Information Services at the University of Nottingham has considerable experience in handling major projects in the area of Digital Repositories. For the past six years Nottingham has led the internationally known SHERPA partnership of over 30 UK institutions and its associated portfolio of projects and services. The work of these projects, with practical advice and support, has a national remit, with one project, the Repositories Support Project (RSP), addressing over 170 institutions on repository establishment and development. Nottingham supports the RoMEO service on copyright agreements which is used internationally by authors and repository administrators and the OpenDOAR service as the acknowledged global directory of repositories. Other work includes work on eTheses, digital preservation and policy development and significant European experience in advocacy working on the DRIVER and DRIVER II projects. This work is based at the University's Centre for Research Communications (CRC).

SHERPA partners have been successful in setting up repositories and in starting awareness campaigns to increase their population and integrate their use into academic work-flows and culture. The partnership is a large and varied consortium and has within its membership a range of examples of repository environments and institutional structures. The partners are all research-led institutions, with practical experience of building and populating eprint repositories. This strong and varied consortial background offers the ideal environment for exploring and testing ideas for advocating repository use.

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