Setting the default to "Open": realizing a vision through participatory repository infrastructures in Europe

Recent calls for action by national and international research funders have been increasingly setting the default to "open" for the dissemination of and access to publications and research data resulting from publicly funded research. To support this move to an open environment, Open Access repository infrastructures at local, national and international levels have provided a common ground for this vision to flourish. Through these interlinked e-infrastructures researchers will be provided with easy deposit and access routes. At local levels, efforts to ease researchers' burden for reporting and administration have been implemented. At a European level, the OpenAIRE/plus initiative has supported the implementation of the European Commission's Open Access mandate by combining a technical infrastructure with a human network which engages with researchers, project managers and further stakeholders. The infrastructure now provides a wide range of services and reaches out to integrate with further data sources and community-based infrastructures. Future challenges will include the extension of services to national funding schemes and linking of publications with research data.