As Utrecht University joins OpenAIRE, we are pleased to introduce Ingrid de Ruiter, Metadata Specialist Scientific Information at Utrecht University Library. With more than fifteen years of experience supporting repositories, metadata management and Open Access, Ingrid has played an active role in helping make research outputs more visible, discoverable and accessible.

A strong advocate for equitable access to knowledge, Ingrid believes that Open Access is about more than publishing models, it is about ensuring that information can be accessed and used by anyone, regardless of where they are in the world. In this profile, she shares her professional journey, her commitment to open research, and her perspective on the importance of collaboration in building sustainable research infrastructures.

I am Ingrid de Ruiter and I have been working at Utrecht University (UU) Library since 2008. Before that, I worked in several public libraries. Early on in my career at the UU Library I became involved in our institutional repository. Over time, I took on the role of functional manager of the repository, together with a colleague, and currently I work as a metadata specialist on scientific information. My expertise lies mainly in the field of green Open Access, as well as persistent identifiers (PIDS) and other metadata.

I am a strong advocate of making information available to everyone, no matter where in the world you live or what your circumstances are. At conferences, I hear stories from colleagues in countries that are less privileged than the Netherlands, which continually reinforces the importance of Open Access. It’s not just about independence from major publishers or addressing issues such as double dipping; for me, it’s primarily about making information, and therefore knowledge, accessible for everyone.

In a few months, a major project called The Dutch Repository Federation (DURF) will launch in the Netherlands. This national initiative aims to create a unified, sustainable infrastructure for Dutch research outputs. As the project describes: “The Dutch Repository Federation will reinforce the existing Netherlands Research Portal and existing institutional repositories/CRIS systems to make availability of Dutch research output more robust, increasing our resilience and sovereignty.”

I am the contact person on behalf of Utrecht University and, in my role as a metadata specialist, I will contribute to achieving the project’s goals. I look forward to working together with colleagues from other institutions, as I believe that collaboration is the way forward, not only nationally, but internationally as well.