STICHTING LIBER

Their core work

LIBER is the main association of European research libraries, representing over 400 national and university libraries across Europe. In H2020 projects, they bring the library community's perspective to research infrastructure development — shaping policies on open access, research data management, and text/data mining. They serve as a bridge between the library sector and the broader European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) ecosystem, ensuring that scholarly communication infrastructure meets the needs of researchers and institutions alike.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015-2018), LIBER focused squarely on open access infrastructure and monitoring — building the technical and policy plumbing for making research outputs freely available (OpenAIRE2020, EUDAT2020, OpenMinTeD, FutureTDM). From 2017 onward, the focus broadened significantly toward FAIR data, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), training researchers in open science practices, and research data management. Most recently (2020+), they have diversified into digital copyright reform and even health data infrastructure, suggesting a trajectory from access-focused advocacy toward data governance across multiple domains.

LIBER is evolving from an open access advocate into a cross-domain data governance and policy partner, increasingly relevant to projects needing FAIR data expertise, training capacity, or connections to the European library and research infrastructure network.

How they like to work

LIBER consistently joins as a participant, never coordinating — their value lies in representing the library community within large, multi-partner research infrastructure consortia. With 191 unique partners across 36 countries, they function as a network hub, connecting different infrastructure projects to a unified community of practice. This makes them an easy, low-risk partner to bring into consortia where library perspectives, open science policy, or training dissemination are needed.

Exceptionally broad network: 191 unique consortium partners across 36 countries, built through 12 projects in major European research infrastructure initiatives. Their reach spans virtually all EU member states and associated countries, anchored in the pan-European library community.

What sets them apart

LIBER occupies a unique niche as the voice of European research libraries in EU-funded research infrastructure. Unlike technical partners who build systems, LIBER brings institutional reach — access to 400+ libraries that are the front line of open science implementation. For consortium builders, they offer built-in dissemination to the academic library community, policy expertise on open access and FAIR data, and credibility with institutional decision-makers across Europe.

Highlights from their portfolio

• OpenAIRE2020
  Their largest funded project (EUR 441K) and a flagship European open access infrastructure that became foundational for EOSC.
• SSHOC
  EUR 402K contribution to building the Social Sciences & Humanities Open Cloud — shows LIBER's expanding role beyond hard sciences into SSH research infrastructure.
• MES-CoBraD
  A surprising pivot into health AI and brain disorder data — signals LIBER's ambition to apply data management expertise in clinical and health domains.