International membership association for open repositories, advancing open access infrastructure, open research data standards, and EOSC governance across Europe.
COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories) is an international membership association that represents repository networks and research institutions committed to open access and open science infrastructure. Their core work involves developing governance frameworks, interoperability standards, and advocacy positions that allow distributed research repositories to function as a coherent ecosystem across borders. Within the H2020 programme, they contributed to the OpenAIRE infrastructure by monitoring open access publication outcomes and advancing open scholarship practices at European scale. They bring community legitimacy and policy reach to consortia — not laboratory capacity, but the collective voice of a global repository network.
Both OpenAIRE2020 and OpenAIRE-Advance list 'Open Access Infrastructure' and 'Research Information System' as core keywords, confirming sustained engagement across the full project timeline.
OpenAIRE2020 specifically includes 'Monitoring Open Access Scientific Outcomes' and 'Gold Open Access Pilot' as keywords, indicating a dedicated role in compliance and impact measurement.
OpenAIRE-Advance introduced 'Open Science', 'Open Scholarship', and 'Open Research Data' as keywords, reflecting a broadened scope beyond pure infrastructure toward governance and norms.
OpenAIRE-Advance explicitly includes 'European Open Science Cloud' and 'EOSC' keywords, marking COAR's entry into the EOSC governance and alignment space.
OpenAIRE-Advance introduced 'Open Access Monitor' and 'Open Science Observatory' keywords, pointing to tooling and measurement infrastructure for tracking open science adoption.
In their first H2020 project (2015–2018), COAR's focus was operational and measurement-oriented: monitoring open access publication outcomes, piloting Gold OA mandates, and supporting research information systems within the OpenAIRE2020 framework. By 2018–2021, the keyword set expanded significantly — 'Open Scholarship', 'Open Research Data', 'Open Science Observatory', and 'EOSC' entered the picture, signalling a shift from tracking compliance to shaping the broader open science ecosystem. The trajectory is clear: COAR moved from measuring open access to building the governance and tooling layer for Europe's open science ambitions.
COAR is positioning as a standards and governance actor within the EOSC ecosystem, making them a relevant partner for any project seeking community legitimacy and interoperability policy expertise rather than technical development capacity.
COAR has never led an H2020 project — both participations were as consortium members, consistent with their identity as an association representing others rather than an institution executing research. They operate in very large, international consortia: just two projects generated connections to 65 distinct partners across 35 countries, reflecting the pan-European and global nature of open science infrastructure initiatives. Working with COAR means gaining access to their membership network and policy voice, not a technical delivery team.
Through only two projects, COAR has connected with 65 distinct organizations across 35 countries — an unusually broad network for such a small project portfolio, reflecting the inherently international character of open science infrastructure consortia. Their network spans European research institutions, national repository networks, and open access advocacy bodies worldwide.
COAR is one of the few H2020 participants that enters a consortium not as a research executor but as the representative voice of a global repository community — a distinction that grants credibility and outreach reach that no single university can replicate. Based in Germany but operating internationally, they bridge European infrastructure projects like OpenAIRE and EOSC with repository networks across North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. For consortium builders, COAR provides community endorsement, dissemination reach into repository networks, and policy alignment expertise that strengthens the societal impact case of any open science project.
