The 4th AEUP Conference “Sustaining the Flow: Keeping the Pages Turning in Scholarly Publishing” brought together representatives from university presses, libraries, infrastructure providers, and publishing networks from across Europe. Held in the stunning baroque heart of Vienna, the event focused on sustaining the diverse ecosystems of scholarly publishing—financially, technologically, and culturally. Over two days, participants exchanged ideas, forged connections, and explored new tools and strategies for navigating the shifting landscape of Open Access, with two powerful keynotes framing the conversation.
Thursday, 22 May: Community, Funding, and Action
The conference started the day before with a walkshop through Vienna’s old town, where participants engaged in walking conversations on scholarly publishing—an informal, energizing way to start the gathering. The firts day of the conference, Margo Bargheer of the AEUP Board and Herwig Stöger of the Austrian Academy of Sciences officialy welcomed the participants.
The first keynote, “Beyond Access: The Transformative Educational Power of Open Textbooks”, was delivered by Paola Corti (SPARC Europe). Her talk urged university presses to look beyond the traditional boundaries of publishing and embrace their role in open education. Corti presented open textbooks not just as free resources but as adaptable, enduring tools for inclusive learning – resources that invite students and educators into co-creation and that center learning as a shared, community-driven experience. Drawing from UNESCO’s definition of Open Educational Resources (OER), she emphasized that open doesn’t just mean free – it means open to remixing, adapting, translating, and reusing. For university presses, this means a chance to expand their missions and support not only research but also teaching, equity, and innovation.
The rest of the day unfolded across thematic sessions:
- A focus on community—from Nordic collaboration and Malta festival outreach to the creation of the French alliance of public scientific publishers and a roundtable on institutional publishing sustainability.
- A panel on the evolving publishing role of academies of sciences, where tradition met transformation.
- A session on funding, exploring TU Delft’s business models, the strategic potential of Diamond Open Access, and the diversity of available funding streams.
- The launch of new AEUP working groups, offering practical ways for members to contribute to shared challenges.
The evening closed with a conference dinner in the historic center, where the conversations from the day carried over clinking glasses and shared dishes.
Friday, 23 May: Technology, Culture, and Collaboration
The second day began with a forward-looking keynote by Vanessa Proudman (SPARC Europe), titled “How to Support the Sustainability of Institutional Publishing”. Drawing on findings from the Horizon Europe-funded DIAMAS project, she offered a comprehensive view of what sustainability actually looks like in institutional publishing—from economic survival to strategic independence, without compromising community values.
Proudman presented practical tools developed by DIAMAS, including the Sustainability Check, a guide to optimizing expenses, and frameworks for building a Diamond Open Access business case. She highlighted the importance of collaboration – formalized and well-supported – as a path toward resilience, and urged public funders to invest in Diamond OA infrastructure with the same seriousness currently given to APC-based systems. Her message was clear: sustainability is possible, but it requires coordinated action, evidence-based planning, and recognition of the vital role that institutional publishers and their staff play.
The day’s sessions followed the theme of tools and infrastructure:
- Technology-focused talks explored open textbook publishing landscape, single-source OA workflows, and efforts to meet accessibility mandates across Europe.
- Outputs from the DIAMAS and CRAFT-OA projects showcased community-driven tools designed to empower small and mid-sized publishers.
- A session on culture explored the reputational dynamics of OA, the role of small presses in politically sensitive publishing, and how arts-based publishers are evolving with changing research landscapes.
- The final workshop, “Scaling Small,” brought together key players in the open book infrastructure space to share how horizontal, values-driven collaboration can help sustain publishing ecosystems.
The AEUP 2025 Conference confirmed that sustainability in scholarly publishing cannot be reduced to economics alone. It requires a delicate balance of infrastructure, community, policy, and vision. The two keynotes reminded us of the broader missions that university presses can serve: education, equity, and enduring access on one hand, and strategic, evidence-based resilience on the other. Together, they framed a future in which publishing is not just about keeping the pages turning – but about making sure everyone can read, write, and contribute to science.
