 Hello everyone, my name is Agata Morka and I am SCOS coordinator and we are here today to talk about the new SCOS strategy and the results of SCOS consultation that was made earlier this summer 2021. I am here with four panelists and I would like to ask all of you to introduce yourselves and also to tell us what is your role in SCOS. Judy, I will start with you because you are first on my screen. Thank you. Hi, I'm Judy Rutenberg. I'm the senior director of scholarship and policy at the Association of Research Libraries and I represent ARL on the SCOS board. Thank you. Susan, over to you. I'm Susan Haig. I'm executive director of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. I represent Carl, but also a CRKN, our partner in the SCOS endeavor for Canada on the board of SCOS. Wonderful. Thank you. Al-Walid. Hi, my name is Al-Walid Al-Khaja. I'm a senior intellectual property librarian at the Qatar National Library and I represent Qatar National Library on the SCOS board. Thank you very much. And now we have John. Hi, I'm John Trebway. I'm an independent consultant and researcher and I have been supporting SCOS in the consultation and development of the strategy since earlier in 2021. Thank you very much. Al-Walid, over to you. All right, so I'll be asking our speakers today some questions about the strategy on SCOS in general. So the first question is to Susan. So SCOS has been active since 2017. Can you tell us more about SCOS and what has SCOS done over the past couple of years? So SCOS was formed as a community response to a sense that open infrastructure, small organizations, not for profits often that may have, for example, started with project funding. We're having sustainability challenges to transition their support and to remain viable. And so the community led by Spark Europe sort of came together to form this organization that basically is almost like a crowd sourcing of support towards these not-for-profit organizations. The model is very simple, but it's pragmatic, it's effective. Basically, the not-for-profit organizations apply to SCOS, they're vetted, and then they're vetted by an advisory group of experts. A few of them are then endorsed for recommendation to the community for potential funding. As they're put out there, they have, in that process, they have provided a lot of information in terms of their financial need and their governance structures and all sorts of information. So as I said, they're recommended and then libraries that are looking to invest in open infrastructure as a beginning to transition away from just investing in licensed content, somewhere that is sort of preset for them to consider. And then they can either individually invest or consortially, and if they do so consortially, they end up with a kind of discount in their relationship with the individual infrastructure. So, so far, SCOS has had three rounds and has funded or is in the process of funding eight different infrastructures that are global in reach and varied in their activities. And so far, there has been in dollars about $3.88 million put forward from the global library community to support these infrastructures. So the in the first round the pilot cycle it was Sherpa Romeo and DOA J and one of the wonderful things is the DOA J. We achieved 100% of the target need for that so it's a success story it's our best success story to date although there are also 100% in the second round. So the second funding cycle DOAB and OAPN, as well as open citations and PKP, all of the DOAB and OAPN achieved 100% as well of their funding goals and the others are still building, they're still out there for support. And, and then we have just very recently announced the, the third funding cycle where we were really delighted that to announce that we have recommended archive, Redalick, Amelika, and D space for this round. And so this round is just beginning. We're very keen to start gathering funds from from across the globe. So it seems there's a lot of effort taken by SCOS in vetting and selecting those those infrastructure. Judy I was wondering if you can tell me more about the selection process and how kind of more details about this. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you Susan I do think it's a simple model but I also want to just say congratulations to any infrastructure that has been selected and vetted by SCOS because the process is actually quite rigorous. And so it is a, there is an initial call as Susan suggested for expressions of interest from open, open infrastructure services and the there is a SCOS advisory group which is made up of open science experts with strong policy technical financial knowledge taken from drawn from the membership of the 10 SCOS member associations. And between six and eight weeks evaluating these initial applications and select a maximum of six to invite to advance to the next round so the next round is really a formal application, which as Susan suggested is a much more. There's much more data gathered. And there, you know that what they're as it's, you know, we've sort of implied in the, in the introduction to this, we're looking at SCOS is looking at services that are at least a year old that have a demonstrated sustainability challenge that are themselves nonprofits, or owned by a researcher educational institution. So this does look for services that are inter broadly internationally relevant and broadly serve more than one discipline. So, again, congratulations to the services that have come through this in particular, you know, welcome to the third round. So, when the SCOS board approves that shortlist and the advisory group has a much kind of richer set of data to look through an applications they do select two to three services to go forward for funding. And again is looking for things like what the services value is to the stakeholder community and stakeholders are broad libraries universities funders research managers the research community itself of course, looking at the governance structure sustainability measures and their kind of future plans. And then also just how they have the infrastructure see that they fit within a broader open sustainable fair landscape. So, as suggested we work with the selected services to do to do this crowdfunding SCOS does not collect the money it that happens between the, the services and the, the contributors the funding institutions and, and consortia but being selected by SCOS really means having been vetted by this global community of open science experts. And it means that the services are working to become more stable and sustainable financially, which again encourages transparency efficiency and good governance. This is Judy so sustainability is a key term and what SCOS does and what we're looking for. I mean a question maybe for Julie Susan and john please feel free to jump in. What can sustainability mean for open infrastructure. Of course I mean, I don't know if you mentioned several several things but what can it mean in in like long term in general for open infrastructure. Maybe, maybe a good place to start out is a quote that we've referred to when developing the strategy because you know when people say sustainability. Often they mean, oh we need more money, we need grant, we need funding we need somebody to fund us and we have as a group referred to the sustainability mindset which is a book by bell so I cut and Simon, which is very useful and they talk about sustainability is this model sounding like it will allow an organization to generate financial resources on an ongoing basis and everyone can sort of sit back, oh we've got a sustainable business model. That's it, Gold Chief, and, and that's not it right sustainability is an orientation it's a mindset it's a way an organization is set up it's not a destination that you reach its. They distinguish between two types of sustainability so there's financial sustainability, which is kind of what most people talk about but they, they define it as the ability to generate resources to meet the needs of the present, without compromising the future so it's not something that's achieved and they are done and dusted there is a business model that's always sustainable it is, how can you do what you need to have a present without compromising your future existence to richer conceptualization and then also the programmatic sustainability so the ability to develop and mature and cycle out programs that are responsive to constituencies to stakeholders to groups of customers over time so a an ability to grow to develop to invest in the next the next version of your software the ability to progress your offering to respond to the needs of your customers to respond to the community that is supporting you. It's a much. Again, it's a much broader and richer concept that I think most people understand when you talk it through. And maybe Susan and Judy can tell me it has always been interested in not just getting funds to people, but making sure those organizations can grow as part of the process, can can demonstrate an ability to utilize funds and sustain themselves and be part of the landscape overall length longer period of time, not just their business model shows that if they get this in it will cover costs, it's a much broader concept than that. Thanks, John. And maybe this is a good way. It's a good time to talk about the strategy so over the last couple months. John, we've been working with you and a strategy working group within SCOS, which includes members from the SCOS board and the advisor group. And from the beginning, SCOS planned or wanted that this strategy is evidence based. So I was hoping maybe you can tell us more about our approach to kind of understand what SCOS should do in the future, strategy wise and what kind of techniques and tools that we've used during this process. Sure, I'm happy to, you know, for SCOS, it has a very clear community, a very clear network of organizations with whom it works, very clear group of infrastructure providers that it's supported. And those it hasn't because, as we've said, you know, not everyone who's applied is successful and so a clear and well defined group of people to whom we wanted to speak. So the consultation had several strands. The main strand was a survey of the research sector with different sections targeted at providers of opening science infrastructure and institutions that pledge funds through SCOS as well as general questions seeking to ascertain knowledge and awareness of SCOS and what it does. We supplemented that with six focus groups and about 20 semi structured interviews with a range of individuals, including I think some of the panelists who are speaking today, you know, board members but also much wider group of people. If you look at the survey, it breaks down with Canada providing the highest number of respondents France the next highest and then a large number of European nations providing a number of respondents each you know Europe is a long tail by definition and that's reflected. The remaining responses were split out across other continents Qatar, Australia, the USA or provided a significant number and a large the largest number of respondents were also from university libraries and there were a few from other libraries. We also saw research intensive universities well represented open science infrastructure providers well represented and then a broad range of other respondents from other organizations. Of the respondents a large minority about 40% have authority over budgets from which they can support open infrastructure. And we had about 45 organizations that previously pledged funding to one of SCOS SCOS one or more SCOS is selected initiative so a very broad range and then we supplemented that as I said with focus groups and one to one interviews with people where they had expressed a particular opinion or where we wanted to dig more deeply but I'm going to talk here in detail about some of the survey findings and augment that with some of the things we heard from other people. So, we started with familiarity with open science infrastructure and no surprise that the people responding to a SCOS survey, you know, nearly 90% said they had some familiarity you know so somewhat very or extremely familiar. 10% of them were extremely familiar and respondents based in Europe or North America were those most likely to be in the extremely or very familiar categories. Those that were responding from institutions that pledge funds were actually less likely to be extremely or very familiar with respondents from other organizations which says something about how SCOS been able to reach those who perhaps previously had a contributed funding. Familiarity with SCOS then about 65% so 89% 90% familiar with open science infrastructure about 65% were somewhat very or extremely familiar with SCOS itself. The only respondents who said they were extremely familiar with SCOS came from Europe or North America and specifically Canada, France, the UK and the Netherlands were those saying they were extremely familiar and those countries and geographies were those. And they also contributed a lot of respondents who were very familiar with SCOS. We then asked us about familiarity with how SCOS operates itself. And here around 50% of respondents were somewhat very or extremely familiar with how SCOS operates. The respondents from university libraries were likely, most likely to say they were not so familiar than any other response and responses from pledging institutions were more likely significantly more likely to express some familiarity with how SCOS operates than other respondents. The only respondents who are extremely familiar with how SCOS operates were European, and the not so familiar responses or not at all familiar responses were coming broadly, quite broad but Asia and Africa and Oceania had a proportion and other geographies. 76% of respondents thought SCOS was somewhat very or extremely important as a source of support to open science infrastructure. This was broadly represented across the globe. European respondents were more likely to say it was extremely important or somewhat important than other geographies who were all very saying it was very important. When we asked about the effectiveness of SCOS, about 60% of respondents felt SCOS has been at least somewhat effective in sustaining open science infrastructure and here we asked. We asked it in the surveys and in the focus groups people for more for more details. So if, if they had a particular view of SCOS whether it was effective or not effective we asked why what they thought it was that made SCOS effective. And most people said when they were talking positively that SCOS has increased awareness straw more organizations into providing support for open science infrastructure. It's increased funding it's increased the amount of funding by those who are providing support so not just more funding that those who are providing support themselves giving more funding. Open science infrastructure and non commercially provided open science infrastructure is more visible, and that by promoting the support of infrastructure globally SCOS has helped promote interoperability between different providers, and the confidence globally that infrastructure is going to persist, you know, challenging the myth that some not commercial providers or providers are somehow higher risk. When explaining why they haven't given a more positive view, or they'd said that SCOS was not effective, which I think only 1% respondents did. And people said that they felt that SCOS supporting infrastructure was still seen as a nice to have in budgets, and therefore vulnerable to budget cuts and that was something that they felt needed to be more addressed respondents highlighted a general sense that there was an imbalance in the geographic support through Scottish funding that some areas were heavily represented in providing support and other areas were not. We hadn't been able to deal with a free rider problem whereby some institutions could benefit, but didn't provide support, you know, the idea that some people aren't aware of the fact that organizations providing the infrastructure needs support or to provide funding and that that hasn't been fully addressed yet. There's a very strong belief that SCOS will be required for many years to come and that was a really interesting finding because you know I think when we talk to people. There's a general sense about SCOS that it's part of its value is just that it exists. So there have been lots of attempts to create initiatives to provide support for science infrastructure, but SCOS is pragmatic it exists funding has got out support it has supported institution institute it's provided connections to support infrastructure. And so it was a general question as to whether that need would still exist in years to come and there's a very strong support that mainly that it would be needed for many years to come. Some people saying for the next few years but nobody responded to this question by saying that there would not be a need for SCOS for many years to come. There's a lot of data and insight from the surveys and the one to one interviews how does how do these results translate into our SCOS strategy, and perhaps maybe Susan would like to know. I think what we've what we've we've been void by the results and and have looked carefully at what that means for SCOS and I think in as a way of summarizing really that I think our strategy is, is to keep going to continue to evolve as needed to continue with outreach and communication to try to even up the landscape of the investment landscape, a little bit more over time to think about how we, how we fit with others. There's a lot of complementarity that we see between SCOS for example and IOI and the different ways that both both can operate in the landscape and advance, advance open infrastructure. If we are looking, we will continue to, to add worthy infrastructure to the to those that are endorsed, and continue to try to raise funds and, and, and, and hone I think the criteria and, and the government, the application process and all of the process is involved. It's a strong and dedicated undertaking at this point and, and, and so it's well set for the next few years. So one of the SCOS goals is to have is to be global and reach, and to have global support from for the selected infrastructure and I was wondering how does the support look right now geographically. And are there any markets or kind of countries or locations that could do more. Judy, I was wondering if you can answer this question. Sure, sure. And so, you know, first I think, you know, we've got good data on this from the consultation and from SCOS itself which is great. I think there's a huge amount of enthusiasm right now for open infrastructure which is, you know, accounts for the survey results around what's extremely important. I think one of the challenges that certainly we face in the US is just making sense of what those opportunities are. So, through our involvement with SCOS, the Association of Research Libraries can help do that CNI as an organization as a conference 100% does that which is why we're so thrilled to be recording this for CNI audience. And, you know, we do do such things in our in our convenings and our communities, our publications, etc. What we don't do, which is different from many of the member organizations and SCOS is license on behalf of the country. So, the way the US is organized is through in these decision making is through regional or peer or local consortia of libraries and there are many of them many of our members within ARL are members of more than one consortium so it is, it is complicated. But we are seeing some, you know, uptake among those groups the Big Ten Academic Alliance, for example, was, you know, contributed as a group to DOAJ, to DOAB, to OAPN. And just yesterday I think we saw the IV plus libraries pledge their collective support for archive in 2022. So again I think the challenges in evening this out is, is having is visibility and having under which is part of the strategy, understanding what the opportunities are knowing how to prioritize investments. And, you know, again SCOS needs more visibility in the US. Very happy. So again, happy to be here for CNI. Those decision makers in the US and consortia and individual libraries need data, which I'm really pleased that SCOS provides and collects and the SCOS infrastructures can, you know, can provide on a geographic area in terms of usage so around three funding, you know, two out of three of the resources are very familiar in the US archive and space but Rethalic has quite high usage by the research community. So we, you know, we hope that through that enhanced visibility we see some enhanced contribution. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm just very happy to add. I think the consortial model is an interesting one in this context actually and quite fruitful because what has happened in Canada we're not a consortial licensing organization, either Carol, but there are consortia of course and because they're the cost, the what has happened is that we have a, it's almost like a pick list of different infrastructure that are then possible for individual member institutions to opt into. We've invested on a more refined tier basis than the suggested funds, the suggested levels from SCOS itself and from the infrastructure so we, we, we have an opt in model that ends up being attractive to members and they can choose which infrastructure they invest in and at what levels there are tiers. So it's kind of rational. And, and that is how we've broadened the reach we have individual members initially that were individually engaging with SCOS and when we went to sort of rolled out in a consortial basis it became much more, more lucrative really for the, for the fundraising because it was getting a smaller investment but for many more institutions and that is the beauty of a consortial approach where there is a 10 to 25% discount as well that is offered then by the infrastructure towards consortia so really important I think that consortia I think about the SCOS options and the SCOS recommended infrastructure. And I think what it means is that there's other countries as well that can be stepping up that that that still are are considering how to how to orchestrate this. And some of them France for example pools their funds they they basically they have the individuals put the individual institutions put money towards a fund and then the fund allocates towards towards infrastructure globally so there's different models that can play out and SCOS is a flexible approach, it is a flexible model. I think that's what's great about SCOS as well is that I mean there's no one fit all solution and it depends on one country to another what so what can work for Canada man I work for let's say in Qatar or other countries but there's always a solution and I guess the pragmatism of this approach is what we're hoping kind of works all on the long term. And I think how we need that goes back to one of your earlier questions about sustainability which is SCOS is not just SCOS is helping people to help themselves by creating those connections by helping bring other people to the table and by enabling other organizations to grow and be able to sustain something into future. It's not just about writing a check and getting out the door because that actually doesn't address some of the challenges that these organizations face and as you say different things working different places, helping helping connect people at scale. So they're not knocking on 1000 dollars is as valuable as anything else that SCOS does and finding different ways to do it in different locations is extremely important. So perhaps a question for the whole group. Now we're towards the end of 2021. What can we expect from SCOS in the next year on the next years. I mean, I'm happy to go first if you know I think somebody's already said it but it's more of the same. It's doing something that's worked doing something that's successful for a larger group of organizations some of who've been identified and going from the beginning from the experience because you know now there's a group of supported infrastructure is coming to the end of their cycle and their experience will be useful and SCOS will learn and change its application process and change some of its models to adapt to that. I think in particular thinking about the right mechanisms for supporting earlier stage or small organizations for whom the SCOS model is very challenging given the requirement in places to raise funds and do that raising funds and finding ways to help those organizations possibly in a slightly different way. I think those are the things that from conversation with people like Susan and Judy and yourself. Those are the things that I'm interested in. Yeah, absolutely. I mean I think continuing to raise the visibility of the resources and the mechanism and build the efficiencies of the fundraising model so that, you know, sort of fewer links and easier, easier opportunity for libraries that are members of different groups to make those contributions and to continue to provide decision makers with really rich data about usage and about the transformation of these resources themselves as they kind of engage with SCOS. I don't think I have anything to add aside from the fact that I think we are looking to grow the stable and we're looking to grow the reach the stable of infrastructure. There's many parts to fit together. I think the type of organization that we're looking to support is evolving a little bit and becoming more clear what kind of organization it needs to be. And I think we need to address the kind of, once it's you know then what because in point of fact I think that there is sustained relationship between the between our individual institutions and some of these infrastructure that is appropriate and is what is ultimately sought. And I know from conversations I get that there's a lot of outreach activities going on so maybe I can tell us more about how can people find out more about SCOS and latest news and what's what's going on. Yes, I'll lead absolutely. So you all mentioned that we just barely launched the third pledging ground with free infrastructure. So we have archives, we have space and we have readily America. And what we learned from past years is also that potential pledgers or the community would like to hear about these infrastructures from the infrastructure themselves. So we asked them to to work with us together with us and we will organize a series of webinars that will be focused on the third pledging ground, where we will have representatives from each infrastructure, telling the community what, what kind of sustainability issues, challenges they encounter, how they would like to spend the money that hopefully we will raise for them. And they will tell you a little bit more about how they operate on a day to day basis. What I think is quite crucial is what Judy mentioned about usage. I know that pledging institutions are always very interested in actually usage of the services that they pledge for. So this is also something that we asked our free free new infrastructures to to provide to our to our future pledgers so this is also something that they will be talking about in these upcoming webinars for now. So we have three of them confirmed I will definitely give you some more specific dates, probably in January, we will start in January and we will go for three or four months. So stay tuned. This will be definitely advertised everywhere on this cost, cost related website, Twitter account and so on. And thank you for everyone thank you Judy thank you Susan and thank you john for this very lively and lovely conversation, and I'd like to thank our viewers for tuning in. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much everyone.