Open access to scientific publications is already recognised as a standard for the dissemination of knowledge. Researchers publish in open access journals and deposit their works in open access repositories. All over the world institutions such as
governments, research funders and universities implement open access policies. But Open Science is not only about open access. The pilot on Open Research Data in Horizon 2020 provides a prominent example of moving towards openness of data.
The scope of Open Science also includes other phenomena, such as open notebook science or open peer-review.

All the elements of Open Science can be implemented in different ways, not all of them suited to the contemporary and future needs of our society. Therefore, a time has come for a vigorous debate on the meaning of openness for the future of science and its applications among the key stakeholders, such as researchers, universities, funders, entrepreneurs, publishers, taxpayers, etc.

The conference “Opening Science to Meet Future Challenges” will bring together diverse participants to enable an in-depth international dialogue focused on infrastructural, social, economic and legal aspects of openness (in particular, with regard
to data), aimed at a common understanding of how it should be provided in order to satisfy the public interest and meet the upcoming challenges.

The conference will take place in Warsaw, on the 11th of March 2014. It will be organised by the Centre for Open Science, which is a part of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling at the University of Warsaw. It
will benefi t from the results of an OECD workshop on open science, which will be held on the previous day and hosted by the Polish Ministry of Science.