News: OIPA Leadership Change

2026 starter with a huge change for OIPA: Kate Petherbridge stepped down as Chair after steering OIPA from our humble beginnings, and Paula Kennedy (previously Co-Vice Chair) stepped up to take on the role of Chair.

We are sorry to see Kate go and want to send a huge thanks for all her hard work in getting OIPA launched. We also want to extend a huge welcome to Paula!

We are very much excited for the future of OIPA. Join us on the next stage of our journey by signing up to our newsletter!

Kate Petherbridge said…

“It has been a real privilege to be involved in the founding and development of OIPA. It’s been incredibly rewarding to act as the inaugural Chair, seeing OIPA develop from a nebulous idea into a fully formed association with a clear mission and a vibrant, diverse and growing membership. The key goal in setting up OIPA was to create a community to support all open institutional publishing activity across UK HEIs, and it’s been brilliant to see this become a reality. Seeing the value OIPA brings through amplifying the voice of the community, and also through concrete benefits such as skills training and sharing of resources, shows that OIPA meets a very real need and plays an important role in the UK Open Access environment. A huge amount of credit for this goes to the OIPA Committee, to both current and past committee members, who have given a great deal of time and energy to develop OIPA from a great idea into a thriving national association. Playing a role in this has been a genuine honour and, though I’m now stepping down as OIPA Chair, as an OIPA member I’m excited to see how the new committee will take OIPA forward as an established voice in the Open Access conversation.”

Paula Kennedy said…

“Having been involved in OIPA’s founding and development over the last few years, I’m honoured to be stepping into the role of Chair and taking over from Kate Petherbridge. OIPA’s rapid growth really shows how valuable this community of practice has become as a new national infrastructure supporting for university-based open access publishing of all shapes and sizes. Kate has been a fantastic Chair and has played a huge part in getting OIPA to where it is today. I’m excited to step into the Chair role at a moment when we can start thinking more strategically about how we support our members and champion the value of open institutional publishing in a fast‑changing research and publishing environment. I’m really looking forward to working with my colleagues on our expanded OIPA Committee and with our Advisory Board as OIPA continues to grow in both size and influence.”