Reimagining Research Value in the Age of Open Science

📅 Date: 29-30 September 2025

🏁 Start: 09:30 h

📍 Location: “Boris Hristov” House of Culture, Plovdiv, ul. "Gladston" 15

🎯 Type: Hybrid

🧑‍🚀 Participants: researchers, policy makers, NGO representatives, librarians

🎤 Working Language: The event will be bilingual (in English and in Bulgarian) without a translation option.  

🎟️ Resume: The AURA Open Access & Repository Session, part of the 17th International Conference ERIS 2025, explores how Open Science reshapes research and knowledge sharing. The programme brings together international experts, policy makers, librarians, and researchers to discuss open access, libraries, and knowledge infrastructures; digitisation and cultural heritage; open science philosophies and trust; and FAIR data, research data management, and training. Each session features keynote talks, case studies, and innovative practices from across Europe and beyond, encouraging dialogue between academia, cultural institutions, and policy makers. By highlighting diverse perspectives—from open metrics to citizen science—the session underscores the importance of equity, transparency, and collaboration in research. This hybrid event aims to strengthen global engagement with Open Science and its transformative impact on society.

The event is organised by the AURA project, which has been funded via a cascading grant of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) and focuses on Bulgaria.

Programme

September 29, 2025 (Monday)

Please note that this event will be hybrid. 

📍 Location of the in person sessions: “Boris Hristov” House of Culture, Plovdiv, ul. "Gladston" 15 

09:30 – 10:00 Welcome coffee

10:00 – 10:10 Opening

  • Prof. Ivan Koytchev, Chair of ERIS Conference

10:10 – 11:15 Session 1: Open Science and Open Reviews
Chair: Ivan Koytchev

  • Opening Keynote: Elena Giglia (University of Turin, Italy)
    What if we had not Open Science? The value and potential of openness
    Abstract: Everyone is talking about Open Science, but sometimes we miss its real value, or we see it as the umptenth administrative burden. In this talk, we shall compare research (and life) in a closed world versus an open one, focusing on the potential to create a more collaborative, inclusive and efficient research environment for the benefit of science and society, avoiding "openwashing" and really trying to make Open Science "the new normal".
  • Mikhail Bukhtoyarov & Anna Bukhtoyarova (Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Montenegro) — How Many AI Reviewers is Enough?
  • Welcome address from Prof. Kostadin Kostadinov – Advisor of the Minister of Education and Science in Bulgaria

11:15 – 12:30 Session 2: Digitisation of Cultural Heritage and Open Access and Specialised Repositories
(this session will be in Bulgarian)

Chair: Irina Temnikova (in Bulgarian)

  • Guest speaker: Dr Desislava Sevova (Bulgarian Telegraph Agency) — Digitisation in the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Archive
  • Teodora L. Kostadinova (National Library 'Ivan Vazov') —Open Source, Open Science and libraries
  • Georgi Vassilev (IICT-BAS) —Design and Validation of a Self-Hosted Multi-User VR Collaboration Platform
  • Svetlana Kostova (SU 'St. Kliment Ohridski') — Ornamental Art in Open Access Publications (1830–1930) for Open Science
  • Todor Nenov (Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts "Prof. Asen Diamandiev" - Plovdiv) —Virtual video tour of a cultural heritage site in Plovdiv

  • Daniela Mihaylova, IICT-BAS —Reimagining Museum Experiences: 360° Photography as a Tool for Accessibility and Engagement in Cherni Osam

12:30 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 14:00 Session 3: Access and Use as Open Access Enablers

Chair: Ruslana Margova

  • Alice MacKenzie (University of Strathclyde, UK) —Open Science at National Libraries to Serve Remote Research
  • Alpaslan Hamdi Kuzucuoğlu (Istanbul Medeniyet University, Turkey) — Open Access and Digital Memory in UNESCO Cultural Heritage Sites: The Case of Istanbul Historical Sites
  • Priscila Maria de Jesus (Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil) — Open Access in Brazilian Museums: Perspectives and Challenges
  • Hamizah Hamzah (University of Strathclyde, UK) — How FAIR are UK Memory Institutions? Invisible heritage of Muslim migrants
  • Katja Zahra Camilleri (University of Malta Library, Malta) — Kollezzjoni Programmi tal-Festa: Bridging Academic Libraries and Local Communities

14:00 – 14:15 Coffee Break

14:15 – 15:30 Session 4: Education and Skills

Chair: Elena Giglia

  • Guest speaker: Professor Gregory Makrides, University of the National Education Commission, Krakow, Poland, President of the European Federation of STEAME Teacher Facilitators Academies, Coordinator, STEAME-Academy project — STEAME-ACADEMY: STEAME Teacher Facilitators Certification through the European STEAME Regional Academies

  • Izabel Popova, IICT-BAS —Application of 3D Printing in School Education

  • Aristotelis Sourlis (University of Strathclyde) — Citizen Science within Open Science: Community Outreach and Societal Change

  • Joseph Mathew Mwalubanda (Tanzania Institute of Accountancy) — AI in Higher Education: Readiness of Tanzanian libraries

15:30 – 15:45 Coffee Break

15:45 – 16:45 Session 5: Open Science Philosophies, Trust, and Equity
(in Bulgarian)

Chair: Desislava Sevova

  • Galina Momcheva (Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) — Evaluating the quality of researchers
  • Maria Alexandrova (Analyse This Ltd) — Restoring the Trust in Social Science – Providing feedback during data collection
  • Rumyana Toleva (SU 'St. Kliment Ohridski') — Modern Open Science through the Lens of Ancient Philosophy of Yoga

16:45 – 17:00 Break

17:00 – 18:00 Session 6: Unlocking Insights with FAIR Data and Open Repositories

Chair: Milena Dobreva

  • Elitsa Foteva & Michaela Stancheva (Sofia University) — Genom under lock 2.0

  • Ruslana Margova & Irina Temnikova (GATE Institute, Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski)—Problems with Multilingualism as a Tool in Open Science for Equity and Inclusion

Closing keynote

  • Thomas Rhys Evans, Professor in Occupational Psychology and Open Scholarship at the University of Greenwich — The Role of Feedback in Open and Responsible Research: Reflections from a Global Transdisciplinary Survey

18:00 – 18:15 Closing Remarks