Conference Programme

The programme of the 4th UN Open Science and Open Scholarship Conference is organized across three days, each focusing on a specific theme of the Conference. Each day includes panels, keynote presentations, and remarks from high-level speakers across the United Nations System. The Conference will be delivered in English with simultaneous translation to Japanese and Spanish.

The Conference also includes a closed-door session, “Open Science and the Pact for the Future.” This session will not be streamed and is open to members of the Advisory Committee to the Conference and invited guests.


All program times are listed in Japan Standard Time (JST, UTC+9)

This list continuously updates as the programme evolves. 

Thursday, October 16

AI, Open Science, and the Global Digital Divide
 

12:00 – 12:45 Registration 

13:00 – 13:30 Welcome and opening remarks

  • Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University; Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
  • Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, DESA [video message]
  • Dr. Lidia Brito, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences [video message]
  • Kaoru Nemoto, Director United Nations Information Centre in Tokyo
  • Thanos Giannakopoulos, Chief UN Information Management Section & Dag Hammarskjöld Library

13:30 – 13:45 Open Science State of Play

  • Progress of Open Science Recommendation & Brief on Scholarly Publishing, Ana Persic, UNESCO, Section of Science Technology Innovation Policy

13:45 – 14:45 Panel 1

BREAK

15:00 – 16:00 Panel 2

  • Moderator: Roheena Anand, Public Library of Science (PLOS)
  • Sadao Kurohashi, National Institute of Informatics; Kyoto University
  • Bishesh Khanal, Nepal Applied Mathematics and Informatics Institute
  • Nayat Sánchez-Pi, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique (Inria); Inria Chile; Binational Franco-Chilean Center on Artificial Intelligence 

BREAK

16:30 – 17:30 Keynote Speaker

17:30 – 17:45 Closing remarks

 

Friday, October 17

Removing Barriers to Knowledge: Open Infrastructure and the Future of Scientific Access
 

09:00 - 9:45 Registration

10:00 Welcome

10:05 - 11:00 Opening Panel

  • Moderator: Bregt Saenen, Science Europe
  • Phoebe Koundouri, Athens University of Economics and Business & University of Cambridge; Co-Chair, United Nations IGS Global Sustainable Development Report; President, World Council of Environmental and Resource Economists Associations; Director, AE4RIA 
  • Yensi Flores-Bueso, Global Young Academy
  • Stephen Wyber, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

BREAK

11:15 – 12:30 Panel 3

LUNCH BREAK (lunch not provided)

14:00 – 15:15 Panel 4

BREAK

15:45 – 17:00 Panel 5

17:00 – 17:15 Closing remarks

 

Saturday, October 18

Science Communication and Public Engagement
 

10:00 – 10:05 Welcome

10:05 – 10:15 State of Play: Pact for the Future Implementation

10:15 – 11:15 Keynote Speaker

BREAK

11:30 – 12:45 Panel 6

LUNCH BREAK (lunch not provided)

14:00 -15:15 Panel 7

BREAK

15:30 - 16:30 Closing Keynote Panel

  • Moderator: Kiki Bowman, United Nations University
  • Mahaletchumy Arujanan, Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre
  • Maher Nasser, Assistant Secretary General and Commissioner-General of the United Nations at Expo 2025

16:30 - 16:45 Conference Close

 

[More details to come]