The Open Scholarship Initiative
Working together in partnership with UNESCO to create the global future of open

Sponsors & Funding

The OSI community is very grateful for the support it receives from partners, sponsors, delegates, and volunteer organizers. OSI partners include the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Science Communication Institute (which oversees OSI), and the universities who help develop, host, and make this event possible every year (George Mason University in 2016, George Washington University in 2017, and American University in 2018). Sponsors contribute funding only and do not influence OSI’s agenda or findings, which is determined by OSI’s participants and leadership. The sponsors for each year are listed below (in US$):

Source

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022 YTD

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation$0$25,000$0$0$0$0$0
UNESCO$48,000$25,000$13,000$0$2,500*$2,500*$0
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation$20,000$20,000$20,000$0$0$0$0
Elsevier$7,500$20,000$10,000$5,000$0$0$0
PressForward Institute (via Sloan)$5,500$0$0$0$0$0$0
Taylor & Francis (Informa)$0$5,000$0$0$0$0$0
Nature Publishing Group (Macmillan)$5,000$10,000$10,000$0$0$0$0
George Mason University$4,500$0$0$0$0$0$0
Wiley$7,500$10,000$10,000$0$0$0$0
Laura & John Arnold Foundation$5,000$0$0$0$0$0$0
Sage Publications$5,000$5,000$0$0$0$0$0
Copyright Clearance Center$2,000$0$0$0$0$0$0
ResearchMedia$500$0$0$0$0$0$0
Emerald Publishing Ltd.$0$0$0$1,000$1,000$0$0
Research Consulting Ltd.$0$0$0$1,000$0$0$0
Delta Think$0$0$0$500$0$0$0
Cactus Communications$0$0$0$5,000$0$0$0
Cabell’s$0$0$0$0$5,000$0$5,000
American Geophysical Union (AGU)$0$0$0$0$0$0$1,000
Conference participants ($500 ea)$58,000$14,000$0$0$0$0$0
Private donations$350$300$0$375$500$850$0
Total income$168,850$134,300$63,000$13,000$9,350$3,350$6,000

 

*OSI funding is contingent on needs. Full conferences were funded in 2016 and 2017, and a smaller executive team conference in 2018. Our needs since then have been limited. UNESCO has on a few occasions since 2019 commissioned small project contracts directly with the OSI program director instead of with OSI. This type of funding is indicated with an asterisk.

Cumulatively, OSI funding is roughly evenly split between UNESCO, private foundations, publishers, and conference participation fees. Sponsors don’t receive any privileged consideration with regard to issue ideas or opinions; the views of all participants are equally weighted. We are tremendously grateful to all our sponsors for helping make this global collaborative effort possible.