Keynote Speech by Pierre Mounier (OPERAS): Who owns our knowledge infrastructure? Scholarly publications at the core of scientific sovereignty

On 23 March, Pierre Mounier, Chief Strategy Officer of OPERAS, delivers a keynote at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (UWB). The lecture, titled Who owns our knowledge infrastructure? Scholarly publications at the core of scientific sovereignty, marks the opening of the EUPeace Fund project Educating on Open Science and Open Infrastructures. While the on-site session will be attended by the project team, the keynote will be made available to a wider audience through a public livestream, which you can access here.

Scientific sovereignty and scholarly publishing

In his keynote, Pierre Mounier addresses the growing relevance of scientific sovereignty within the Open Science landscape. He argues that openness alone is not sufficient: research communities must also retain governance and control over the infrastructures through which knowledge is produced and shared.

Focusing on scholarly publishing, he discusses the Diamond Open Access model, which aims to ensure that research outputs remain openly accessible while being governed by the academic community rather than commercial actors.

Launch of a collaborative EUPeace initiative

The keynote serves as the starting point for the EUPeace Fund project Educating on Open Science and Open Infrastructures. The initiative brings together experts from across the EUPeace Alliance to develop joint educational formats and activities that strengthen awareness and competencies in Open Science and Open Infrastructures.

The project builds on the EUPeace Education for Open Science Strategy developed by the Alliance and seeks to translate strategic goals into practical initiatives for students, researchers, and staff.

Strengthening Open Science across the Alliance

Following the keynote, project participants will meet to discuss concrete formats for cooperation, including training activities and knowledge exchange within the Alliance. These discussions mark an important step towards embedding Open Science principles more firmly within teaching practices across EUPeace institutions.

By connecting strategic discussion with practical collaboration, the project aims to contribute to a more open, transparent, and community-governed research ecosystem.

This event is funded by the EUPeace universities.