Registration is now open for the conference ‘Yes, we are open!? Shaping Artificial Intelligence Responsibly’ on 25 March 2025

Can artificial intelligence and open knowledge strengthen each other? How free should this knowledge be? To what extent can these technologies be designed to be fair, sustainable and socially robust? These central questions are the focus of the event, which the BUA is organising in cooperation with the Weizenbaum Institute and Wikimedia Deutschland on 25 March 2025. Link to registration: https://www.berlin-university-alliance.de/commitments/research-quality/openx/KI-OS/index.html 

New website for the Berlin OpenX-Initiative

At https://berlin-university-alliance.de/openx-initiative  you can now access our new website with more information and an overview of offers, research projects and networking opportunities. Please let us know if we can add your Berlin initiative or if you are missing any information.

Course on ‘Copyright and Open Access in Scholarly Publishing’ on 12 March 2025 at the TU Berlin

There are still places available for members of the Berlin University Alliance who would like to learn more about open access and licences in an interactive session with Dr. Till Kreuzer (iRights.law). https://programm.zewk.tu-berlin.de/de/events/0190c5b9-4c5b-7f0f-863c-a781f68f079c

Personnel news: New points of contact for open science and open access at Freie Universität Berlin

This year, Freie Universität has appointed two new representatives: Prof. Dr. Frank Fischer is an expert in open science, particularly in the field of digital humanities. Dr Dennis Mischke is responsible for the open access topic from the university library. https://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/informationen/fup/2025/fup_25_010-open-science-open-access-beauftragte/index.html 

How can open science policies be developed and implemented?

Lea Ferguson (Helmholtz Open Science Office), Maike Neufend (Open Access Büro Berlin) and I recently published a guide in which we describe various ways in which open science strategies or policies can be developed and implemented. As one of five case studies, we have also summarised the development of the mission statement at the Berlin University Alliance. https://oabb.pubpub.org/open-science-policies-eine-handreichung 

Ambassadors for Open Science

If you have any questions about various open science topics, you can also ask experts directly at your faculty. Through our Open Science Ambassador program, you can currently reach 25 experts at 8 faculties and one cluster of excellence. https://www.berlin-university-alliance.de/commitments/research-quality/openx/os-botschafter-innen/index.html 

CoARA, Reform der Forschungsbewertung: Empfehlungen for Forschungseinrichtungen und Hochschulen in Berlin

Wie gelingt die Reform der Forschungsbewertung hin zu mehr qualitativen und transparenten Verfahren? Mit dem Zusammenschluss in der „Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment“ – kurz: CoARA – versuchen mehr als 700 Wissenschaftsorganisationen, eine Verbesserung der Forschungsbewertung zu erreichen. Zusammen mit der UB an der Freien Universität Berlin hat das OABB kürzlich ein Empfehlungspapier publiziert. https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-access-berlin/2025/01/27/coara-empfehlungspapier/?utm_medium=service-nl&utm_source=kum&utm_campaign=01-2025