KOALA – A German acronym translating to “Establishing Consortial Open Access Solutions” – established consortial solutions for financing open access. Collaborative funding of OA journals and book series by academic libraries, research institutions, associations, and companies provides an alternative to the dominant APC model, where articles are paid for individually by authors or their institutions. The KOALA funding model provides fair and sustainable funding for quality-assured APC-free open access publications ("Diamond Open Access"). It reduces financial barriers for authors and thus facilitates participation in OA publications. Consortial financing is thus a science-friendly alternative to author-facing publishing and are an essential part of a vibrant OA culture. Further information for libraries, publishers and editorial boards can be found in the section "information".

The project KOALA-AV - translating to "Establishing, Expanding and Anchoring Consortial Open Access Solutions” - (2023-2025) is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). KOALA-AV is dedicated to the expansion of the KOALA funding model. Building on experiences with existing consortia and the perspectives of participating libraries, editorial board members and consortium-leading institutions, KOALA-AV will examine specific challenges of existing consortia and models and develop suggestions for improvement. This includes addressing barriers to participation for libraries, simplifying consortial processes and supporting international participation in consortia, actively advocating for new OA consortia, and increasing the visibility of consortial funding options on a website. To this end, TIB is working together with the Communication, Information, Media Centre (KIM) of the University of Konstanz.

The KOALA model was developed by TIB and KIM during the project of the same name (2021-2023) and tested on two consortia for OA periodicals. In that project, further analyses were carried out and conversions of periodicals to Open Access were accompanied. A contact point was created for editors who need support with the OA conversion or in finding sustainable funding.