Expansion through the DRIVER Confederation

The DRIVER Confederation of European Digital Repositories aims to foster a rich data-layer for the European Research Area that enables the sharing and re-use of scholarly information such as publications, primary data or educational material. It should involve representatives of academic institutions that host scientific digital repositories, i.e. universities as well as research centres, and representatives of national, regional or subject-based federations. As an overall goal, DRIVER proposes a European federation of federations – a Confederation – in order to foster synergies between existing federations, overcome shortcomings of a simple point-to-point network and stimulate the building of federations of digital repositories in countries where these do not yet exist. The DRIVER Confederation represents a network of content providers including the forerunners of the European repository movement, oriented not only geographically, but also characterised by disciplinary and technological leadership. Many of the results from the DRIVER test-bed and the DRIVER studies indicate the need to extend the DRIVER Confederation to assist those countries without developed national structures.

The strategic development of the DRIVER Confederation is supported by the organisational principles that structure the repository landscape. The wider dynamic of the Confederation lies in the implementation of a sustainable organisational model - by inclusion of affiliated models of partnership and identified areas of support emerging from within non-governmental organisations (NGO’s), and commercial and private initiatives that have grown to serve the repository community. The Confederation advances the current status of DRIVER from a test-bed project to a fully functional organisation. It ensures the controlled geographical and thematic extension of the repository platform, the uptake of DRIVER technology and the close correspondence between the DRIVER infrastructure and established communities of practice. The Confederation thus provides an integrated concept for organisation, technology and content for the European repository landscape and is planned as a structure that is independent from the DRIVER project activities.