Invest in Open Infrastructure published its third annual State of Open Infrastructure report, analyzing more than US$663 million in grant funding across 1,065 award clusters, 47 funders, and 94 open infrastructures from 2021 to 2026. It finds that only 29% ($192 million) of that money reached open infrastructures directly, and just $64 million funded operations rather than new development, so projects such as Creative Commons and DOAJ are chronically underfunded relative to the research output that depends on them. Funding is also concentrated: of the 34 infrastructures with more than one direct grant, 22 drew support from a single country even though the research relying on them is funded from nearly three countries on average, and $42.1 million in active US federal grants is exposed to immediate budget threats. A second section examines how open infrastructure can establish provenance and trust as generative AI makes research fabrication easier, and a third tracks the AI investment boom, public science budget cuts, and digital sovereignty, sorting seven signals into risk, watch, and opportunity groups.
Invest in Open Infrastructure publishes its 2026 State of Open Infrastructure report
Invest in Open Infrastructure published its third annual State of Open Infrastructure report, analyzing more than US$663 million in grant funding across 1,065 award clusters, 47 funders, and 94 open infrastructures from 2021 to 2026. It finds that only 29% ($192 million) of that money reached open infrastructures directly, and just $64 million funded operations rather than new development, so projects such as Creative Commons and DOAJ are chronically underfunded relative to the research output that depends on them. Funding is also concentrated: of the 34 infrastructures with more than one direct grant, 22 drew support from a single country even though the research relying on them is funded from nearly three countries on average, and $42.1 million in active US federal grants is exposed to immediate budget threats. A second section examines how open infrastructure can establish provenance and trust as generative AI makes research fabrication easier, and a third tracks the AI investment boom, public science budget cuts, and digital sovereignty, sorting seven signals into risk, watch, and opportunity groups.
Source: Investinopen