After years of trying to launch our own HRA ORCID consortium, and extensive consultation with ORCID staff and others, we have identified a very good option for members who want to belong to an ORCID Consortium. It isn’t an HRA Consortium but an existing consortium called the ORCID US Community. This is a very well-organized and well-resourced consortium that HRA members can join. It is managed by Lyrasis.
We think this is a great option for 4 main reasons:
- Established management and tech support to make participation much easier
- Lower price ($4,300 now but increases to $4,800 as of CY 2021) to become ORCID premium member (vs $8K for individual membership and ~$5,500 each for an HRA consortium)
- Provides an opportunity to engage with research institutions to encourage content and adoption
- Opportunity to amplify the funder voice in continued ORCID development
Please note that any organization can join ORCID directly and not through a consortium. The value of the consortium is it is much less expensive and comes with technical and other support for related organizations.
Lyrasis seems to be a very suitable partner for HRA and HRA member organizations. We have similar missions and values and will have similar technical and communication challenges especially with respect to our common target audience – the researcher.
According to the Lyrasis website: LYRASIS is a 501 c 3 non-profit membership organization whose mission is to support enduring access to the world’s shared academic, scientific and cultural heritage through leadership in open technologies, content services, digital solutions and collaboration with archives, libraries, museums and knowledge communities worldwide. LYRASIS organizational and staff values are: communication, respect, collaboration, impact, and service. …LYRASIS is home to more than 1,000 member academic and public libraries, museums, archives and other collections-holding organizations located in 28 countries.”
This Lyrasis-led ORCID Consortium, The ORCID US Community, which is supported and led by LYRASIS in partnership with the Big Ten Academic Alliance, the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), and the NorthEast Research Libraries (NERL), provides a national approach to adoption and integration of ORCID, maximizing the benefits for premium consortium member organizations through local support and a range of resources.
Because this consortium has so many members (~125) the fee is much lower than what HRA would be able to negotiate, at least for many years. The premium ORCID fee is $3,000 for each consortium member, plus $1,300 ($1,800 as of CY 2021) for the consortium support staff and other resources needed to maintain the high level of support that the ORCID US Community provides to its members.
In addition to the reduced cost, the very robust user support and resources provided by dedicated staff, this partnership also enables us to work with research institutions and libraries to enhance ORCID adoption by researchers and academics. Our voice will also be amplified, as the ORCID US Community welcomes webinars or other resources highlighting the funders’ perspectives and challenges in ORCID implementation and adoption. We will start our own funder interest group within the larger consortium.
I know you will have questions – one preemptive answer is that no one must become a member of LYRASIS to join this consortium. Please send me any other questions you have. When I send out the new ORCID Consortium Agreement for your review, I will send answers to all your other questions. For your information, I have attached the 2018 agreement which is being updated – but the dollar figures on page 2 will not change.
I hope you agree that this is a great solution to HRA’s inability to garner enough interest in our own ORCID consortium to make the cost feasible for most HRA member organizations.
Again, please send me your questions and/or indication of interest (or noninterest) in joining the ORCID US Community.
Best,
Maryrose
