The United Nations Library and Archives Geneva recently hosted a podcast featuring Jean-Claude Burgelman, Professor of Open Science at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and former Head of Unit for Open Science Policy at the European Commission.
Burgelman mentions the European Open Science Cloud as a model of a multilateral infrastructure, where data can remain local but still be accessible and usable across borders through multilateral agreements based on reciprocity.
He links the need for an Open Science cloud to broader global challenges, from accelerating innovation and responding to planetary urgencies to ensuring AI quality and safety.
“We need a global Open Science cloud where all the data for all the science that is publicly financed is available in a way anyone can use them,” says Burgelman, who is also the Director of the Frontiers Planet Prize and editor-in-chief of Frontiers Policy Lab, which works to strengthen the connection between scientific research and informed policymaking by supporting open, trusted, and accessible science.
In the podcast discussion, Burgelman explains that Open Science is about making the outputs of publicly funded research, especially data, openly available. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the power of this approach. Rapid, open sharing of data created a “knowledge pool” that accelerated vaccine development.
The full podcast was released on 31 January 2026 and is available on YouTube.
