Prof. Amara Okafor
Chair of Digital Infrastructure Studies — ETH Zürich
“The archive as infrastructure: maintenance, memory, and the cost of forgetting.”
Thursday 3 June · 09:45 · Great Hall
3–5 June 2027 · Geneva, Switzerland
The 14th Meridian Symposium on Knowledge Infrastructures
Three days of peer-reviewed papers, keynotes, and working panels on the systems that carry the scholarly record — hosted by the Faculty of Information Science, University of Geneva.
At a glance
- Dates
- 3–5 June 2027
- Venue
- Whitmore Hall, University of Geneva
- Abstract deadline
- 15 January 2027
- Notification
- 12 March 2027
- Early registration closes
- 30 April 2027
Convened withUniversity of GenevaETH ZürichUniversity of EdinburghKTH Royal Institute of TechnologyNational Institute of Informatics, Tokyo
About the symposium
A working meeting for the people who keep scholarship legible
Since 2014, the Meridian Symposium has brought together librarians, research-software engineers, policy scholars, and publishers to examine the infrastructures beneath the scholarly record — repositories, identifiers, metadata, and the governance that holds them together.
The 2027 meeting takes as its theme the durability of open infrastructure: what it costs to maintain, who is accountable for it, and how machine-mediated reading is changing what the record must provide. Accepted papers are published open access in the Meridian Proceedings with individual DOIs.
Attendance is capped at 320 delegates to preserve the character of a working symposium: every session leaves room for structured discussion, and every panel produces a published summary note.
Read the full call for papersImportant dates
Abstracts due15 Jan 2027
Decisions announced12 Mar 2027
Camera-ready papers30 Apr 2027
Early registration ends30 Apr 2027
Programme published10 May 2027
Symposium3–5 Jun 2027
Keynote speakers
Three addresses, three continents, one record
Prof. Tomás Rivera
Faculty of Law — Universidad de Chile
“Sovereignty and the scholarly record: who owns the infrastructure of knowing?”
Friday 4 June · 09:00 · Great Hall
Dr. Yuki Tanabe
National Institute of Informatics — Tokyo
“Machine-readable knowledge at scale: what the record owes its non-human readers.”
Saturday 5 June · 09:00 · Great Hall
Tracks
Three tracks, one conversation
Data & infrastructure
Repositories, persistent identifiers, metadata pipelines, preservation systems, and the engineering practices that keep them running for decades rather than grant cycles.
Policy & governance
Funding models, national and consortial mandates, research-assessment reform, and the legal frameworks that determine who may read, mine, and preserve the record.
Practice & pedagogy
Data stewardship in the curriculum, community archives, training the next generation of infrastructure maintainers, and case studies from working institutions.
Programme at a glance
Three days in outline
| Day | Morning | Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 3 June | Opening remarks · Keynote: Prof. Okafor · Paper session 1 | Paper session 2 · Panel: Funding the invisible | Welcome reception, Whitmore Hall cloister |
| Fri 4 June | Keynote: Prof. Rivera · Paper sessions 3A & 3B | Workshops · Poster session & coffee | Symposium dinner, Parc des Eaux-Vives (ticketed) |
| Sat 5 June | Keynote: Dr. Tanabe · Paper session 4 | Closing plenary & proceedings announcement | Optional visit: CERN Science Gateway |
Call for papers
Submissions are open until 15 January 2027
Full papers, short papers, posters, and panel proposals are welcome across all three tracks. All submissions receive double-blind review by at least three programme-committee members.
Read the call for papersDownload the LaTeX template
From past proceedings
What delegates say
“The only conference where the person who wrote the metadata standard, the person funding it, and the person cursing at it in production are all in the same room — and given equal time.”
Dr. Helena Brandt
Head of Research Data Services, Leiden University · Meridian 2025 delegate
“Our 2024 panel note on identifier governance was cited in two national open-science policies within a year. Meridian is small, but it lands where it matters.”
Prof. Samuel Adjei
University of Ghana · Programme committee, Track B
Venue
Whitmore Hall, University of Geneva
A ten-minute walk from Genève-Cornavin station, Whitmore Hall pairs a 400-seat great hall with six seminar rooms and a glazed cloister for posters and coffee. Geneva Airport is fifteen minutes away by direct train, and every registered delegate receives a free Geneva Transport Card for the length of their stay.
Venue & travel detailsOrganising committee
The committee
Prof. Elena Marchetti
General chair — University of Geneva
Prof. Daniel Okonkwo
Programme chair — University of Edinburgh
Dr. Ingrid Solberg
Track A chair — KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Prof. Samuel Adjei
Track B chair — University of Ghana
Dr. Marie-Claire Fontaine
Track C chair — Université de Montréal
Dr. Petr Havlíček
Proceedings editor — Charles University, Prague
Ms. Lucía Herrera
Symposium secretariat — University of Geneva
Dr. Yusuf Demir
Publicity chair — Koç University, Istanbul
Receive symposium circulars
Two to three announcements per year: the call for papers, programme publication, and registration deadlines. No other mail.