Researchers across the Pacific are driving impactful work on issues of regional and global significance. However, the geographic spread of institutions across many island nations, together with limited capacity to support and maintain research infrastructure, can make it more difficult for researchers and their work to gain visibility, build international connections, and fully participate in the global research ecosystem.
Such are the challenges in many areas that have lower adoption and uptake of ORCID, which is why we launched the Regional Consortia Program in 2023. The regional consortia model allows organizations from multiple countries to join ORCID under one regional consortium umbrella to share resources. This July marks the official launch of our third such consortium, this one in the Pacific Region. The new Pacific Regional ORCID Consortium immediately welcomed its first Pacific Islands-based member, the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, expanding on the existing 40 New Zealand-based ORCID members and marking a major milestone as Fiji became the 70th country to join the ORCID global community of members.
The launch follows the establishment of the Latin American Caribbean Regional Consortium (LAC) in 2023, which now has 101 member institutions across 10 countries, and the ORCID-ASREN Consortium in 2025, now with nine members across five Arab states and territories.
ORCID consortia make up 78% of all ORCID member organizations. However, the logistical and scalable benefits of joining an ORCID consortium are often out of reach for institutions in smaller, under-represented regions, where there may be insufficient capacity or too few organizations to support a national consortium. With the Regional Consortium program, the benefits of ORCID membership through a consortium have become available to recent ORCID members in countries such as the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Tunisia, Morocco, and now the Pacific Islands.
“The Pacific Regional ORCID Consortium will foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the Pacific and Aotearoa New Zealand, providing practical support and infrastructure for ORCID adoption and integration,” said Dr. Tifany Oulavallickal, ORCID Lead, Royal Society Te Apārangi. “Together, we can ensure Pacific research is more visible, connected, and globally recognized.”
Leveraging proven leadership and infrastructure across multiple regions to improve researcher visibility
The launch of the new Pacific Regional ORCID Consortium marks the anniversary of the 2016 “Joint Statement of Principle: Adoption and Use of ORCID Identifiers in New Zealand” drafted by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and numerous other stakeholders in Aotearoa New Zealand research and higher education.
MBIE, as the largest public research funding agency in New Zealand and one of the top five funders globally adding award information to researchers’ ORCID records, provides PID-savvy infrastructure support, as well as financial support for the consortium through 2029.
The new Pacific Regional ORCID Consortium is led by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, the longtime head of the New Zealand ORCID Consortium. As consortium lead, the Royal Society Te Apārangi is well-positioned to foster increased researcher and institutional ORCID activity and interaction across Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia by leveraging this model of shared infrastructure.
In order to lower the barrier of ORCID adoption for institutions and researchers, the new Pacific Regional ORCID Consortium leverages its NZ ORCID Hub, a well-tested system with an established record of easing the technical burden of exchanging data with ORCID. This ORCID Community Hub model has been adopted for use in South Africa as the Intembeko Hub and in Uganda as the Uganda Hub and will be a great opportunity for the University of the South Pacific and future Pacific Regional ORCID Consortium members across the region to increase the visibility of their researchers globally.
Next steps for your institution
To learn more about the NZ ORCID Hub and the ORCID Community Hub model, watch the replay and download the presentation of our recent webinar Ask Me Anything: ORCID Community Hub and read the blog recapping the event: ORCID at Scale: The Community Hub Model.
Other regions can explore the ORCID Regional Consortia program criteria and learn about the benefits of forming a community of practice that shares infrastructure and expands ORCID access worldwide. If your region meets the minimum criteria for starting a regional consortia, we invite you to contact us.
Dr. Tifany Oulavallickal
ORCID Lead at the Royal Society Te Apārangi
