The Open Repositories Steering Committee seeks Expressions of Interest (EoI) from candidate host organizations for the 2021 Open Repositories Annual Conference series. Proposals from the Americas will be given first consideration.

Important dates

The Open Repositories Steering Committee is accepting Expressions of Interest (EoI) to host the OR2021 conference until May 17th, 2019. Shortlisted sites will be notified by the end of May 2019 and invited to submit a full proposal.

Background

Candidate institutions must have the ability to host at least a four-day conference with up to 450 attendees (see the list of past conferences which includes the number of attendees where available). This includes appropriate access to conference facilities, lodging, and transportation, as well as the ability to manage a range of supporting services (food services, internet services, and conference social events; conference website; management of registration and online payments; etc.). The candidate institutions and their local arrangements committee must have the means to support the costs of producing the conference through attendee registration and independent fundraising. In addition, candidate institutions should consider the OR Statement on Inclusion and Openness as well as our Code of Conduct to determine whether there are conditions in the local environment that might conflict with these positions or prevent travel for large portions of the attendees.

Fuller guidance is provided in the Open Repositories Conference Handbook on the Open Repositories wiki.

Expressions of Interest Guidelines

Organisations interested in proposing to host the OR2021 conference should follow the steps listed below:

  1. Expressions of Interest (EoIs) must be received by May 17th, 2019. Please direct these EoIs and any enquiries to OR Steering Committee Chair Elin Stangeland – elin.stangeland at ub.uio.no.
  2. As noted above, the Open Repositories wiki has a set of pages at Open Repositories Conference Handbook which offers guidelines for organising an Open Repositories conference. Candidate institutions should pay particular attention to the pages listed at “Preparing a bid” before submitting an EoI.
  3. The EoI should be fairly brief (1-2 pages, or email length), and must include:
    1. the name of the institution (or institutions in the case of a joint bid)
    2. an email address for the first point of contact
    3. the proposed location for the conference venue with a brief paragraph describing the local amenities that would be available to delegates, including its proximity to a reasonably well-served airport
  4. The OR Steering Committee will review proposals and may seek advice from additional reviewers. Following the review, one or more institutions will be invited to submit a detailed proposal.
  5. Invitations to submit a detailed proposal will be issued by the end of May 2019; institutions whose interest will not be taken up will also be notified at that time. The invitations sent out will provide a timeline for submitting a formal proposal and details of additional information available to the shortlisted sites for help in the preparation of their bid. The OR Steering Committee will be happy to answer specific queries whilst proposals are being prepared.