The United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library in the Department of Global Communications organized the virtual webinar on Thursday, 7 May, 2026, 9:00 - 10:15 a.m. (ET). This was a side event to the 11th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (STI Forum 2026).
Open science is a cornerstone of the Pact for the Future and essential for advancing an inclusive and equity-based knowledge ecosystem. Despite growing global commitment to openness, significant structural inequities persist within the scholarly publishing and research infrastructure. These barriers disproportionately affect youth and researchers in the early stages of their careers. Limited access to publishing opportunities, research infrastructure, and global networks can constrain their ability to contribute to and benefit from the global knowledge commons.
The Declaration on Future Generations, annexed to the Pact for the Future, emphasizes equitable access to knowledge and information as essential for equipping future generations with the skills, critical thinking, and agency needed to shape a better world. The Recommendation on Open Science enshrines equitable, fair and reciprocal access to science for all producers and consumers of knowledge regardless of grounds such as their age or career stage.
UNESCO’s first global monitoring exercise on the Recommendation, drawing on reports from 81 Member States, confirms that open science implementation is progressing but unevenly. For example, while most policies focus on open access to publications and data, less attention is given to dialogue with other knowledge systems, highlighting an imbalance between openness of the products of science versus openness of the process of science and broader diversity and inclusion objectives. The monitoring data also show that systematic training for early-career researchers remains lacking in many countries, and that career progression and institutional rewards linked to open science practices are not yet widely institutionalised.
Building on the outcomes of the 4th UN Open Science and Open Scholarship Conference, this panel will explore how open science policies and infrastructures can reduce systemic inequities and empower early-career researchers as knowledge producers and full participants in the scientific enterprise. Speakers will discuss strategies to incentivize participation with a focus on the challenges of brain drain and the importance of conducting research locally, adapting global goals to the specific context, needs, and priorities of local communities.
Speakers:
- Rania Sabo, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- Batool Almarzouq, University of Edinburgh
- Madiareni Sulaiman, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN)
- Luisa Fernanda Echeverria King, Simón Bolívar University, Global Young Academy
Moderator: United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library
