ORCID for Consortia
An ORCID consortium is a group of not-for-profit organizations that work together to accelerate adoption of ORCID services and resources in national and regional contexts.
The benefits of belonging to an ORCID consortium stem from strength in numbers. ORCID consortia form communities of practice, either in a national or regional context, that share knowledge and pool resources in a cost effective way to help accelerate integration into organizational systems so you can maximize the reach of data into researcher records and across the research ecosystem.
Led by experts
The lead organization of every ORCID consortium (Consortium Lead Organization) is an expert of the research landscape and national policy in their country or region, and is uniquely able to catalyze the adoption of ORCID in their community. They do this by assuming certain responsibilities, such as:
- Providing administrative support to their consortium
- Managing and supporting the onboarding of consortium members
- Employing dedicated community management staff
- Developing shared resources, communications materials, and events
- Maintaining helpful documentation for the consortium
- Working with the consortium community to identify goals, develop policy and governance, and establish regular progress reporting to members and ORCID
Consortia-only tools
Consortia members also have access to special ORCID benefits such as the Affiliation Manager tool, available exclusively to consortia members.
This tool significantly reduces the burden on smaller organizations who may not have the resources to build a custom integration. Using the Affiliation Manager, consortium members can populate their users’ records with affiliation data by simply uploading a CSV file. Learn more about Affiliation Manager here.
Should you join a consortium or form a consortium?
Though ORCID consortia members enjoy discounted membership fees relative to direct members, many of them tell us that it is the benefits of participating in a community of practice that have provided concrete value to their organizations—accelerated adoption of ORCID in their communities. This is true whether you join an existing consortium or form a new one. However, there are some major differences between the two, so which one is right for you?
Join a consortium
For many not-for-profit organizations, the easiest option is to join an existing consortium, and as there are active ORCID consortia on every continent across the globe, chances are there is already one you can join. Check the list of ORCID consortia and if you find one in your country, reach out to the contact listed for that consortium’s lead organization or to the ORCID engagement team.
Form a consortium
If there isn’t an active consortium for you to join, we will work with you to explore the option of forming a new consortium, either national or regional. This requires commitment and effort, but don’t worry; we are here to help. If your organization already collaborates with other organizations on research infrastructure and scholarly communications topics and has a general perspective of what they can do, you may be a good candidate to form a consortium.
Ready to start the conversation with us?
Whether you have questions about forming or joining a consortium, we are happy to meet with you. But first, if you’re interested in forming a consortium, we invite you to look over:
to get a better idea of whether your organization would be able to fulfill the role of an ORCID Consortium Lead Organization. The onboarding checklist summarizes the criteria that must be met before a consortium agreement can be finalized. When you’re ready, we encourage you to click the button below and send us an email.