OpenAIRE

OpenAIRE is one of the most important and comprehensive open-science infrastructures in the world. Funded by the European Commission, it serves as the backbone for implementing open-access policies across Europe, supporting research discovery, data sharing, compliance monitoring, and long-term scientific preservation. As both a technical infrastructure and a policy engine, OpenAIRE plays a central role in shaping the future of open research globally.

1. Mission and Vision

OpenAIRE aims to make European and global research:

• Open
• Discoverable
• Linkable
• Reusable

It supports FAIR principles and aligns with EU mandates for open-access publishing and research data management under Horizon Europe.

OpenAIRE’s long-term vision is to create a decentralized, open, interconnected research graph that links publications, datasets, software, grants, institutions, and researchers.

2. The OpenAIRE Research Graph

At OpenAIRE’s core is the OpenAIRE Research Graph, one of the largest open scholarly knowledge graphs in the world.

It aggregates metadata from:

• Institutional repositories
• Data archives
• Journals and publishers
• Aggregators like Crossref, DataCite, DOAJ, BASE, and PubMed
• National research networks

This creates a rich, deduplicated network of:

• Publications
• Datasets
• Software
• Research projects
• Organizations
• Funding information

The graph allows users to explore relationships, track research outputs, and integrate data at unprecedented scale.