We are delighted to announce the keynote speakers for Open Repositories 2026, which takes place online from June 8-11, 2026.

Opening Keynote Panel

Moderator

Kathleen Shearer

Kathleen Shearer is the Executive Director of COAR. She has been a prominent figure in open access, open science, scholarly communications, and research data management for over 20 years. Over the past 15 years, she has worked through COAR to build a truly global coalition of repositories and repository networks, ensuring that repositories are recognized as foundational infrastructure for open science. Based in Montreal, Canada, she actively contributes to numerous organizations working to advance open science at a global scale including the Research Data Alliance, UNESCO Open Science Working Groups. One of her major achievements has been leading COAR’s Next Generation Repositories Initiative and the COAR Notify Project, which have set new standards and practices to enhance repositories’ functionality.

Panelists

Danny Kingsley

Dr. Danny Kingsley is Director of Library Services (Information) at Deakin University and an Ambassador for the OAPEN Library of open access books. As a thought leader in the international scholarly communication space, she has worked for universities across Australia and was Deputy Director of Cambridge University Libraries. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. She established Open Access Australasia in 2013 and sits on multiple committees including the Australian National Open Science Taskforce, and the Library Board of Open Journals Collective.

Lautaro Matas

Lautaro Matas is Technical Manager at LA Referencia, the federated open science network of Latin America and Spain. He previously served as Executive and Technical Director (2020–2025) and has led the development of the LA Referencia platform. He studied Computer Science at the University of Buenos Aires and has over two decades of experience working at the intersection of scholarly communication, open science infrastructure, and information systems. His previous roles include work with Centro REDES, RICYT, and CAICYT-CONICET, where he coordinated the implementation of SciELO Argentina and led the development of tools for patent analysis and strategic intelligence.

Between 2009 and 2019, he contributed to the Ibero-American Observatory of Science, Technology and Society (OEI), where he coordinated and developed the Intelligo platform—an open discovery system for repositories and patent data based on natural language processing and machine learning.

His current work focuses on federated infrastructure for open science, metadata aggregation, persistent identifiers, multilingual discovery, and the application of AI and decentralized technologies to improve global access to knowledge.

Omo Oaiya

Omo Oaiya is a leading strategist and passionate advocate for National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Africa. He currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN), where he shapes regional strategies for advancing research and education infrastructure. As WACREN’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO), he laid the technical foundations that enable today’s digital collaboration across the region.

Omo leads LIBSENSE, a pioneering pan‑African initiative that connects NREN‑enabled infrastructure with librarian and research communities to strengthen open science and repositories across the continent. He is also a certified SIM3 Auditor and a contributor to TrustBroker Africa (TBA), which builds cybersecurity maturity and trust among African NRENs and their global partners. With a career dedicated to digital equity and open knowledge, Omo continues to drive innovation, capacity‑building, and community collaboration across Africa’s research and education landscape.

Kazu Yamaji

Kazu Yamaji received his Ph.D. degree in Systems and Information Engineering from the Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan, in 2000. Currently he is a professor and the Deputy General Manager, Cyber Science Infrastructure Development Department at the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Japan. His primary research interests include modeling and developing trusted e-science space in order to share and reuse research materials.

Closing Keynote

Kathleen Gregory

Kathleen Gregory is a scholar working within the fields of library and information science and science and technology studies.  Her research focuses on scholarly communication practices and infrastructures, including those related to open science, research data, and research evaluation. Her most recent work investigates how open COVID-19 data/infrastructures are sustained. She is a Researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University and a Research Fellow at the Research on Research Institute.