An ongoing commitment to supporting UK teaching, research, and innovation
Anna Vernon – Head of Licensing at Jisc – discusses collective negotiation, open access evolution, and her vision for a more inclusive scholarly communications landscape
Tell us a bit about your background and qualifications
My professional background is in intellectual property and I studied law part time as a mature student, a challenging but rewarding experience. I don’t know how people do it, it gave me a real appreciation for the barriers students face when accessing licensed content. The experience shaped my understanding of practical challenges in scholarly communications and reinforced my interest in improving access to knowledge.
When and what led you to start working with Jisc?
I was working at the British Library as a copyright and IP manager, where amongst other things I provided guidance on IP and open licensing for digitisation projects and an opportunity arose to work at Jisc, which felt like a natural progression. The idea of contributing to open access at a national level, helping to shape open infrastructure across UK institutions, appealed to me. It aligned with my values and felt like an extension of what we were doing in the library to democratise knowledge and access to information. Joining Jisc meant I could help to scale that impact across the sector.
We recently covered the news that Jisc has saved its members £500m on licensing deals – great news! Could you give some background to that? Does this represent any sort of trend as regards Jisc’s work?
Absolutely, it’s a significant milestone that we’re proud of. I hope it recognises the importance of collaboration and the role of collective, sector wide negotiations and procurement to deliver efficiencies and real terms savings. By negotiating at scale, we reduce duplication, improve transparency, and ensure licensing agreements meet both institutional needs and national priorities.
It also reflects a shift in what our members expect from their investments. Increasingly they see procurement not just as a transactional process, but as an opportunity to shape the market, support open research, and drive innovation. So yes, it’s great news and it’s part of a larger narrative about how we are committed to do even more to support a sector under considerable financial and operational pressure. The recent UUK taskforce recommendations underscore this urgency, and we’re responding by continuing to prioritise scalable, sustainable solutions.
Our focus remains on helping institutions manage the cost of digital content, tools, and infrastructure in a way that’s efficient and future-proof. This milestone reflects our ongoing commitment to supporting UK teaching, research, and innovation through sector-led collaboration.
In a wider sense (specific to research/scholarly comms if possible) can you highlight any other major initiatives that Jisc is working on?
We’re currently advancing several key initiatives that have the potential to create real impact on the scholarly communications landscape.
Next generation open access: This is about building more sustainable agreements, moving beyond volume-based models to agreements that prioritise quality and reproducibility. We’re working on behalf of the higher education sector to build frameworks that support meaningful, transparent open access.
Secure and trusted research: As data security becomes increasingly critical, we’re supporting institutions to provide secure and trusted research environments, safeguarding sensitive research data while enabling collaboration and innovation.
Electronic research notebooks: We’ve negotiated sector-wide agreements that reduce costs, enhance data integrity, support interoperability and facilitate collaboration across disciplines and institutions.
Each of these different initiatives reflects our broader mission to support UK research and education through innovation and collaboration.
Stargazing is notoriously difficult, but where do you see the world of scholarly comms in, say, 10 years’ time? Or how would you like to see it (if that is a different question!)?
I’d like to see a scholarly research ecosystem that is inclusive by design, where researchers are rewarded and recognised for all their contributions. I envision a system where openness is the default, and where infrastructure supports transparency and equity. We’re already seeing progress in that direction but there is still work to do to ensure that recognition systems, funding models, and publishing practices continue to develop in tandem.
Do you have any interesting hobbies or pastimes you’d like to tell us about?
I try to go to contemporary, (read challenging!) art exhibitions and try to go to a gig every week – an eclectic mix of anything and everything including jazz, opera, indie and dance!