DSpace and DSpace-CRIS Merger: 4Science Leads the Evolution of the DSpace Community. After years of collaborative work, open discussion, and in-depth technical analysis, the DSpace Governance, hearing the community, has officially approved the merger between DSpace and DSpace-CRIS (Announcement: DSpace & DSpace-CRIS Merger Approved by DSpace Governance – DSpace). 4Science celebrates this milestone with great enthusiasm. It marks a decisive step toward a more integrated, powerful, and flexible DSpace platform ready to meet the evolving needs of institutions worldwide.
DSpace-CRIS, created and maintained by 4Science, extends the core DSpace platform providing the necessary functionalities to realize the potential given by the flexible data model introduced with the Configurable Entities. These functionalities have been identified, defined, and engineered over more than a decade, collecting feedback by hundreds of institutions using DSpace-CRIS to power modern repositories, CRIS/RIMS systems, and digital libraries.
Thanks to these richer functionalities and an even greater flexibility of the data model, DSpace-CRIS has long empowered institutions needing advanced metadata structures, streamlined management, and comprehensive research information perspectives beyond traditional repositories.
What Does the Merger Mean for the DSpace Community?
A Single, Unified Codebase
DSpace and DSpace-CRIS Merger: 4Science Leads the Evolution of the DSpace Community. The merger brings together two historically parallel development paths into a single DSpace platform. This merger eliminates fragmentation and ensures that future innovation, maintenance, and enhancements benefit the entire community.
A Configurable and Modular Feature Set
The merged platform is designed to remain flexible and adaptable, allowing institutions to choose the approach that best fits their long-term strategy:
- A traditional DSpace-style repository
- A CRIS-enabled research information system
- Or a hybrid configuration combining both models
Moreover, the advanced features, data model flexibility, and effective entity management enable the implementation of other use cases (EDT, RDM, etc.).
Reduced Duplication of Effort
Before the merger, features developed within DSpace-CRIS often had to be manually ported into DSpace, duplicating development and maintenance. A unified platform streamlines technical processes, reduces redundancy, and allows resources to be focused more effectively.
Stronger Community Collaboration
The merger brings contributors, expertise, and governance together under a single open-source development path. This unified approach enhances collaboration, clearer priorities, and more cohesive innovation in the DSpace ecosystem, accelerating innovation in a collective momentum across the global community.
Better long-term architecture
The wider use-cases enabled by the improved solution increase and speed up the understanding of current constraints and sub-optimal architectural solutions. Enabling the developers to work together to identify and apply better long-term solutions that would support better the evolution of the platform.
Why This Merger Is Important
For the global DSpace and repository community, the merger unlocks many benefits:
- CRIS-powered research information management seamlessly integrated into DSpace’s rock-solid core
- Streamlined configuration giving repository managers total control
- Improved sustainability through a single, consolidated project
- Greater flexibility and choice in how DSpace are deployed and used
- A mature open-source platform capable of competing with proprietary solutions without compromising on quality, scalability, or features
A New Era for Research Repositories For libraries, research institutions, digital archives, and DSpace developers, this merger ignites revolutionary opportunities:
- Increase the visibility of research outputs
- Strengthen compliance with Open Science and reporting requirements
- Build richer, more meaningful connections between people, projects, publications, and all research entities
- Rely on a more sustainable, extensible, and future-proof open-source platform
The 2026 Roadmap and 4Science’s pivotal Role
As the creators of DSpace-CRIS and Certified Platinum DSpace Provider, 4Science is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation and fully embraces the responsibility and stewardship of this pivotal role. With unmatched DSpace-CRIS expertise, 4Science will lead technical contributions to maximize value from every advancement for institutions worldwide, continuing to dedicate significant resources to ensure that the entire community benefits from the capabilities introduced by DSpace-CRIS.
The merger will be delivered through a phased implementation across two major DSpace releases:
- DSpace 10.0 – First phase of the merger, advanced metadata management to unlock the full potential
- DSpace 11.0 – Final consolidation into a single unified platform
Institutions will retain full control, with the ability to enable or disable the features introduced with the merger according to their specific needs and organizational strategies.
Pioneering institutions worldwide have already embraced DSpace-CRIS as early adopters – accelerating and anticipating this historic innovation. In an era where silos and divisions seem to dominate, this merger stands as a powerful testament to what happens when visionary communities unite around a shared future: true transformation is born, and we can’t wait for the future of DSpace and the role that 4Science will play in this historical transition.
Do you have any questions or concerns regarding the merger? Contact us at dspace@4science.com and we will be more than happy to support you!