The Association of African Universities, AAU, (https://www.aau.org) has joined the Global Sustainability Coalition of Open Science Services (SCOSS) bringing essential African representation to the effort.

AAU, which represents more than 400 higher education institutions across the five regions of Africa, provides a platform for research, consultation, debates, and collaboration on a wide range of issues pertaining to higher education in Africa.

Nodumo Dhlamini, Director of ICT Services and Knowledge Management at AAU, said the association is pleased to be joining the coalition. “We believe this collaboration will help in strengthening the structures and infrastructure that exists to disseminate research findings and preserve global scholarly knowledge.”

SCOSS functions by providing a framework for libraries, policymakers and other stakeholders to collectively fund and secure the growing infrastructure of noncommercial services on which, in many ways, the OA and OS community at large depend. Officially launched in late 2017, SCOSS is in the midst of its first round funding call for two Board-approved services: the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and SHERPA/RoMEO. The next search for potential services to fund in a second funding cycle is now getting underway.

To date, SCOSS has attracted pledged funding totaling in excess of 750,000 Euros from library consortia, individual libraries, as well as research institutes and universities in Europe, Australia, Africa and North America.

“Gaining AAU as a member is a key win for SCOSS,” said SPARC Europe Director Vanessa Proudman. “It brings us one significant step closer to our goal of global representation, which we need if SCOSS is to succeed long-term. And AAU’s expansive role in Africa means they will bring a wealth of invaluable insights to the coalition.”

With the addition of AAU, SCOSS’s members now span four continents: Europe, Australia, North America and Africa.

For additional information, including a full and current list of global institutions that have pledged funding thus far, and for details on how to join them — visit www.scoss.org.

About SCOSS: The Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) represents a community-led effort to help maintain, and ultimately secure, the vital infrastructure on which Open Access and Open Science depend.