The cOAlition S Executive Steering Group (ESG) is the body that develops and implements Plan S strategy day to day, taking majority-vote decisions and reporting upward to the funder-led Leaders’ Group. It is chaired by Lidia Borrell-Damián, Secretary General of Science Europe, and is now working alongside Curt Rice, appointed Director in May 2026 after Johan Rooryck’s departure in July 2025.
The coalition s executive steering group is the operational engine most people mean when they ask “who actually runs Plan S” — as distinct from the Leaders’ Group, which sets overall direction but meets far less frequently. For research administrators trying to work out who to brief, lobby, or route a query to, the distinction matters.
cOAlition S is an informal alliance of research funders and performers that have publicly committed to implementing the open-access principles of Plan S; it holds no independent legal capacity of its own, according to its published Terms of Reference.
- What is the Executive Steering Group and who sits on it?
- How does the ESG fit into cOAlition S’s wider governance?
- Who leads the ESG now Curt Rice has replaced Johan Rooryck?
- What does the ESG actually decide, and how?
- Answer-first Q&A
- What this means for research administrators
What is the Executive Steering Group and who sits on it?
The Executive Steering Group is the standing body responsible for developing cOAlition S’s strategy and overseeing its implementation across member organisations. It sits below the Leaders’ Group in the governance hierarchy but is where most of the substantive, ongoing work happens.
According to cOAlition S’s published governance roster, current and recent ESG representatives include:
- Lidia Borrell-Damián (Chair) — Secretary General, Science Europe
- Zoé Ancion — ANR, French National Research Agency
- Michael Arentoft — European Commission
- Rachel Bruce — UKRI, UK Research and Innovation
- Ian Coltart — World Health Organisation
- Ashley Farley — Gates Foundation
- Mongezi Mdhluli — South African Medical Research Council
- Bodo Stern — HHMI, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Two cOAlition S Office roles — a Programme Manager and a Communications Manager — sit in the ESG in a Secretariat capacity, and Marc Schiltz, an architect of the original Plan S principles, continues as a non-voting adviser. Because national funder representatives rotate, administrators should treat any published roster as a snapshot rather than a permanent list.
How does the ESG fit into cOAlition S’s wider governance?
cOAlition S runs a four-layer structure: the Leaders’ Group (heads of funding and performing organisations, who approve overall strategy and budget), the Executive Steering Group (which develops and executes that strategy), an Experts Group (technical working groups), and the cOAlition S Secretariat, which is hosted by OPERAS AISBL in Brussels and provides day-to-day administrative and communications support.
| Body | Role | Chair / lead | Decision power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leaders’ Group | Sets overall Plan S strategy and budget | Prof. Mari Sundli Tveit, Chief Executive, Research Council of Norway | Highest authority; approves ESG proposals |
| Executive Steering Group | Develops and implements strategy; runs operations | Lidia Borrell-Damián, Science Europe | Majority vote; reports to Leaders’ Group |
| Secretariat / Office | Administrative, financial and communications support | Curt Rice, Director | Executes decisions; no independent vote |
| Experts Group | Technical and policy working groups | Rotating co-chairs | Advisory input to ESG |
The Secretariat’s own budget illustrates how much the operation has contracted: cOAlition S’s published accounts show total Office spending of €545,167 in 2025, down from €1,108,186 in 2024, with staffing falling from roughly 3 full-time-equivalent posts in 2024 to 2 in 2025 — consistent with reporting that cOAlition S is scaling back its ambitions and shifting focus toward funding sustainability.
Who leads the ESG now Curt Rice has replaced Johan Rooryck?
Prof. Johan Rooryck, cOAlition S’s Executive Director since 2019, left the role on 3 July 2025 after overseeing the coalition’s expansion to 28 research funding and performing organisations. Following his departure, the Executive Steering Group itself took on interim oversight of operations while cOAlition S undertook a strategic review.
cOAlition S announced on 13 May 2026 that Curt Rice, former rector of Oslo Metropolitan University with more than three decades in Norwegian and international higher education, would become its new Director. Notably, the title changed from “Executive Director” to “Director” — a small but real signal of a leaner operating model. The appointment coincided with the adoption of cOAlition S’s 2026–2030 Strategy, which administrators should read as the current reference document for near-term priorities.
Under the Terms of Reference, the Director leads the Secretariat team, reports to the Chair of the Executive Steering Group, and acts as cOAlition S’s main spokesperson — meaning press and policy enquiries typically route through this office rather than directly to individual ESG members.
What does the ESG actually decide, and how?
The Executive Steering Group takes decisions by majority vote among its members and reports those decisions to the Leaders’ Group. Its remit covers developing strategic input, overseeing joint programmes and funding streams, and directing cOAlition S’s public communications through the Office.
In practice this means the ESG — not the Leaders’ Group — is where day-to-day questions about Plan S implementation, transformative journal assessments, and funder-alignment issues get resolved before reaching the funders’ principals. The Leaders’ Group retains final sign-off on strategy and budget, but rarely intervenes at the operational level.
Answer-first Q&A
Who are the members of the cOAlition S Executive Steering Group?
The ESG is chaired by Lidia Borrell-Damián of Science Europe and includes representatives from funders such as UKRI, the European Commission, ANR, WHO, the Gates Foundation, HHMI, and the South African Medical Research Council, plus non-voting cOAlition S Office staff. Membership rotates as national funders change their delegates.
What is the difference between the Leaders’ Group and the Executive Steering Group?
The Leaders’ Group comprises heads of member organisations and approves overall Plan S strategy and budget. The Executive Steering Group develops that strategy in detail, runs day-to-day implementation, and takes majority-vote decisions, reporting upward to the Leaders’ Group rather than acting independently.
Who is the current Director of cOAlition S?
Curt Rice became Director on 13 May 2026, succeeding Johan Rooryck, who departed on 3 July 2025. Rice previously served as rector of Oslo Metropolitan University and leads the Secretariat team, reporting to the Chair of the Executive Steering Group.
Does the Executive Steering Group have the final say on Plan S policy?
No. The ESG develops strategy and takes operational decisions by majority vote, but the Leaders’ Group holds final authority over overall strategy and budget. The ESG’s role is to execute and report, not to set Plan S’s ultimate direction unilaterally.
What this means for research administrators
For an institution needing to raise a Plan S implementation question, engagement route should generally go through the Secretariat/Office first — now under Curt Rice’s Directorship — rather than direct outreach to individual Executive Steering Group members, who serve in a part-time, delegated capacity alongside their home-organisation roles.
Administrators tracking funder-mandate compliance for research administration purposes should also note the contraction in cOAlition S’s own resourcing: a shrinking Secretariat budget and headcount suggests slower turnaround on ad hoc queries and a narrower work programme under the 2026–2030 Strategy than in the coalition’s 2019–2023 growth phase.
- Route policy and compliance queries to the Secretariat/Office, not individual ESG delegates.
- Cite the Terms of Reference and governance page directly when briefing institutional leadership — both are publicly hosted by cOAlition S.
- Expect the 2026–2030 Strategy, not the original 2018 Plan S text, to be the live reference point for near-term commitments.
cOAlition S’s governance has moved from a growth-and-advocacy phase under Rooryck to a leaner, sustainability-focused phase under Rice and Borrell-Damián’s ESG chairmanship. Administrators who track this shift — rather than relying on the original 2018 Plan S announcement — will have a more accurate picture of who holds real influence over open-access mandates in 2026 and beyond.