Name: Connecting the Opens in Europe: From Strategy to Alliance-Building for Knowledge as a Public Good
Start: 2026-10-08T11:05:00-0400
End: 2026-10-08T11:35:00-0400

All sessions are available online except round tables and special activities.

Connecting the Opens in Europe: From Strategy to Alliance-Building for Knowledge as a Public Good

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT

2 - Salon M - 7th Floor

ID: 32921

Across Europe, open education has often developed alongside, rather than together with, related movements such as open science, open access, and open knowledge policy. Yet in a period marked by rapid digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and pressure on public-interest infrastructures, fragmentation is becoming a strategic weakness. This session examines how “connecting the opens” can provide a stronger foundation for open education by linking policy, practice, and community across sectors.

The presentation draws on three connected strands of work. First, it discusses SPARC Europe’s Connecting the Opens position paper (https://zenodo.org/records/17572650), which makes the case for intentionally aligning Open Science and Open Education to build a more equitable and future-oriented higher education system in Europe.

Second, it presents insights from the feasibility work for a possible European Open Education Alliance (https://zenodo.org/records/18862080), which identified strong support for a broader coordinating structure able to strengthen policy coherence, infrastructure conversations, shared understanding, and collective action across countries.

Third, it reflects on the contribution that community-based activities can make to sustaining exchange, experimentation, and implementation, exploring the European Network of Open Education Librarians as an example of this approach.

Rather than presenting these as separate initiatives, the session argues that they represent three layers of the same change strategy: conceptual alignment, ecosystem coordination, and community practice. Taken together, they suggest that open education can gain greater visibility, legitimacy, and impact when understood not as an isolated field but as part of a wider movement to uphold knowledge as a public good.

The session will offer participants a strategic framework and practical insights for thinking about how open education communities can connect across institutional, national, and thematic boundaries. It will be of interest to policymakers, network leaders, librarians, educators, and open practitioners seeking ways to move from dispersed activity toward durable collaboration.

Speakers

Paola Corti

Senior Open Education Expert, SPARC Europe

Paola Corti is a Senior Open Education Expert at SPARC Europe, and she manages the European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL); she supports librarians in taking action to implement the UNESCO OER Recommendation. She also works part of her time at Politecnico di Milano (Italy... Read More →

Vanessa Proudman

Director, SPARC Europe

Vanessa Proudman is Director of SPARC Europe, working to make Open the default in Europe. Vanessa has well over 20 years of experience in international, national and regional policymaking and advocacy in the areas of Open Access, Open Science, Open Culture and Open Education with... Read More →

Paul Stacey

Independent Consultant, https://paulstacey.global

Based in Vancouver Canada I'm an independent consultant specializing in the use of open education, open science, open access, and open culture. I'm currently working with SPARC Europe on initiatives related to Connecting The Opens and the formation of a European Open Education Alliance... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT
2 - Salon M - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track (Re)Inventing our Shared Global Vision Together

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OEGlobal 2026

Paola Corti

Vanessa Proudman

Paul Stacey

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Success you have shared X tickets.

OEGlobal 2026

Paola Corti

Vanessa Proudman

Paul Stacey

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