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OSSYM 2025 - 7th International Open Search Symposium

→ Europe/Helsinki
IT Centre for Science - CSC, Helsinki, Finland

IT Centre for Science - CSC, Helsinki, Finland
Andreas Wagner (CERN), Christian Gütl (Graz University of Technology), Christine Plote, Megi Sharikadze (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre), Michael Granitzer, Per Oster, Stefan Voigt (Open Search Foundation)
Description

8 - 10 October 2025

Continuing the successful conference series from the past 6 years, the #ossym25 Open Search Symposium brings together the European and international Open Search community for the seventh time. The hybrid conference provides a forum to discuss and further develop the ideas and concepts of open web search and related topics in various formats including scientific talks, panels, workshops, demonstrations, student challenges and informal discussion spaces. Participants include researchers, data centres, libraries, policy makers, legal and ethical experts, and society.


.  ( Open Search Foundation OSSYM 2025 Event Page)

Important Dates

Submission deadline of full papers and extended abstracts
1 March 2025 | deadline extended to 17 March 2025

Information about contribution acceptance
5 June 2025

Registration for the #ossym25

 

International Open Search Symposium #ossym25
8-10 October 2025

Online publication of proceedings
Autum 2025 

Conference fee

A conference fee applies for #ossym25
regular: 200,00€ I reduced: 60,00€ (students, free-lance developers and on special request)

How does the payment procedure work?
Fees will be collected upon registration.

Whom to contact if I have special request regarding the fee?
ossym@opensearchfoundation.org

Is there a fee for online participation?
No, online participation is free of charge
 

Call for Papers - Call for Demos

Call for Papers

We are calling for your contribution with scientific papers, sharing of practical experiences or by introducing concepts and positions in relevant fields, such as computer science, legal, economics and ethics. Full papers and abstracts presented at the #ossym25 will be published open access in online proceedings (including DOIs and ISBN) following the event.

Please submit your contribution: for research contributions we accept full papers (4-6 pages) and for any other contribution (concepts, best practices or practitioners’ experiences) an extended abstract (1 page).

All abstracts and papers have to be submitted using the templates specified. The acceptance of all full papers and extended abstracts is subject of a peer-review process.

→ Submit Paper/Abstract



Call for Demos

We invite young researchers and students to showcase their innovative work using the Open Web Index of the OpenWebSearch.eu project. This call is an excellent opportunity for participants to develop and present innovative search and web analytics solutions to advance to a more open search ecosystem and show them to the open search community. We are particularly interested in demonstrations that combine the Open Web Index with technologies such as Large Language Models, Knowledge Graphs, or that offer new search paradigms (e.g. Argumentation Search, Conversational Search), interesting frontends, and domain-specific search solutions. In addition, we are also looking for contributions towards web-scale, robust semantic enrichment techniques that can advance search solutions for different domains. Examples could be information quality assessments, entity extraction or Knowledge Graph alignment.

All demos have to be submitted using the templates specified. The acceptance of all demos is subject of a peer-review process.

→ Submit Demo

In case you want to organize a thematic session or workshop, please contact us with a one page proposal at ossym@opensearchfoundation.org .

 

Note: CERN Guest Account

In order to submit your papers and demos for OSSYM 2025 you will need to login with a CERN Guest Account. To create an account, please go to the [CERN Single Sign-On page](https://indico.cern.ch/login/?next=/event/1477549/abstracts/) and click on "External email - Guest access" and then "Register"). Alternatively you can sign-in with your CERN Account, eduGAIN or an external social account (GitHub, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook).

Main Topics

Discuss interdisciplinary aspects of Open Search
technical • ethical • legal • educational • economic • applications

Topics of #ossym25 include but are not limited to

  • Open search architectures and platforms
  • Open Web Index and application domains
  • Federated search and cross-domain search
  • Web Data Analytics and Web Mining
  • Natural language and multi-media processing for search
  • Large Language Models, Machine learning and generative AI
  • AI-based search and Retrieval Augmented Generation
  • Personalization and recommendation in search
  • Conversational Retrieval Experiences
  • Georeferencing of web content and geospatial search and analysis
  • Evaluation of open search systems
  • Applications of open search in domains such as science, e-commerce, health, and education
  • Search bias and trust
  • Economic dimensions of open search
  • Search engine advertising and business models in an open search world
  • Green computing and sustainability
  • Societal and ethical challenges and solutions
  • Ethical and value aspects of search
  • Politics and governance
  • Legal aspects

Conference format

  • Conference venue: IT Center for Science - CSC in Helsinki, Finland, and Online. 

Conference Chairs

Prof. Dr. Michael Granitzer | University Passau, Germany
Prof. Dr. Christian Guetl | Graz University of Technology, Austria
Dr. Megi Sharikadze | Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, Munich, Germany
Dr. Stefan Voigt | Open Search Foundation, Starnberg, Germany
Dr. Andreas Wagner | CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

Local Chairs and Organization

Per Öster, PhD | CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland

Publication Chairs 

Sebastian Guertl | Graz University of Technology, Austria
Elias Sandner | CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Andreas Wagner | CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

Poster Session Chairs 

Iiris Liinamaa | CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland
Heidi Laine | CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland

 

 

Document templates for contributions
  • Wednesday 8 October
    • 08:30
      Opening of Registration
    • Conference Opening: Opening Keynote
      Convener: Kimmo Koski (Managing Director, CSC IT Center for Science); Aura Salla (MEP)
      • 1
        Conference Opening & Opening Keynote
      • 2
        Welcome
        Speaker: Kimmo Koski (Managing Director, CSC IT Center for Science)
      • 3
        Welcome Address (pre-recorded)
        Speaker: Henna Virkkunen (Executive Vice-President Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy of the European Commission)
      • 4
        Keynote „Opening Keynote“
        Speaker: Aura Salla (MEP)
    • 10:30
      Coffee Break
    • Science Track: Architecture and Infrastructure I
      Convener: Session Chair: Jason Theodoropoulos (CSC – IT Center for Science)
    • 12:00
      Lunch Break
    • Applications Track: "Retrieval Augmented Generation & Large Language Models"
      Convener: Session Chair: Noor Afshan Fathima (CERN)
      • 9
        Applications Track "Retrieval Augmented Generation & Large Language Models"
        Speaker: Session Chair: Noor Afshan Fathima (CERN)
      • 10
        LLM-Assisted Expansion of Patent and Scholarly Literature Knowledge Graphs
        Speaker: Andre Rattinger; Christian Gütl (Graz University of Technology)
        OSSYM2025v2.pdf
      • 11
        In-Browser Agentic Web: a Decentralized Approach to Information Access
        Speaker: Saber Zerhoudi; Michael Granitzer (University of Passau)
        Presentation
      • 12
        Assessing the Reliability of Human and LLM-Based Screening in Systematic Reviews: A Study on First-Time Reviewers
        Speaker: Elias Sandner, Igor Jakovljevic, Daniel Scharf, Andre Henriques, Andreas Wagner (CERN), Christian Gütl, Thomas Wautischar, (Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria), Alice Simniceanu, Luca Fontana (WHO)
        OSSYM Presentation_ISR_DATA.pdf
        OSSYM Presentation_ISR_DATA.pptx
    • 14:30
      Coffee Break
    • 13
      Guided tour at IQM Quantum Computers (optional / parallel to Coffee Break & start of next session)
    • Workshop on Information Literacy
      Conveners: Prof. Melanie Platz, Melanie Platz (University of Saarland); Carolin Bauer (Open Search Foundation)
      • 18
        Workshop on Information Literacy
        Speaker: Melanie Platz (University of Saarland); Carolin Bauer (Open Search Foundation)
    • Closing of Day 1
      • 19
        Closing of Day 1
    • Evening reception at CSC
    • 20
      Optional afterwork meet-up (self-hosted)
  • Thursday 9 October
    • Science Track: "Architecture & Infrastructure II"
      Convener: Session chair: Sebastian Heineking (University of Leipzig & WEBIS Group)
      • 21
        Science Track Architecture & Infrastructure II
        Speaker: Session chair: Sebastian Heineking (University of Leipzig & WEBIS Group)
      • 22
        Large-Scale Graph Visualisation of Open Web Index and its Evolution in Time
        Speaker: Kateřina Slaninová; Pavlína Smolková (VSB – Technical University of Ostrava)
        OWS_graph_presentation.pptx
      • 23
        Expanding the Language and Cultural Coverage of Common Crawl
        Speaker: Pedro Ortiz Suarez; Greg Lindahl; Thom Vaughan; Sebastian Nagel (Common Crawl Foundation)
      • 24
        Efficient Session Search using Topical Index Shards
        Speaker: Gijs Hendriksen; Djoerd Hiemstra; Arjen P. de Vries (Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
        OSSYM25-Efficient-Session-Search.pdf
      • 25
        Practical Guide to LLM Finetuning on LUMI Using Data From The Open Web Index
        Speaker: Emma Hintsala (CSC – IT Center for Science)
        LLM_finetuning_ossym25.pdf
        LLM_finetuning_ossym25.pdf
        LLM_finetuning_ossym25.pptx
    • 10:20
      Coffee Break | Exhibition
    • Keynote “The openness of knowledge data and its role in Future Search Solutions”
      Convener: Harri Ketamo Founder & Chairman Headai
      • 26
        Keynote: “The openness of knowledge data and its role in Future Search Solutions”
        Speaker: Harri Ketamo Founder & Chairman Headai
    • 27
      Introducing LUMI AI Factory (optional / parallel to lunch break)
    • 12:00
      Lunch Break
    • Applications Track Retrieval Augmented Generation & Large Language Models: Applications Track "Retrieval Augmented Generation & Large Language Models"
      Convener: Session chair: Gijs Hendriksen (Radboud University)
      • 28
        Applications Track: "Retrieval Augmented Generation & Large Language Models"
        Speaker: Session chair: Gijs Hendriksen (Radboud University)
      • 29
        Scientific Question Answering using Hybrid Retrieval Augmented Generation
        Speaker: Tobias Hecking; Roxanne el Baff (German Aerospace Center – DLR)
        elbaff_ossym2025.pdf
      • 30
        Adding Retrieval Augmented Generation to the MOSAIC Framework
        Speaker: Alexander Nussbaumer (Graz University of Technology)
        presentation.pdf
      • 31
        Fusion of retrieval, grammar rules and decision trees for text generation
        Speakers: Engelbert Niehaus, Walter Kühn; Svenja Müller; Engelbert Niehaus (RPTU)
        OSSYM2025_Mueller_Kuehn_Niehaus.pdf
      • 32
        Large models for small languages
        Speaker: Sampo Pyysalo (OpenEuroLLM)
      • 33
        Curation and preprocessing of training data for open European language models
        Speaker: Markus Koskela; Maciej Janicki (OpenEuroLLM)
    • 15:30
      Coffee Break
    • Social Science Track "Ethics & Society I"
      Convener: Session chair: Roxanne El Baff (Bauhaus University Weimar, German Aerospace Center – DLR)
      • 37
        Social Science: "Track Ethics & Society I"
        Speaker: Session chair: Roxanne El Baff (Bauhaus University Weimar, German Aerospace Center – DLR)
      • 38
        Knowledge Sovereignty in Disability Information Retrieval: Architecting Privacy-Preserving and Sustainable Infrastructure
        Speaker: Noor Afshan Fathima; Andreas Wagner (CERN)
        OSSYM-2025-Nooon (1).pdf
      • 39
        Building the Open Web Search Community (And Keeping It Growing)
        Speaker: Ursula Gmelch (Open Search Foundation)
    • Closing of Day 2
    • 18:30
      Socialising Event – Allas Restaurants, Helsinki Sauna and swimming available at Allas Sea Pool
  • Friday 10 October
    • Keynote: "Searching for Trust: Reflections on Epistemic Virtue Online"
      Convener: Viivi Lähteenoja (Chief Executive Officer, The MyData Company & Doctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki)
      • 40
        Keynote: "Searching for Trust: Reflections on Epistemic Virtue Online"
        Speaker: Viivi Lähteenoja (Chief Executive Officer, The MyData Company & Doctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki)
    • 10:00
      Coffee Break
    • Industry Track: "Alternative Search Engines"
      Convener: Session Chair: Elias Sandner (CERN)
    • Science Track: "Ethics & Society II”
      Convener: Session Chair: Ines Zelch (University of Leipzig)
      • 44
        Science Track "Ethics & Society II"
        Speaker: Session Chair: Ines Zelch (University of Leipzig)
      • 45
        “Exploring Technoscience in the Public Sphere: Opportunities through Open Web Search “
        Speaker: Emanuele Di Buccio (University of Padova)
        20251010_ossym2025_dibuccio.pdf
      • 46
        "The Project KIsu: AI-based searching and finding – easy, inclusive, and self-determined"
        Speaker: Melanie Platz; Kristin Altmeyer; Mirella Hladky; Kerstin Reese; Lisa Schick; Verena Wolf (University of Saarland); Christine Plote (Open Search Foundation); Tanja Gottsmann; Maria Wiesner (FragFINN)
        ossym2025-KIsu.pdf
      • 47
        A Charter for Public Interest Internet Search
        Speaker: Alexander Nussbaumer (Graz University of Technology); Christine Plote (Open Search Foundation)
        ossym2025-presentation-charta.pdf
    • Closing of #ossym25 & Wrap-Up
      • 48
        Closing of #ossym25 & Wrap-Up
      • 49
        End of Symposium
    • 12:30
      Lunch
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