On 18 November 2025, the transfer workshop took place at the Wissenschaftsetage Potsdam as the final highlight of the joint project "OA-WFMS - Workflow Management Systems for Open Access University Publishers" (September 2023 - September 2025, extended until December 2025). In addition to the project partners from HTWK Leipzig and Potsdam University Library (UBP), representatives from open access university publishers from the University Publishers Working Group, university and college libraries and the BMFTR discussed sustainable infrastructures for Diamond Open Access and financial viability. The point of reference here was a workflow management system (WFMS) and the demonstrator developed in recent months for a possible technical implementation.

Introductory words from the project managers Dr Andreas Kennecke (UBP) and Prof Dr Michael Reiche (HTWK Leipzig) traced the genesis of the project and its progress. The Vice President and CIO of the University of Potsdam, Dr Peter Kostädt, gave a brief overview of the project within the overall structures of university operations. This was followed in the morning by two keynote speeches on the needs, ideas and challenges regarding a WFMS (Diana Tillmann, Marco Winkler) and the role of the University Publishers Working Group in this context (Robert Wiese). After a short break, representatives from the financial funding line (VDI/VDE-IT, on behalf of the BMFTR, Rebecca Puchta) and the specialised service centre (Diamond Open Access Service Centre (SeDOA), Kathatrina Schulz) presented the positions of the institutions they represent.

In the second part of the event, participants were invited to take part in three workshops: Firstly, the WFMS concept developed in the project was presented and discussed. Questions on the costs and benefits of a WFMS were then discussed in groups in Workshop II. Workshop III used the RACI method to weigh up the governance and organisation of such a system. At the end of the conference, the results of the workshops were presented and the day and the work of the past few years were looked back on together.

Many thanks to all speakers and guests for the exciting transfer workshop!
To be continued...(hopefully!)

We would also like to thank all the people, projects and institutions who supported us during the project and thus contributed significantly to the project's success. Special thanks go to all those who were willing to share and discuss their knowledge with us in workshops, interviews and tests and thus contributed to the development of our project results.

The OA-WFMS team

Maria Büttner
Andreas Kennecke
Michael Reiche
Janna Kienbaum
Diana Tillmann
Marco Winkler

The joint project "Workflow Management Systems for Open Access University Publishers (OA-WFMS)" was realised in cooperation with the HWTK Leipzig and the Potsdam University Library and funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). Project organiser: VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH