It’s been more than two months since the OPERAS 2026 & SCIROS Conference, but the discussions we had during those four intense days are still echoing through our meetings, and influencing our strategic plans and actions. As a community, we observe that open science has matured into a well-established set of values, practices, and policies, while still keeping its diversity and openness to change and adaptation. The creative ferment that arises from encountering different perspectives is what enables us to innovate and move forward. At the same time, the sustainability of the open science infrastructure has come under strain as both misinformation and the predatory appropriation of the products of science proliferate, undermining trust and equity, which are its constitutive values, and as larger policy trends of securitisation and data sovereignty question its very purpose. In this context, AI technologies represent one of the most significant and rapidly evolving areas concerning both opportunity and risk for open science.
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