The National Documentation Centre (EKT) organizes the International Conference " Open Access: Research-Education-Public Data". The conference,  organized with the support of SPARC Europe (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and the European Research Libraries Association (LIBER), will take place at the auditorium "Leonidas Zervas" of the National Hellenic Research Foundation ( Vassileos Konstantinou 48 Avenue, in Athens).

Academics, researchers and high-level public administrators from Greece, Europe and the USA will present their views and experiences on Open Access in research data, educational data and public data. John Willinsky, Professor at Stanford University and Director of Public Knowledge Project will deliver the keynote address. The conference is addressed to the academic and research community, libraries, educators, public administration institutions, businesses, and the wider public.The conference will present Open Access's role in the promotion of  research and scholarly communication, competitiveness, innovation and learning. Also will demostrate its role in the educational processes, transparency and in building a participatory culture among citizens. Presentations describe national and European policies, initiatives and Open Access infrastructures, international collaborations and current trends in scholarly communication and content management, as well as Open Access initiatives led by the National Documentation Centre(EKT).The conference covers the following topics:

1. Open Access to Research: Sessions on this topic will focus on the latest developments in crucial aspects of European and Greek strategies on Open Access in research, current practices in scholarly communication, infrastructures and tools that enable modern forms of research dissemination, infrastructure interoperability, alliance-building for the collection and efficient management and exploitation of digital research and cultural resources, relevant IPR issues.

2. Open Educational Resources (books, notes, exercises, multimedia presentations, interactive applications, audiovisual material etc) are available and easily accessible in digital format, free of regional and temporal barriers for key stakeholders (students, teachers etc), as well as to the wider public. A session focused on this topic will present relevant initiatives from Greece and abroad, the emerging landscape and prospects, and the obstacles that prevent the wider adoption of such resources in the educational proces

3. Open Public Data: The reuse of public data contributes to the improvement of competitiveness, innovation, the creation of new workplaces, and is one of the priorities in the digital agenda of Europe.  Presentations on this topic will focus on international, European and Greek policies and initiatives for the reuse of public sector information and on relevant IPR issuesParticipation in the conference is free, but registered users will be given priority. The official languages of the conference are Greek and English. Simultaneous translation between the two languages will be offered. This conference is part of a diverse set of initiatives that EKT systematically assumes, aiming at promoting Open Access practices and policies in Greece, and complements the organization's various development projects in this field, such as open access repositories, e-journals and other publications etc). This year's conference follows the very successful international conference organized two years ago on ‘Open Access Infrastructures for scholarly communications' (http://www.openaccess.gr/conferences/conference2008/).

Contact
 National Documentation Centre
 Vassileos Konstantinou 48 Avenue
 11635 Athens
 e-mail: openaccess@ekt.gr