News

On Monday, 24 November 2025, the Athena Research Center and the Library of the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens co-organized, at the Library’s Small Amphitheater, a particularly vibrant informational event dedicated to the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information. This initiative, now a key reference point in the international discussion on Open Science, was at the forefront of interest for the Greek academic and research community.

 

With both in-person attendance and online participation, the event attracted significant interest from the public as well as from researchers and academics. Its goals were to examine how Greece is actively contributing to the shaping of a more transparent, collaborative, and equitable ecosystem for scientific information, and to discuss the opportunities for Greek research and academic organizations to engage with the Barcelona Declaration initiative.

 

The event opened with greetings from the Dean of the Faculty of Law of NKUA, Professor Konstantinos Christodoulou, and the President of the Board & General Director of the Athena Research Center (2021–2025), Professor Yannis Emiris.

 

Dean Christodoulou highlighted the critical importance of Creative Commons licenses, noting that they constitute a powerful tool enabling free yet non-commercial use of creators’ work, while simultaneously safeguarding moral rights of attribution. He emphasized that issues of open access go beyond technical approaches and have broader social implications, as the reuse and valorization of knowledge must respect researchers’ rights and aim at collective benefit.

 

Professor Emiris, presenting the role and mission of Athena, underscored that Open Science lies at the heart of its research activities, stressing that “progress in research multiplies when algorithms, data, and publications are open and accessible to the scientific community”. At the same time, he highlighted that new technologies, especially AI introduce new requirements for transparency, proper data management, and interdisciplinary approaches, so that innovation develops in a democratic, controlled, and publicly beneficial manner.

 

In the main part of the event, a series of distinguished speakers presented different aspects of the emerging landscape shaped by the Barcelona Declaration. Bianca Kramer, Executive Director of the initiative, highlighted its international character and philosophy, pointing to the need for open, verifiable, and reusable research data.

The presentations that formed the event’s program facilitated a multifaceted and meaningful dialogue on the quality and management of open data, the technical and organizational challenges institutions face, and the training needs of researchers. Through the diverse perspectives of the speakers, it became clear that the Greek research community is increasingly recognizing the value of open research information and exploring ways to participate actively in shaping a system that effectively serves scientific progress.

 

The event was partially funded by the European project SciLake, supported by the Horizon Europe program (Grant Agreement No. 101058573).