Commission picks open-access envoy, who will help steer Plan S

The European Commission has appointed experienced official Jean-Claude Burgelman to be its envoy for open-access publishing, and he has also joined the steering group for the controversial open-access initiative Plan S.

Burgelman was appointed Commission open-access envoy on 1 August. Previously head of the unit for open science in its R&D division, he has been with the Commission since 2010, before which he was a professor of communication technology policy at the Free University of Brussels, according to his LinkedIn page.

The appointment was made without any announcement from the Commission and did not become public knowledge until Coalition S, the group of funders backing the Plan S initiative, announced Burgelman’s appointment to their executive steering group on 2 September.