Securing the digital future of open social sciences and humanities research

Anna Hughes examines how OPERAS is building a sustainable future for Europe’s open research infrastructure

Collaboration in research is always to be celebrated.

New partnerships are formed, communities emerge, and innovative services are developed as a result. Yet forging collaboration is only the beginning. How do successful initiatives move beyond project formation and become sustainable parts of the research ecosystem?

The answer to that question lies within OPERAS’s journey towards becoming a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) a legal framework established by the European Commission to provide robust governance and a financially sustainable foundation for pan-European research collaboration.

OPERAS (Open scholarly Communication in the European Research Area for Social Sciences and Humanities) is a European collaboration created to strengthen open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities (SSH), bringing together publishers, libraries, researchers and infrastructure providers from across Europe. Through the newly launched OPERAS-PRIME project, the infrastructure is preparing for the next stage of its development, with the aim of achieving ERIC status by late 2027 or early 2028.

For those working in scholarly communications, this goal reflects a broader shift in thinking about the digital infrastructure needed to support open research across the social sciences and humanities. It also reflects a growing recognition that scholarly communication itself is a critical part of research infrastructure.

While research infrastructures are often associated with the equipment, facilities, resources and services used by research communities, researchers also depend on systems and communication networks that enable knowledge creation, dissemination and preservation. Open access publishing, discovery services, metadata, repositories and community-led publishing models all require investment, coordination and long-term stewardship if they are to remain reliable, interoperable and useful to researchers.

These needs can be particularly acute in the social sciences and humanities, where multilingual scholarship and diverse publishing ecosystems remain central to research communication.

The OPERAS-PLUS project laid the groundwork for the transition by helping prepare the governance, statutes and technical documentation required for ERIC status. The PRIME project now focuses on organisational readiness, strengthening services and supporting the growth and development of national nodes across Europe.

One of the most significant aspects of the transition is that membership and funding under an ERIC are secured at national level rather than through individual organisations. That creates a different conversation about sustainability: one that focuses on long-term national commitment rather than short-term project participation.

The UK has an important role to play in that discussion. As a core member of OPERAS, Jisc has helped connect UK organisations with the wider OPERAS community and is now contributing to the PRIME project through work to connect existing members, strengthen national engagement and support the development of OPERAS services, platforms and programmes. This reflects Jisc’s wider role in bringing together institutions, services and communities around shared digital infrastructure and aligning with UKRI strategy and infrastructure roadmap programme.

These connections are important because many of the challenges facing scholarly communication do not stop at national borders. Discoverability, interoperability, multilingual access and the long-term sustainability of open publishing all benefit from international cooperation. While strategic level debates around open research often focus on policies and mandates, success ultimately depends on the infrastructure that enables researchers and institutions to put those ambitions into practice.

As OPERAS moves towards ERIC status, it offers a useful example of how community-led initiatives can mature into long-term infrastructure. In a sector often shaped by short funding cycles and constant change, building something for the long term offers real value. OPERAS demonstrates how collaboration, shared investment and trusted digital infrastructure can create foundations designed to endure.

Anna Hughes is a development and engagement manager at Jisc