Open Call for Participation: 15th Berlin Open Access Conference: Adapt and Advance (Deadline: July 02, 2021)

15th Berlin Open Access Conference: Adapt and Advance Open Call for Participation September 28 – October 01, 2021 The 15th Berlin Open Access Conference (B15): Adapt and Advance, will be co-hosted by the University of California (UC) and Open Access 2020 Initiative (OA2020), and held virtually from September 28 to October 01, 2021. To facilitate global participation, the event will be offered twice: track 1 for the Americas, Australia and Oceania; and track 2 for Europe, Africa and Asia. To ensure B15 offers attendees ample opportunity to discuss, share and collaborate, participation will be limited to 200 people per track.  Similar to prior Berlin Conferences, B15 will assemble members of the global research community interested in furthering transformative open access frameworks, where publisher subscription agreements are transitioned into open access publishing models. B15 workshops and sessions will support both those who have already begun signing transformative agreements and those looking to build capacity in planning for negotiations. The conference will address key topics, including:

• Negotiating open access in the context of heightened budget pressures;
• Challenges surrounding transitioning society journals and high-rejection rate journals;
• Transformative agreements in the context of lower income countries; and
• Potential for greater impact through partnership (e.g. between funders and institutions, high output/low output institutions, etc.).

To facilitate broad participation, a global open call for attendees has been established with criteria for the anticipated cohort (see immediately below); applicants fulfilling the criteria will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis until geographic representation is reached. Criteria for the anticipated B15 cohort: 

• Global representation of the research community, with national, senior leadership preferred; for countries without applicable national organizations (e.g. without a national library consortium or research council), broad, regional and university representation is sought;
• A spectrum of experience in advancing transformative open access, including those who have not yet initiated transformative negotiations but seek to do so;
• Broad organizational representation (e.g. higher education and research administration; university librarians and national/regional consortium leaders; academic communities and faculty governance; research funding organizations; ministries of research, education and innovation);
• Both new and prior Berlin Open Access Conference attendees.

Those interested in attending B15 are also encouraged to coordinate with relevant local, regional or national stakeholders and prepare a single, joint application, if possible. For example, a joint application could be submitted for a triad of attendees composed of: a research library leader, faculty governance representative and higher education administrator; or a consortium senior leader, funder and research council or university rectors conference representative. If you have any questions about B15, please contact b15conference@oa2020.org. B15 application forms are due July 02; successful applicants will be notified no later than August 01.