Blog post by Maja Bogataj Jančič and Laura Pipan, Open Data and Intellectual Property Institute ODIPI
The Open Data and Intellectual Property Institute ODIPI, with the support of the Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21) programme, organised the fifth Open Knowledge Days on 17-18 December 2025. These Days allow participants to explore the various building blocks of open knowledge and have been organised since 2019 in Ljubljana, Slovenia (2023, 2021, October 2019 and May 2019).
Within this framework, several events took place:
- the second ERA KR21 Conference 2025;
- a special roundtable on “Generative AI in every village: Who benefits from the public procurement of a platform with large language models?” co-organised by Today is a New Day, Institute for Other Studies (an organisation focused on developing digital technologies for civic participation), and ODIPI; and,
- a KR21 Regional Alliance meeting.
Day 1 | 17 December – ERA KR21 Conference 2025
The first day focused on open science and the development of open source large language models.
Maja Bogataj Jančič (KR21 national coordinator for Slovenia and regional coordinator for the Western Balkans), as host, opened the conference with the first welcome speech from Tomaž Boh, Director General of the Directorate for Science and Innovation, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia. He praised ODIPI’s efforts and activities in the area of copyright, open data and open science. It was his second ERA KR21 conference, and he expressed his expectation for good cooperation in the future as well.
The attendees were welcomed by Ana Slavec, President of the Slovenian Open Science Community (SSOZ), who highlighted the importance of the copyright field and the crucial role of ODIPI, which is a member of the SSOZ. ODIPI’s Maja Bogataj Jančič is also a member of the SSOZ Expert Council and head of the Expert Body for Legal Issues Related to Copyright and Data Governance.
The morning session was focused on open science and copyright issues. Speakers included:
- Magda De Carli (Deputy Director, European Commission – DG RTD), who presented the European Research Area (ERA) Act and open science.
- Ignasi Labastida i Juan (Deputy Rector for Scientific Publications and Open Science and Head of the Research Unit of the Centre for Learning and Research of the University of Barcelona – CRAI), who shared the results of Project Retain (focused on rights retention).
- Maja Bogataj Jančič, who set out the secondary publication right (SPR) as regulated in Slovenia.
The afternoon part of the first day of the conference was dedicated to presentations of the legal bases for building open source large language models (LLMs).
- Marko Robnik-Šikonja (Faculty of Computer Science and Informatics, University of Ljubljana) presented what LLMs are and the technical aspect of building LLMs.
- Rosana Lemut Strle (Lemut Strle Law Firm) discussed the legal protection of privacy when building LLMs.
- Paul Keller (Open Future) explained the legal bases as set out in European law, specifically in Article 3 of the CDSM Directive.
- Eric Luth (Wikimedia Sverige, KR21 national coordinator for Sweden) shared with the audience how the national library in Sweden is dealing with legal challenges and media attacks.
- Maja Bogataj Jančič detailed the legal bases for building an open source LLM in Slovenia.
The presentations were followed by a roundtable entitled Building an Open Source LLM in Slovenian, where Marko Robnik-Šikonja (University of Ljubljana), Jana Kolar (Director of the National and University Library – NUK), Tanja Petrič (President of the Association of Slovenian Literary Translators) and Iztok Ilc (Public Book Agency of the Republic of Slovenia) discussed the opportunities and challenges of building a Slovenian Open Source LLM under the guidance of moderator Maja Bogataj Jančič.
During the discussion, it became clear that translators are in a very difficult position due to the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and that they therefore organised the campaign “UIzi prevedeno. UIzi zgrešeno.” It also turned out that NUK currently still does not provide LLM builders in Slovenia with access to copyrighted works and has ordered the preparation of a legal opinion to clarify the legal dilemmas related to this, on the basis of which appropriate decisions will be made.
The round table also raised the question of whether it would make sense to establish a national platform for the so-called ‘opt-out’ of Slovenian authors or copyright holders in connection with the commercial building of LLMs. All of this confirms that the issues raised at the conference are extremely important and call for thorough societal debate.
Roundtable: “Generative AI in Every Village: Who Benefits from Public Procurement of a Platform with Large Language Models?”
The first conference day ended with a special event within the framework of the Open Knowledge Days: a roundtable on “Generative AI in Every Village: Who Benefits from the Public Procurement of a Platform with Large Language Models?”. This was co-organised by the Today Is a New Day, Institute for Other Studies, and ODIPI.
The most prominent participant was Igor Papič, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, who presented key first-hand information. Other participants were:
- Marko Robnik Šikonja (University of Ljubljana), who is also the technical manager of the PoVeJMo project, within which the Slovenian large language model GaMS is being created;
- Maja Bogataj Jančič (ODIPI);
- Mag. Andrej Tomšič (Deputy Information Commissioner); and,
- Marko Štefančič (Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia and Competence Center for Artificial Intelligence).
The roundtable was moderated by Filip Dobranić from the Today Is a New Day, Institute for Other Studies. The event was attended by numerous experts and other representatives of the interested public, and received media coverage ahead of the event (N1, Slovenske novice, Radio Študent).
Day 2 | 18 December – ERA KR21 Conference 2025
The second conference day was dedicated to regional issues and other important areas for KR21– lending of electronic books and resources, preservation of cultural heritage in libraries, and, in particular, open science and open data.
The morning started with a closed-door meeting of the KR21 Regional Alliance. An opportunity for the alliance members to collect and formulate ideas for the 2026 action plan. The group further discussed a questionnaire developed by ODIPI to help create an overview of open science in the region. This gathering was highly successful and productive, providing valuable insights and a strong foundation for further cooperation.
This meeting was followed by public presentations by:
- Maja Bogataj Jančič and Tihomir Katulić (Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb) on the KR21-supported study on barriers and enablers for open science in copyright law, with Maja presenting the entire project, questionnaire and findings from Slovenian copyright legislation, and Tihomir setting out the barriers and enablers in Croatian copyright law.
- Konrad Gliściński (Faculty of Administrative Affairs, Jagiellonian University, researcher, Centrum Cyfrowe) on the KR21 study on e-Lending in Europe, highlighting the legal foundations for the digitisation and e-Lending of books through public libraries.
- Urša Likar Luzar (Miran Jarc Library Novo mesto) on the COBISS Ela public platform for e-lending in Slovenia.
- Brigitte Vézina (Director of Policy, Open Culture and GLAM, Creative Commons) on the Open Heritage Statement.
In the afternoon session, Stephen Wyber (External Affairs Director, IFLA, KR21 Programme Lead) presented the KR21 programme and discussed the importance of the ERA Act for research and science. The conference concluded with the session ‘Open Science in the Region’, where Iva Melinščak Zlodi (University of Zagreb, KR21 national coordinator for Croatia, Chair of the SPARC Europe Board) shared further details about Project Retain, and Maja Bogataj Jančič shared insights on the copyright regulation of open science in Slovenia and gave an overview of open science in the region.
Conclusion
The fifth Open Knowledge Days 2025 were again timely and offered the opportunity to present and discuss key topics on open science and copyright in the EU and Slovenia, and to zoom in on data governance, copyright, and personal data protection in the development of generative AI tools.
12 January 2026
