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Digital transformation continues to reshape higher education, broadening access to research, teaching, and learning resources through open approaches. These include Open Access, Open Science, Open Education, Open Infrastructure, Open Innovation, and Open Source and Open Hardware. Although each area contributes to accessibility, transparency, and reuse of knowledge, they have often developed separately. SPARC Europe’s Connecting the Opens initiative seeks to address this fragmentation by promoting a coordinated approach across the sector.

Open practices in higher education are guided by shared priorities: improving access to knowledge, enhancing teaching and learning, supporting open policy implementation, reducing costs, and meeting public expectations. They also reflect a broader commitment to the public good, a central value in European higher education.

SPARC Europe has outlined a vision in which, by 2030, it will serve as a trusted European hub connecting access to research and education-related knowledge. In this role, the organization aims to act as a connector and expert voice for open frameworks, supporting institutions in developing coherent policies, strategies, infrastructure, and practices. A key element of this vision is strengthening the integration of Open Education and Open Science, which is gaining attention at institutional, national, and European levels.

The initiative emphasizes:

• Supporting higher education institutions to collaborate, build capacity, and align policies across open science and open education.
• Embracing Europe’s diversity while strengthening networks that enable shared learning and coordinated action.
• Helping policymakers and practitioners navigate the open landscape, align goals, and develop shared understanding through collaboration and knowledge exchange.
• Listening to sector needs and adapting activities to support evidence-based, practical progress.

The Connecting the Opens Hub is being developed to help universities implement a more integrated approach to openness. Its foundation is a growing evidence base built through engagement with university leaders across Europe, drawing on insights gathered through interviews conducted between 2024 and 2025.

These discussions explored institutional drivers, visions, barriers, and enabling strategies for connecting open approaches. The findings informed a position paper, The Case for Connecting the Opens (November 2025), and a leadership series that examined themes such as institutional visions, drivers of openness, challenges, and strategies for embedding openness in higher education. Upcoming installments will focus on policies, incentives, and the role of senior leadership advocacy in driving institutional change.

SPARC Europe encourages higher education professionals, policymakers, and practitioners to follow the Connecting the Opens initiative and contribute to shaping a more integrated and impactful open future.