Growing the Open Content Pool: University of Leeds and Sylla Partnership

27 May 2025 Utrecht, NL / Leeds, UK — Following a successful pilot, the University of Leeds and Sylla are excited to announce the next step in their partnership. The pilot has proven to improve the discoverability of open access (OA) and open educational resources (OER). At the University of Leeds the focus has been on discovering cost savings opportunities for the library and students, while ensuring they keep access to high quality learning resources.

While Sylla’s discovery engine already delivers granular recommendations for existing OA and OERs, certain domains could benefit from richer resources to support wide-scale adoption. As a next phase of the partnership, and building on these identified gaps, Leeds and Sylla will collaborate with the wider community to create, adapt, and surface new open learning resources; ultimately enriching the global pool of open content:

“Following our pilot, we are excited by the possibility of matching module objectives to relevant high quality open eBooks and easing barriers to scholarly materials. Together with Sylla we will obtain the data, insight, and develop flexible models and greater workflow integrations to support our faculty who are eager to contribute and include OA/OERs in their teaching. Knowledge equity and open scholarship are fundamental elements that underpin our Library's vision "Knowledge for All" and our partnership with Sylla will contribute to delivering on this vision”. - Elly Cope, Head of Access & Acquisitions, University of Leeds.

Rising budget pressures make an open strategy more urgent than ever, yet libraries still struggle to gauge which of the countless OA and OER collections truly fit their teaching and research needs. To close that gap, Leeds and Sylla will co-create evidence-based assessment tools that let libraries measure classroom relevance and student demand before investing staff time or acquisition funds.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with Leeds and its partners to expand the global open-content pool,’’ Said Max Mosterd, Director of Content & Partnerships at Sylla. ‘‘By making open resources easier to discover and acquire, we are paving the way for a lasting culture shift towards open and personalised education.” -

Building on that foundation, the partners will collaborate with the wider academic community, including publishers and initiatives like the Knowledge Equity Network (KEN), to accelerate classroom adoption of high quality open content.

For further information, visit sylla.io or if you want to learn more please contact max.mosterd@sylla.io