Cillian Joy

Cillian Joy is Head of Open and Digital Research at the University of Galway Library. He leads open research, digital research services, and infrastructure across open access publishing, repositories, research data, and digital collections. His work focuses on reducing friction for researchers by improving interoperability, upstream metadata quality, and shared standards for depositing, describing, preserving, and reusing research outputs and cultural heritage materials.

A current priority is national alignment of Irish open access repositories, including practical adoption of OpenAIRE-aligned metadata guidance and community operating models that support sustainable repository practice. This includes development work on repository platforms, persistent identifier workflows, and service design that makes open research processes usable at scale.

Cillian has experience in technology delivery and leadership in higher education and digital services. He holds a PhD in Physics, an MSc in Software Engineering and Database Technologies, a BSc in Experimental Physics, and a postgraduate qualification in Library and Information Studies.

Cillian’s interests centre on open research infrastructure and the operational realities of making it reliable, standards-based, and low-friction for researchers and support teams.

Open research infrastructure, repositories, metadata quality, interoperability, persistent identifiers, OpenAIRE guidance, CRIS–repository integration, digital preservation, digital collections, open publishing, research data stewardship.

2025 Network: Open Repositories Ireland

2022 Project: Open Access Repository Assessment and AlignmentThis project brought together higher education institutions and governmental partners to conduct a national programme of repository alignment to deliver standardised metadata nationally while building infrastructure in line with international best practices.

The main aim of this project was to create a robust and standardised approach to national interoperability of Irish repositories, which in turn provides a streamlined gateway to international research platforms positioning Irish Open Access research for a global audience. This was delivered through the publishing of several significant reports and case studies such as ‘Advancing Ireland’s Open Repository Landscape: A Strategic Roadmap’, developing community guidance for OpenAIRE v4 implementation and launching Open Repositories Ireland (ORI).

The network will now deliver a defined work stream of ORI, sustaining and extending ORI’s role in national alignment and capacity-building. It combines targeted onboarding support for open repositories, particularly for DSpace platforms, with a work package on ORI governance to strengthen the network’s structure and integration with national stakeholders.