The Open Repositories Steering Committee seeks Expressions of Interest (EoI) from candidate host organisations for the 2024 Open Repositories (OR2024) Annual Conference. Preference is for proposals from Europe, though proposals from all geographic areas will be given consideration.

Important dates

The Open Repositories Steering Committee is accepting Expressions of Interest (EoIs) to host the OR2024 conference until June 30th, 2022. Shortlisted sites will be notified by 12th August 2022 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 500 attendees (OR2016 held in Dublin, Ireland drew about 500 people and OR2017 held in Brisbane, Australia drew around 330). 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; 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. 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 OR2024 conference should follow the steps listed below:

  1. Expressions of Interest (EoIs) must be received by June 30th 2022. Please direct these EoIs and any enquiries to the OR Steering Committee Chair, Claire Knowles at c.knowles1@leeds.ac.uk
  2. As noted above, the Open Repositories wiki has a set of pages at Open Repositories Conference Handbook which offer 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 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 as a 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

A template for the EoI is available.

  1. The Open Repositories 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.
  2. Invitations to submit a detailed proposal will be issued by the 12th August 2022.  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. Institutions whose EoI was not successful at this time will also be notified.  
  3. The Open Repositories Steering Committee Chair and Vice-Chair will be happy to answer specific queries whilst proposals are being prepared.