---
title: "Open Science Infrastructure"
chunk: 8/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Science_Infrastructure"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:49:40.430585+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Economics ===
Many Open Science Infrastructure run "at a relatively low cost" as small infrastructures are an important part of the open science ecosystem. In 2020, 21 out of 53 surveyed European infrastructures "report spending less than €50,000". Consequently, more than 75% of surveyed European infrastructures are run by small teams of 5 FTEs or less. The size of the infrastructure and the extent of its funding is far from always proportional to the critical service it offers: "some of the most heavily used services make ends meet with a tiny core team of two to five people." Volunteer contributions are significant as well with is both "a strength and weakness to an OSI's sustainability". The landscape of open science infrastructures is therefore rather close to the ideals of a "decentralised network of small projects" envisioned by theoricians of the scholarly commons. A very large majority of open science infrastructure are non-commercial and collaborations or financial support from the private sector remain very limited.
Overall, European infrastructures were financially sustainable in 2020 which contrasts with the situation ten years prior: in 2010, European infrastructures had much less visibility: they usually lacked "a long-term perspective" and struggled "with securing the funding for more than 5 years". In 2020, European infrastructures frequently relies on grants from National funds and from the European Commission. Without theses grants, most of theses actors would "could only remain viable for less than a year". Yet, one quarter of surveyed European infrastructures was not supported by any grants and subventions and used either alternative means of incomes or voluntary contributions. As they can be "difficult to define adequately", open science infrastructures can be overlooked by funding bodies, which "contributes to the challenge of securing funding".

== References ==

== Bibliography ==