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Connecting the Opens: The Leadership series
# Connecting the Opens: The Leadership series
31st August 2026News, Open Access, Open Education, Open Science
European higher education has never been more open – and yet, its various open initiatives are often pursued in isolation, each falling short of its full potential. Across six instalments, SPARC Europe’s Connecting the Opens leadership series has presented a clear strategic proposition: Open Science, Open Education, Open Access and other Opens should not be managed as separate agendas. Connecting them can create synergies that strengthen impact, equity, and efficiency, resulting in a more robust and equitable higher education ecosystem.
The series stems from SPARC Europe’s Connecting the Opens programme, which sets out to broaden the open agenda by making the case for European public universities to connect open science, open education, and other opens. As part of this effort, in 2024 and 2025 we interviewed rectors, chancellors, library directors, deans, and other institutional leaders from across Europe who are driving the Open agenda forward, seeking to better understand how these various “Opens” can be connected in practice. We shared leadership thoughts through a position paper and a series of items.
We laid the groundwork for the series with a position paper that provides the context and reasoning behind the core themes explored in the items that followed. In it, the connected opens are described as rooted in open education and open source traditions, building inclusive, value-driven communities that encourage sharing, interdisciplinarity, and ethical scholarship. The connected opens break down the silos of open initiatives both within and across institutions.
A series of items then went on to address key aspects to connecting the opens, including the vision, drivers of openness, challenges, strategies, policies and incentives, and the role of senior leadership. The series began by framing the strategic vision: repositioning the university from an isolated institution into an active node within a global knowledge network, where open is not just a vision for ensuring equitable access to knowledge and education for all, but a mindset and a catalyst for cultural change. It then examined the drivers of openness – accessibility, innovation, policy mandates, and funding pressures – establishing that the business case for openness extends well beyond cost reduction alone.
Naming the challenges in pursuing the connected opens was presented as the first step toward addressing them: commercial structures within scholarly communication, misaligned academic incentives and reward systems, and gaps in institutional infrastructure and capacity are common issues. The series then set out institutional strategies, demonstrating how leading universities are consolidating fragmented initiatives into coherent “open by design” frameworks, built on infrastructure, skills, reward and recognition, governance, and active student co-creation.
The fifth item addressed policies and incentives, outlining how frameworks such as CoARA and career-linked rewards are being used to align individual motivations with institutional and societal goals. The series closed by examining the role of senior leadership, arguing that leadership engagement must go to active participation in embedding openness within institutional strategies, governance structures, and policy frameworks.
Each item closed with a set of actionable points, offering leadership teams concrete guidance on the path to connecting the opens. Together, these six items constitute a strategic roadmap, positioning the opens not as a matter of efficiency or compliance, but as a deliberate strategy for the modern university.
### Looking ahead
Our forthcoming Case Studies series will show what connecting the opens looks like in practice and how institutions are turning vision into action, with concrete approaches and results. You can find the full series in our Hub for Connecting the Opens. We invite you to sign up for our mailing list and follow SPARC Europe and #ConnectingTheOpens on social media to know more.
Tags: connecting the opens, leadership, open access, open education, open science