The READ consortium together with several other institutions is currently preparing the foundation of a legal entity (working title: READ-COOP) which will serve as the basis for sustaining and further developing the Transkribus platform and related services.
The governance model will be based on the EU directive for European Cooperative Societies (SCE). Though the SCE will be set up according to EU law it will be open to members outside of the European Community as well.
An SCE
- is a legal entity that allows its members to carry out common activities, while preserving their independence
- has the principal objective of satisfying its members’ needs and not the return of capital investment
- allows members to benefit proportionally to their profit and not to their capital contribution.