The Open Repositories Steering Committee seeks Expressions of Interest (EoI) from candidate host organizations for the 2018 and 2019 Open Repositories Annual Conference series. The call is issued for two years this time to enable better planning ahead of the conferences and to secure a good geographical distribution over time. Proposals from all geographic areas will be given consideration. 

Important dates
The Open Repositories Steering Committee is accepting Expressions of Interest (EoI) to host the OR2018 and 2019 conferences until September 23rd, 2016. Shortlisted sites will be notified by the end of October 2016.

Background
Candidate institutions must have the ability to host at least a four-day conference of approximately 300-500 attendees (OR2016 held in Dublin, Ireland drew more than 450 people). 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 web site; 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: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/or11/Open+Repositories+Conference+Handbookon the Open Repositories wiki: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/or11/OR+Steering+Committee+Home. 

Expressions of Interest Guidelines
Organisations interested in proposing to host either the OR2018 or OR2019 conference should follow the steps listed below: 

1.Expressions of Interest (EoIs) must be received by September 23rd, 2016. Please direct these EoIs and any enquiries to OR Steering Committee Chair William Nixon <[log in to unmask]>. 
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 fairly brief (1-2 pages, or email length), and must include:
        a. the name of the institution (or institutions in the case of a joint bid)
        b. an email address as a first point of contact
        c. 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
        d. Preferred year, if applicable
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 October 2016; 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.

About Open Repositories
Since 2006 Open Repositories has hosted an annual conference that brings together users and developers of open digital repository platforms. For further information about Open Repositories and links to past conference sites, please visit the OR home page: http://sites.tdl.org/openrepositories/.

Subscribe to announcements about Open Repositories conferences by joining the OR Google Group:http://groups.google.com/group/open-repositories.

Please feel free to reflect this call for Expressions of Interest out through your communities.

Thank you!
William Nixon and Elin Stangeland
for the Open Repositories Steering Committee

 

 

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