“A recurring insight was the reframing of monitoring — that is, the tracking of how national systems adopt and implement Open Science practices, from open access publishing to data sharing and citizen science. No longer a technocratic afterthought, monitoring is being redefined as a strategic governance tool to align values, reinforce trust, and enable system-level change. The Open Science Monitoring Initiative (OSMI) was presented as a key vehicle for this shift. Emerging from a global consultation process led by UNESCO and initiated by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, OSMI has resulted in a set of internationally endorsed principles – published shortly after the conference – that offer a flexible, modular framework for monitoring. These principles emphasise relevance, transparency, and responsible use, and are designed to support national systems. Prioritising trust, inclusivity, and national readiness over reductive metrics, the OSMI represents a marked departure from legacy approaches. “We are not here to reproduce the H-index,” said OSMI’s co-lead Laetitia Bracco. “We are here to build trust.” That statement crystallised a wider epistemic shift in how monitoring is understood not as passive data collection, but as a negotiation of accountability, value, and knowledge-politics.”
