cOAlition S is an informal alliance of organisations and institutions that fund and/or perform research activities, and that have publicly expressed their intention to work together towards the implementation of the principles of Plan S.  cOAlition S does not have any autonomous legal capacity. The individual organisations remain fully responsible for implementing their Plan S-aligned Open Access policies, as stated in the cOAlition S Terms of Reference.

The composition of the Leaders’ Group and the Executive Steering Group is available here.

The cOAlition S Office was set up in January 2020 and is hosted by the European Science Foundation (ESF) in Strasbourg, to support the work of cOAlition S.

cOAlition S: Governance & Organisational Structure

organisation chart

Budget for supporting the cOAlition S Office  

ACTIVITY / SPENDING (EUR)2020 20212022202320242025
Human resources & related 273700 427000 505674542100399576300052
Software development 334000 287400 439378388800472361200437
Communication 5250 6250 150005000157362433
Commissioned studies  30000 34000 56393913001424850
Legal & administrative 13700 18750 9375005707637320
Travel001250062500209524925
Total 665.650 773.400 1.122.6951.089.7001.108.186545.167

The cOAlition S Office staff and activities are funded by cOAlition S funders’ contributions and grants. Human resources represented 2.3 FTE in 2020, 2.8 FTE in 2021, 3.5 FTE in 2022-2023, 3 FTE in 2024 and 2 FTE in 2025, including staff and consultancy. Software development mainly covered the costs of the Journal Checker Tool and the Journal Comparison Service (that was sunsetted in early 2025). Travel and event expenses covered notably the Plan S promotion activities. More information about our activities is available in the annual review series.