The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) concluded its Annual Conference at the University of Minho, Braga, from June 1–3, 2026, bringing together 50 participants from across the globe. Against a backdrop of rising political tensions and rapid technological change, the meeting underscored the importance of openness and collaboration in safeguarding the future of scholarly communication.
Delegates discussed the evolving role of repositories in research ecosystems, highlighting strengthened funder policies, integration into assessment processes, and renewed interest in digital sovereignty. While repositories are consolidating networks and adopting new AI-driven functionalities, challenges remain, including disruptive bot traffic, limited technical support, and difficulties in securing sustainable funding.
COAR announced several priority initiatives to advance repository relevance and resilience:
• Evidence-based narratives demonstrating repository value will be published by year-end to support global advocacy.
• AI and next-generation research requirements will be developed based on researcher profiles to strengthen repository support for machine learning.
• Multilingual discovery will be expanded through a new working group and roadmap, building on successful pilots in Latin America.
• COAR Notify enters its final phase, with most open-source systems now enabled and a PRC Alliance launch planned for October 2026.
• AI crawling challenges will be addressed in collaboration with industry partners to balance openness with stability and improve machine-readability of repository content.
The conference reaffirmed COAR’s commitment to strengthening repositories as essential infrastructure for open science, ensuring they remain visible, sustainable, and responsive to the needs of researchers worldwide.
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