Today, SPARC and the Right to Research Coalition, in partnership with the Max Planck Society, are excited to announce that OpenCon 2017 will take place on November 11-13 in Berlin, Germany at the Max Planck Society’s Harnack House.

OpenCon is more than a conference. It’s a platform for the next generation to learn about Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data, develop critical skills, and catalyze action toward a more open system for sharing the world’s information—from scholarly and scientific research, to educational materials, to digital research data. OpenCon 2017 is at the center of a growing community of thousands of students and early career academic professionals from across the world working to create an open system for research and education.

OpenCon brings together the most energetic, engaged students and early career academic professionals—regardless of their ability to cover travel costs. Because of this, attendance at OpenCon is by application only, and the majority of past participants have received travel scholarships.

Applications to attend OpenCon 2017 in Berlin, Germany will open on June 27th. For more information about the conference and to sign up for updates, visit www.opencon2017.org/updates.

OpenCon 2017’s three-day program will begin with two days of keynotes, panels, and interactive workshops. OpenCon places an emphasis on highlighting diverse, early career voices, while complementing them with leading experts, such as Jimmy Wales (Co-founder of Wikipedia), Amy Rosenbaum (Director of Legislative Affairs to US President Barack Obama), and Julia Reda (Member of the European Parliament). The third day will feature an all-day “do-a-thon,” where participants have the opportunity to craft new campaigns, lay the foundations for new resources, and form collaborations that will continue long after the November conference is over.

Organized by the Right to Research Coalition and SPARC, OpenCon 2017 builds on the success of the first three OpenCon conferences, which collectively convened approximately 500 participants from 80 countries. In addition, OpenCon’s unique structure has supported 70 satellite events, enabling over 4,100 attendees across 32 countries to participate in an in-person OpenCon event. Throughout the year, hundreds of these individuals remain engaged through monthly community calls, regular webcasts, and a very active community discussion list. To learn more about OpenCon’s theory of change and the impact of the OpenCon community, click here to download the newly released OpenCon Community Report.

Satellite events will continue to be central to the success of OpenCon in allowing the community to scale. OpenCon satellite events are independently hosted meetings that mix content from the main conference with live presenters to localize the discussion and bring the energy of an in-person OpenCon event to a larger audience. These events are an excellent way to discover those interested in Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data within your community, build support, and catalyze action. If you or your organization are interested in hosting a satellite event, more information is available at www.opencon2017.org/satellite.

The OpenCon conference and community are only possible with the support of leading organizations with a strong commitment to support student and early career academic professional involvement across Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data. We deeply appreciate the support of our past sponsors, including the Max Planck Society, PLOS, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, eLife, BioMed Central, SpringerOpen, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Wikimedia Foundation, Overleaf, Microsoft Research, Figshare, Creative Commons USA, and the more than 30 universities and organizations that have sponsored individual scholarships. If your organization is interested in supporting OpenCon, you can find more information and a variety of sponsorship opportunities at www.opencon2017.org/sponsor.

Applications to attend OpenCon 2017 open June 27th. For more information about the conference and to sign up for updates, visit www.opencon2017.org/updates.  You can follow OpenCon on Twitter at @Open_Con or #opencon, and on Facebook.

SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is a global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries through the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education. Learn more at sparcopen.org.

The Right to Research Coalition is an international alliance of graduate and undergraduate student organizations, which collectively represent millions of students in over 100 countries around the world, that advocate for and educate students about open methods of scholarly publishing.  The Right to Research Coalition is a project of SPARC.

The Max Planck Society is Germany's leading organization for basic research. Since its establishment in 1948, no fewer than 18 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists, putting it on a par with the best and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. Since initiating the “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities” in 2003 the Max Planck Society is pursuing a broad and comprehensive OA agenda. The Max Planck Society is committed to persistently support Open Access on all levels. Therefore the Max Planck Society is proud to host OpenCon 2017 at the Harnack House, the society’s conference center and the place of birth of the “Berlin Declaration”.