Activate European Guidance and Incentives for Sustainable Open Access publishing

The AEGIS-OA project aims to create a high-quality, transparent, and sustainable open access scholarly publishing ecosystem in Europe. The project builds upon the existing European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH) and focuses on expanding its services to include Open Access books, in addition to journals. Its aim is to instrumentalise the Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS) for both journals and books, develop training programs for publishing professionals, enhance access to publishing tools, and coordinate National Capacity Centres across Europe to align non-profit OA initiatives. The project is structured into six Work Packages covering administration, quality assessment, skills development, access to tools, network-building, and sustainability. The project emphasises Open Science principles throughout its activities, including co-creation of standards, open licensing of materials, and promoting practices like Open Peer Review. AEGIS-OA seeks to increase bibliodiversity, foster community-building among institutional publishers, enhance understanding of Diamond OA models, improve service efficiency, and promote the adoption of Open Science practices. Direct beneficiaries include non-profit OA scholarly publishing services and their organisations, while indirect beneficiaries are researchers (editors, authors, reviewers, readers) and society at large. A comprehensive plan is in place to raise awareness, disseminate project results, and encourage the uptake of project outputs through various channels like the EDCH website, social media, events, and publications. The project aims to ensure the lasting impact of its results by integrating them into the EDCH and committing to maintaining resources beyond the project's duration. The AEGIS-OA consortium comprises 24 organisations with expertise in developing Open Access solutions, many of whom are already leading EDCH services.