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In September 2024, at the Summit of the Future, all 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted the action-oriented Pact for the Future. The Pact underscores that science is instrumental for the three pillars of the United Nations – sustainable development, peace and security, and human rights. Recognizing the potential for science to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Pact supports policies toward open science and open innovation to help bridge science gaps especially in developing countries. The right to participate in and benefit from science remains fundamental to human progress and a long-standing international commitment, recognized in article 27.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and through multiple and wide-ranging science-policy interface and special measures to remove obstacles to exercising that right.  

Despite these significant commitments, billions of people – especially in developing countries – still lack meaningful access to participate in and benefit from critical scientific knowledge, research infrastructure, and emerging technologies. Open science and open scholarship provide a transformative pathway to reverse these trends, fostering multilateral cooperation, responsible innovation, and the equitable dissemination of knowledge. As stated in the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, we must ensure “reciprocal access to science for all producers and consumers of knowledge regardless of their location, nationality, race, age, gender, income, socio-economic circumstance, career stage, discipline, language, religion, disability, ethnicity, migratory status or any other grounds”.  

Organized by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library of the Department of Global Communications in collaboration with the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division of Sustainable Development Goals and UNESCO’s Division of Science Policy and Capacity-Building, the 4th United Nations Open Science and Open Scholarship Conference will serve as a platform to advance these principles as key priorities in the international agenda for implementing the Pact for the Future. From 16-18 October, 2025, the conference will convene policymakers, IGO representatives, researchers, scholars, librarians, publishers, and civil society, both online and in person United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, Japan. It will serve as an urgent call to accelerate transformations in science and scholarship in alignment with actions 28-33 of the Pact of the Future, to map progress in national and international efforts towards opening the record of science, and to inspire collaborative actions and coalitions to expedite progress ensuring no country, community, or individual is left behind.