In a recent talk for learned societies, former Open Access Envoy to the European Commission Jean-Claude Burgelman explored what the publishing landscape could look like in 5-10 years. What will be the role of scholarly societies, and how can they engage with the transition? 

Jean-Claude Burgelman is professor open science at the Free University of Brussels.

He retired from the EC on 1-3-2020. There he was the Open Access Envoy of the European Commission DG RTD. Until 1-8-2019 he was the head of Unit Open Science at DG RTD and his team developed the EC’s policies on open science, the science cloud, open data, and access.

He joined the European Commission in 1999 as a Visiting Scientist in the Joint Research Centre (the Institute of Prospective Technological Studies – IPTS), where he became Head of the Information Society Unit in 2005. In January 2008, he moved to the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (attached to the president of the EC) as adviser for innovation policy. Since 1-10-2008, he joined DG RTD, as adviser and then Head of Unit in charge of top-level advisory boards like the European Research and Innovation Area Board, the Innovation for Growth Group and the European Forum for Forward-Looking Activities.

Until 2000 he was full Professor of Communication Technology Policy at the Free University of Brussels, as well as director of the Centre for Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication and was involved in science and technology assessment. He has been visiting professor at the University of Antwerp, the European College of Bruges and the University of South Africa and sits on several academic journals. He chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Innovation and was a member of its Science Advisory Committee.