Our origins stem from 1995 at the University of Bath, UK. The first incarnation of our product was developed in response to a need for controlled access to online resources, funded for UK Higher Education by Jisc. In 1999 Eduserv became an independent not-for-profit organisation. In 2000 the UK NHS invested in our product. In 2006 we reached two million end-users.

Now with four million end-users, OpenAthens continues to grow. We work with seven partner organisations across the globe, which also sell and support the product. Our customer base is expansive including healthcare, education and corporates – all with a need for single sign-on to e-resources. In 2019, our parent company Eduserv merged with Jisc.

We exist to remove barriers to knowledge and connect people to information. Over 2,600 organizations use our software, equating to a worldwide network of millions of end-users. We strive to improve the end-user experience of students, patrons and employees.

To further unite the two arenas of our customer base – that of publishers (service providers) with organizations such as libraries, universities, hospitals and companies (identity providers). Together, the goal is to create a seamless end-user journey for people accessing password protected e-resources across all platforms and publications.