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 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
 

13:00 – 13:30 Welcome and opening remarks

Provisional opening remarks line-up

  • Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University; Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
  • 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

Open Science State of Play

  • Progress of Open Science Recommendation & Brief on Scholarly Publishing, Dr. Ana Persic, Programme Specialist at the Section of Science Technology Innovation Policy at the UNESCO

13:30 – 14:45 Panel 1

  • Jane Andrew, University of Sydney
  • Michaela Bilic-Merdes, German Research Foundation 

BREAK

15:00 – 16:15 Panel 2

  • Sadao Kurohashi, National Institute of Informatics
  • Bishesh Khanal, Nepal Applied Mathematics and Informatics Institute

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
 

10:00 – 10:30 Welcome and Opening Remarks

  • High-Level Speakers

10:30 – 11:45 Panel 3

  • Moderator: Patrick Paul Walsh, Sustainable Development Solutions Network
  • David Oliva Uribe, UNESCO
  • Zeynep Varoglu, UNESCO

BREAK

13:00 – 14:15 Panel 4

BREAK

14:30 – 15:45 Panel 5

  • Sefakor Ankora, West and Central African Research and Education Network
  • Mikiko Tanifuji, National Insitute of Informatics (NII)

BREAK

16:00 – 17:00 Keynote Speaker

17:15 – 17:30 Closing remarks

 

Saturday, October 18

Science Communication and Public Engagement
 

10:00 – 10:15 Welcome and opening remarks

10:15 – 11:15 Keynote Speaker

BREAK

11:30 – 12:45 Panel 6

  • Karen Soacha, Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC); Iberoamerican Participatory Science Network (RICAP)
  • Afek Ben Chahed, Diocesan Library; Wikimedia
  • Hu Chuan-Peng, Nanjing Normal University

BREAK

14:00 -15:15 Panel 7

BREAK

15:30 - 16:30 Closing Keynote

  • Maher Nasser, Assistant Secretary General and Commissioner-General of the United Nations at Expo 2025

 

[More details to come]