The development of open educational resources (OERs) is becoming a strategic priority for
governments and education institutions around the world, in response to funding cuts and rising
costs in educational provision. In the United Kingdom, a government-sponsored Pilot
Programme on Open Educational Recourses (JISC/HEA, 2009) was launched in 2009 with an
initial budget of £5.7m. This paper reviews the key sustainability issues identified by the
projects including the different approaches and models that have been adopted in order to sustain
the continuing development and release of OER once funding has ended. The analysis also
considers the challenges relating to the development and implementation of policies and
processes for sustainable OER practice within institutions and among academics. The paper
concludes by drawing on the experiences from the wider United Kingdom and international
OER communities to develop a sustainable OER ecosystem model that can facilitate discussions
on future development of OER initiatives