPEN)
• Poland (Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences)
• Portugal (University of Coimbra)
• United Kingdom (Jisc)

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