The Open Education Global Conference is the largest global conference for researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and educators that explores open education and its impact on education worldwide.   

On 23-25 May 2022, Frontiers for Young Minds participated in the three-day OE Global Conference in France, which focused on the connection between open education and the five action areas of the UNESCO Open Educational Resources (OER) Recommendation: capacity building, policy, access, sustainability, and international cooperation. Hosted by OEGlobal and Nantes University under the patronage of UNESCO, the conference saw over 270 in-person participants from around the world who were able to enjoy three days of 99 multi-lingual sessions delivered in English, French, Arabic, and Spanish by 95 speakers. The “AND Conference” livestreaming tracks also enabled many more global participants to dial in and watch recordings of sessions that were outside their time zones. 

Photo credit: Frontiers  

Paul Stacey, executive director at Open Education Global, commented, "Open Education Global is thrilled to have convened the global open education community in Nantes France and online at our 2022 conference. This year, in support of the UNESCO Open Educational Resources recommendation, participants from around the world showcased the unique ways "open" makes education resilient to crises like the pandemic and provides a means for all citizens everywhere to actively participate in and benefit from education. Frontiers for Young Minds is a stellar example of how children themselves can influence science directly, contribute to open access research, and help create world class open educational resources available to teachers all over the world. Big thanks to everyone involved in this work.”  

Will Savage, journal manager for Frontiers for Young Minds, was present at the Sponsor booth, leading engaging discussions on open pedagogy and how young people can become peer reviewers and moderators of scientific literature. Frontiers for Young Minds was praised for modelling such a unique, inclusive, and co-creative process for open pedagogy.  Laura Henderson, head of public outreach program at Frontiers, delivered a livestream session highlighting Frontiers for Young Minds’ work and exciting upcoming new developments within the journal for which she is seeking new partnerships. She also reiterated Frontiers’ wider access-oriented commitment to learner-driven education through open access (to check the recording, please visit here).  

Paul Stacey, executive director at Open Education Global, and Will Savage, journal manager at Frontiers  Photo credit: Frontiers  

“The OEGlobal team did a great job organizing the conference and engaging all the participants. We had great interest and enthusiasm for the Frontiers for Young Minds project, and I was delighted to connect with people who are keen to promote open resources and education. Events like these are a perfect platform for sharing, collaborating, learning, networking, and celebrating each other’s work while benefiting from a broad, dynamic, and innovative collective vision of Open Education,” summarized Will Savage.  

Frontiers is a signatory to the United Nations Publishers COMPACT. The above initiative supports United Nations Sustainable Goal 4: Quality Education.  

About Frontiers for Young Minds  

Frontiers for Young Minds (FYM) is a unique, completely free, open access kids' science journal that publishes articles written by top researchers and edited by children aged 8-15. The journal features nearly 1000 articles with 20 million views and downloads, produced by 2650 authors, 4650 young reviewers and 780 science mentors, from 55 countries worldwide. FYM publishes in six subject areas (Astronomy and Physics, Biodiversity, Earth & its Resources, Human Health, Mathematics, Neuroscience & Psychology) with materials available in English, Hebrew and Arabic. In 2021, the Nobel Collection, featuring articles written by the Noble Prize winners, was launched and has received over 450,000 page views to-date.  

About Frontiers  

Frontiers is the 3rd most-cited and 9th largest research publisher. We publish groundbreaking discoveries by the world's top experts. Scientists empower society and our mission is to accelerate scientific discovery by making science open. We place the researcher at the center of everything we do and enable the research community to develop the solutions we need to live healthy lives on a healthy planet. Featuring custom-built technology, artificial intelligence, and rigorous quality standards, our research articles have been viewed more than 1.4 billion times, reflecting the power of research that is open for all.