PURPOSE AND PRINCIPLES

VeriMe believes that it is possible and desirable to innovate in multiple dimensions. If the goal is to provide open research infrastructure, it is necessary to explore the technology, community engagement, and decision-making aspects that together are the infrastructure.

Since research infrastructure derives value from researcher participation, VeriMe has developed a cooperative organizational and governance structure that recognizes and rewards researcher participation. We also recognize the people who build VeriMe in this structure. Researchers and staff may participate as VeriMe Members, and take part in our governance as well as profit distributions. Members are responsible for ensuring VeriMe remains aligned with our principles, reviewing our budget, and for assuring our living will provisions.

We encourage you to read our governing documents. On this page you will find our guiding principles, code of conduct, articles of incorporation, and our bylaws. Feel free to re-use what works for your organization. And please get in touch to share your ideas and experiences!

OUR PRINCIPLES

The VeriMe Cooperative adopts and subscribes to the seven International Cooperative Alliance Cooperative principles:

1.   Voluntary and Open Membership

2.   Democratic Member Control

3.   Members' Economic Participation

4.   Autonomy and Independence

5.   Education, Training, and Information

6.   Cooperation among Cooperatives

7.   Concern for Community

In addition, the Cooperative subscribes to the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure:

  • Transparent governance and living will

  • Purpose-consistent revenue generation based on services and financial sustainability

  • Open documentation of policies and processes, including where applicable software code, description of operational components, and use of existing open infrastructures and frameworks such as FAIR and CARE and persistent identifiers. 

Our Governance

VeriMe is a membership cooperative dedicated to identity verification by and for researchers.

VeriMe provides a secure, researcher-owned and directed digital identity that enables verified access without exposing personal data.

VeriMe is an open research infrastructure supported by our Members and Subscribers. Researchers may create an account and link it to their ORCID record for no fee. Researcher Members may access services to verify identity using official documents and may also take part in VeriMe governance.

  • Verime is committed to conducting its business ethically and transparently. Integrity and honesty underlie all of our community relationships. Our Code of Conduct articulates our high expectations for our Members and stakeholders: listen first, and actively practice good judgment, diplomacy, and courtesy in our interactions with each other and our community. Our goal is to foster a values-based culture in which each individual within our organization and across our community feels welcome, respected, and treated with dignity, while also recognizing the personal responsibility each of us has in creating and maintaining that culture. 

  • VeriMe Cooperative (the “Cooperative”) is a limited cooperative association organized under the Colorado Uniform Limited Cooperative Association Act, C.R.S. Title 7, Article 58 (“ULCAA”). The Cooperative’s business shall be conducted on a cooperative basis for the mutual benefit of the Cooperative’s Members.  The Cooperative may have offices in such places as the Board may from time to time determine or the purposes of the Corporation may require. Our Articles of Incorporation were filed on 1 May 2025 withe the State of Colorado.

  • Our bylaws describe our governance structure, membership classes, requirements for patronage distributions, decision-making processes, and specify our living will provisions. You may review and comment on our bylaws in this open document.

  • VeriMe Members include Researchers, Workers, and Founders.

    The Membership Agreement specifies buy-in provisions, annual fees, activity requirements for patronage distributions, and governance access and expectations.

    At launch (2025) the Researcher Member fee is US$60 per year. Researcher Members are required to maintain the currency of their contact information and undergo an annual identity verification to be eligible for patronage distributions.

    Patronage distributions come in the form of credit points that can be applied to the annual membership fee or other products and services available through the VeriMe marketplace (launching in 2026).

    We will be releasing the Researcher Member Agreement at the same time we launch VeriMe account services.

Our Values in Action

  • We serve researchers: We design the user experience for researchers to support their control of their account, obtain credit for their contributions, and participate in governance.

  • We take an ecosystem approach: We collaborate and interoperate with our stakeholders to support community-level integration and impact.

  • We put privacy first: We concentrate the work of identity verification so that everyone benefits.

  • We build for the long term:  We prioritize reliability and leverage proven and open source technology as VeriMe's foundation, and in kind, make our work available under an Apache 2.0 license.

  • We are fiscally responsible: We are an open research infrastructure supported by our Members and parties that integrate VeriMe services into research workflows. As a co-op our earnings are redistributed to our Members and reinvested in our platform.