Who Owns Our Knowledge? A Conversation on Copyright, Creativity, and the Future of Open Access

A seminar by Dr Eoin O'Dell (SCOIR), Niamh Brennan (SCOIR) and Andrew Simpson (RCSI) organised by Project SCOIR (Secondary Rights, Copyright, Open Access, Institutional Policies, and Rights Retention) and the School of Law.

Please register here.

Every piece of research begins with curiosity, but who truly owns the knowledge that curiosity creates?
This November, the Trinity Long Room Hub opens its doors for a conversation that sits at the heart of modern scholarship: Who Owns Our Knowledge? The SCOIR Copyright Seminar, part of the Project SCOIR Roadshow Series, will bring together experts, researchers, and policy thinkers to unravel the future of Secondary Publishing Rights and Rights Retention in Ireland’s publishing landscape.

Behind every open access article lies a quiet revolution; a shift from restricted to shared, from “mine” to “ours.” As Ireland prepares for the Research Outputs and Open Access Bill 2025, this event offers a unique opportunity to understand how that transformation will affect researchers, institutions, and publishers alike.
It’s not just about compliance or copyright; it’s about redefining access. It’s about ensuring that the work publicly funded by Irish taxpayers can reach the public that paid for it.

About the speakers:

• Eoin O’Dell (SCOIR) – Legal scholar and one of the leading voices shaping copyright reform in Ireland. Eoin brings a sharp legal perspective to what “ownership” means in an academic context and how the draft bill can help solve many issues in one go.
• Niamh Brennan (SCOIR) – A long-time advocate for open scholarship, Niamh translates the legal and institutional language of open access into human terms focusing on how researchers and universities can make policy work for them.
• Andrew Simpson (RCSI) – Representing the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Andrew offers a view from within the research ecosystem: how open access plays out on the ground, in real labs, and among real researchers.

This seminar is part of a national conversation led by Project SCOIR (Secondary Rights, Copyright, Open Access, Institutional Policies, and Rights Retention) — Ireland’s initiative to secure the rights of researchers, institutions, and funders to make publicly funded research freely available.
Funded by the National Open Research Forum (NORF) and the Higher Education Authority (HEA), SCOIR’s mission is to turn open access from a policy goal into a lived academic reality: one institution, one researcher, and one conversation at a time.

Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: arsharma@tcd.ie