Invest in Open Infrastructure

IOI's Director of Programs, Katherine Skinner, is attending the Information Stewardship Forum 2026, hosted by the Internet Archive in San Francisco (March 18–20).

The Forum brings together librarians, archivists, technologists, and policymakers to tackle one of the most urgent questions in research today: how do we preserve and protect public access to government information when the systems we've relied on are under threat?

If you're at the event, Katherine would love to connect and chat!

When does a financial warning sign become a real risk for an organization?

At Invest in Open Infrastructure, we built a financial risk monitoring framework to help us move beyond traditional reporting and toward clearer decision-making.

We've penned an article explores how we designed indicators across runway, pipeline health, and sustainability — and what we learned along the way.

Read more:
https://investinopen.org/blog/when-to-act-building-a-financial-risk-monitoring-framework/

University libraries are central to the future of open scholarship — and today we’re proud to welcome Ghent University to IOI’s Sustaining Circle.

This commitment reinforces their long-standing support for open publishing and the shared infrastructure that makes research more accessible worldwide. Together, we are investing in community-led systems that prioritize academic values over profit and help build a stronger, more coordinated open ecosystem.

Read more: https://investinopen.org/blog/ghent-university-joins-the-ioi-sustaining-circle/

Library consortia are moving beyond shared collections toward infrastructure-based strategies that strengthen open systems. At ER&L Fest later this week, IOI's Lauren Collister will share findings from the ORBIT project on how consortia can use collective power to host platforms, negotiate memberships, and counter market concentration.

🗓 March 4, 10:10–11:00
🎙 Moderated by J. Michael Thompson

Register to attend in person or online: https://site.pheedloop.com/event/ERL26/home

A must-read report on how small scientific publishers - a critical stakeholder group in scholarly communication - are approaching the transition to open access publishing https://zenodo.org/records/17950438

When scientific datasets vanish because access depends on a single point of failure, it's a global problem. IOI has secured funding from Global Impact to coordinate resilient infrastructure solutions — mapping preservation efforts, tackling design questions at scale, and building the investment case for open infrastructure that protects irreplaceable knowledge. We're complementing the critical work already underway across the ecosystem.

More on this project: https://investinopen.org/blog/investing-in-resilient-infrastructure-to-safeguard-scientific-knowledge/

How does an organization know when a financial warning sign needs action — and what kind of action?

We built a framework to help us find out. Our new blogpsot discusses how we moved from financial reporting to financial decision-making, what we learned, and what we're offering to help others do the same.

Relevant if you work in open infrastructure, nonprofit finance, or fund organizations like ours.
https://investinopen.org/blog/when-to-act-building-a-financial-risk-monitoring-framework/

#OpenInfrastructure #Sustainability

IOI's Senior Researcher, Sarah Lippincott will be in attendance at the International Digital Curation Conference this week in Zagreb, Croatia.

Sarah will be excited to shed more light on IOI's ongoing research on the artificial intelligence and the use of open infrastructures in data curation. Please feel free to reach out to her in-person or on LinkedIn to meet up!

Excited to share that Katherine Skinner, our Director of Programs, will next week join a stellar panel at NISO Plus 2026 on “Sustaining Open Research: Shared Infrastructure, Shared Responsibility.”

She’ll be in conversation with Ravi Venkataramani , Rob Day, and Nicholas Steinwachs , to explore how the scholarly community can forge practical collaborations to enhance research infrastructure sustainability.

Find out more about the session : https://nisoplusglobalonline.cadmore.media/NISO-2026

IOI’s Director of Programs, Katherine Skinner, was recently featured in the terrific The Digital Shift newsletter by Rosalyn Metz. In a thoughtful and wide-ranging interview, Katherine challenges the scarcity narrative in open infrastructure, arguing that the money has always been there — what’s been missing is strategy and community coordination.

Read more: https://rosalynmetz.substack.com/p/the-illusion-of-scarcity-the-power

Institutions spend millions on corporate platforms whose commitment lasts only as long as profits do.

Meanwhile, open, community-run systems like @hello@hcommons.social struggle for stable funding.

That tension isn’t unique — it’s the reality for much of open infrastructure.

The real question is: Can we afford not to invest in the systems scholars rely on every day which ensure they control over their work and data, with governance rooted in participation, not profit?

https://investinopen.org/blog/building-the-commons-how-knowledge-commons-is-navigating-challenges-through-community-and-collaboration/

How do we build a truly global, resilient research ecosystem? By investing in the networks that power it.

Thanks to a US$500,000 contribution from Lyrasis, the IOI Fund for Network Adoption has surpassed 80% of its US$6M goal. This support accelerates adoption of open infrastructure and helps onboard additional research networks in Africa and Latin America, advancing research that is open, collaborative, and equitable by design. https://investinopen.org/blog/invest-in-open-infrastructure-announces-us-500-000-contribution-from-lyrasis-for-the-ioi-fund-for-network-adoption/

At IOI, we’ve always championed open infrastructure being community-centred.

For the IOI Fund for Network Adoption, we leaned on the deep technical expertise and lived experiences of our global community to identify projects best positioned for long-term impact.

In our recent blog post, we share how we tapped into this collective expertise and the key lessons we learned from evaluating 100+ applications from networks across the world. https://investinopen.org/blog/designing-for-impact-lessons-from-the-ioi-fund-for-network-adoption/

Big news for open research infrastructure!

A US$500,000 commitment from Lyrasis brings the IOI Fund for Network Adoption to over US$5M raised. This growing coalition is supporting regional research networks in Africa and Latin America to adopt and scale open infrastructure — strengthening collaboration, resilience, and equity across the global research ecosystem.

Learn more about the partnership and the Fund: https://investinopen.org/blog/invest-in-open-infrastructure-announces-us-500-000-contribution-from-lyrasis-for-the-ioi-fund-for-network-adoption/

From its beginnings at the Modern Language Association to becoming a core service at Michigan State University, @hello@hcommons.social has grown by focusing on what scholars need: a place for nontraditional research, control over their work and data, and governance rooted in participation, not profit.

Read more: https://investinopen.org/blog/building-the-commons-how-knowledge-commons-is-navigating-challenges-through-community-and-collaboration/

How can library consortia provide stability amid funding cuts, vendor consolidation, and capacity crises?

At the @cni@mastodon.social Fall 2025 Meeting, IOI’s Katherine Skinner hosted a discussion with Jill Morris (PALCI) and Kirsten Leonard (PALNI) exploring how consortia can leverage their inherent strengths to address resource scarcity and reduce service disruptions through a “network of networks” approach.

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEO5in6Ncgc

We’re excited to share that IOI’s @emmyft@mastodon.cloud will be at CHAOSScon Europe tomorrow!

Open source practitioners from across the ecosystem will come together to explore what makes communities thrive, from community health to sustainability and impact.

If you’re attending, Emmy would love to connect and chat about IOI’s work on open infrastructure and open source sustainability.

Learn more and follow the event online or in person:
https://chaoss.community/chaosscon-2026-eu/

Our very own Sarah Lippincott will be in attendance at the @swheritage@mstdn.social 2026 Symposium and Summit in Paris tomorrow.

Sarah will be delighted to share more details on IOI’s research on open research software as well as our ongoing open infrastructure projects. Please feel free to reach out to her in-person or on Linkedin to meet up!

Click here for more details on the event and how you can join online: https://www.softwareheritage.org/2025/11/25/software_heritage_2026_symposium_summit/