OPERAS Coordination Team

The OPERAS Coordination Team provides several different coordination, management and secretariat functions for the OPERAS Research Infrastructure to support, liaise and advise the Executive Assembly and the different bodies of OPERAS. It gathers a variety of expertise and knowledge to support the building of OPERAS as an ERIC in areas such as: Strategy and Policy; Legal and Financial; Community and Communication; Service Management and Technical Coordination; National Nodes; and Project Management and Planning.

Find out more about how we work together.

Coordinator (Community)

Areas of expertise: internet, digital publishing, digital humanities, open access
Pierre supports cooperation between OPERAS members and contributes to the strategic roadmap of the infrastructure. He is trained in classics and social anthropology. Affiliated to the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Pierre is deputy director of OpenEdition, the French national infrastructure for open scholarly communication in the Social Sciences and Humanities, and co-director of the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). He publishes regularly on digital humanities and open science, and more generally on the social and political impact of information and communication technologies (ICT).

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Coordinator (Partnerships)

Areas of expertise: Distributed organisations, Governance, Research Infrastructure management, Open Science
Suzanne develops and supports OPERAS partnerships strategy. She holds a PhD in French Literature. Working at the Department of Open Research Data at CNRS as Head of International Cooperation, she has been the scientific coordinator of TRIPLE project (www.gotriple.eu) which developed the Gotriple platform. Director of the EOSC Association, Suzanne is deeply involved in the Open Science initiative, from two perspectives: SSH and infrastructures.

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Secretary General

Yannick Legré is Secretary General of OPERAS and is based in Brussels. In the role of Secretary General, he is responsible for the daily management of OPERAS AISBL, to support OPERAS’ members in developing the OPERAS National Nodes and liaising with the ministries and, to propel OPERAS forward on its path to becoming an even more well-established and influential Research Infrastructure in Europe and eventually an ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). Yannick boasts over two decades of experience leading international organisations and pan-European Research Infrastructures. He holds a Master of Science in Information Technology (MScIT), a degree in Law (LL.L) and is a certified expert and auditor in FitSM and ISO/IEC 27000. Over the last 20+ years, Yannick has been involved in more than 60 projects in the areas of e-Infrastructures, healthcare and biomedical research, as well as biodiversity.

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Chief Technology Officer

Areas of expertise: Strategy, Service Management, Business Development, Federated Infrastructures, Project Management
Sy is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), employed by the OPERAS AISBL. In the role of CTO, he is in charge of the technical vision and service strategy, coordinating the teams behind the solutions, and aligning with the overall organisational strategy to ensure the delivery, sustainability, efficiency, and effectiveness of the OPERAS portfolio of services. Previous to OPERAS, Sy spent more than fifteen years in EU-funded projects related to the development and implementation of e-Infrastructures for research and innovation as well leading commercial exploitation such as in the series of EGEE projects, EGI flagship projects, EOSC-hub and EOSC Future projects. In addition, he is a certified expert, trainer and auditor (ISO 19011) in both FitSM (Service Management) and ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security) standards, and volunteers as Co-chair of ITEMO (IT Education Management Organization) to evolve the FitSM standard. Sy studied Business Communications and Management in the U.S.

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Citizen Science Officer

Areas of expertise: participatory research & citizen science, science communication, research and society collaborations, journalism studies, philosophy of social sciences
Alessia develops citizen science projects and services for the OPERAS community. She is trained in philosophy, journalism and sociology in Italy and France and she holds a PhD in Philosophy of Social Sciences at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). Her doctoral research focused on journalism as a form of knowledge. Her work for OpenEdition focuses on scientific communication and collaboration between research in the SSH. She coordinated the PLACES project, granted by the French Ministry of Culture, focused on the collaboration between researchers and journalists, and is managing the COESO project, funded by the European Commission, to further upgrade the OPERAS Research for Society Service. Before joining OpenEdition, Alessia worked as a journalist.

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FAIR Data Officer

Areas of expertise: FAIR principles, (meta)data quality, (meta)data standards
Arnaud ensures data consistency and the application of the FAIR principles throughout OPERAS. With a dual background in linguistics and digital resources management, he started working in university ibraries and was a digital curator for a CNRS Open Archive. He joined OPERAS in 2016 as a Technical Coordinator for the related HIRMEOS project and is based at OpenEdition in Marseille, France. Arnaud is also project manager for CO-OPERAS.

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Capacity Building Manager

Areas of expertise: Education and training​, Community management and engagement​, Open Science
Karla Avanço is the capacity building manager of OPERAS. With a PhD in languages and linguistics and more than 10 years of experience in education and training, she reoriented to scholarly communication. Currently she works with the diffusion and adoption of Open Sciences and Open Access practices, especially the development of the OA diamond model. She has experience in linguistics, training, scientific translation, and academic publication. She is based at OpenEdition in Marseille, France.

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Chief Finance & Administration Officer

Céline Bitoune is OPERAS’ Chief Finance & Administration Officer. Céline has 24 years of experience in managing more than 50 European Commission-funded projects. She is a certified expert and auditor (ISO 19001) in FitSM (Service Management) and Foundation in ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security). Before joining OPERAS, she served the EGI Foundation as CFO for 10 years, advising the Directors and Executive Board on the financial management of the EU projects and the EGI Foundations. In the OPERAS Coordination Team, Céline works closely with the Secretary General of OPERAS, Yannick Legré, to manage the Research Infrastructure’s strategic and daily operations, such as the organisation’s financial, budgeting, administrative processes; financial and administrative coordination of OPERAS AISBL; analysis of resources; planning and business plan development for the transition to an ERIC legal structure; and the application and maintenance of certifications, audits, quality and risk controls.

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Liaison to OPERAS National nodes

Areas of expertise: intercultural communication, subject analysis and access, controlled vocabularies, scholarly communication, open science
Drahomira acts as a liaison between OCT and OPERAS National nodes communities. She is an assistant professor and currently acts as a vice-Chair at the Department of Information Sciences at the University of Zadar, Croatia. Drahomira obtained her PhD in Information sciences in 2013. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in scholarly communication and academic writing, classification and subject indexing and sociology of books and reading. She is a member of professional organisations: IFLA (Information coordinator for the SAA Section), Croatian Library Association, Croatian Reading Association, ISKO UK (International Society for Knowledge Organization), and co-director of the international scientific LIDA conference. She is a deputy Editor-in-Chief of a diamond Open Access peer-reviewed journal Libellarium.

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Project Community Manager | OA Books Manager
(GRAPHIA and OPERAS)

Areas of expertise: OA books, usage data, publishing models, data spaces, knowledge graphs
As the Project Community Manager, Ursula develops and manages global engagement strategies for diverse stakeholder groups; facilitating virtual and in-person community consultation sessions; and feedback-gathering mechanisms. She is currently involved in the GRAPHIA project and leads OA Books efforts within OPERAS, with previous contributions to the PALOMERA project and OA Book Usage Data Trust effort. With her background in languages and literature, Ursula has worked in the publishing industry for almost 7 years in various roles from content commissioning to foreign rights and sales. This has opened the doors to the scholarly communications world and Open Access. She strongly believes in open science and the power of the community. 

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Open Science Project Officer (Skills4EOSC and DIAMAS)

Areas of expertise: Open Science, Open access, digital publishing
As the Open Science Project Officer, Irakleitos participates in EU-funded projects supporting Open Science best practices (Skills4EOSC), and a sustainable scholarly communication ecosystem (DIAMAS). Irakleitos holds a PhD in Social Anthropology and has experience in the implementation of projects focusing on the development of digital infrastructures and the introduction of open research practices in the Social Sciences and Humanities. 

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Policy Officer

Areas of expertise: Communication & Engagement, Open Access
As Open Science Project Officer in the DIAMAS project, Sona helps to create a sustainable scholarly communication ecosystem for OPERAS. At the same time, Sona is in the position of the Communication Officer for the CRAFT-OA project on behalf of the Max Weber Foundation. Thereby strongly involved in DIAMAS and CRAFT-OA simultaneously, Sona is eager to help enhance project synergies. Sona has earned her PhD in German philology. She worked as an editor and researcher for several years before joining Max Weber Foundation and the TRIPLE project as a Communication officer. Experiencing academia from multiple angles has led her to become a passionate advocate for Open Science.

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Project Policy Officer (Skills4EOSC, GraspOS)

Areas of expertise: Responsible Research Assessment, Open Science Training/Skills, Open Access, Data Management Plans
As a Project Policy Officer, Fotis is involved in EU-funded projects such as Skills4EOSC and GraspOS, projects that are implementing the most recent Open Science practices, including FAIR-by-design training materials, shaping the research assessment reform to account for Open Science practices, and creating a network of Competence Centres where professionals and researchers could grow their skills. In 2021, Fotis completed his MSc in Information Science, focusing on Plan S and its impact on scholarly communications from a UK perspective. While still an advocate for Open Access for scientific publications, he is also an EOSC FAIR Champion for the FAIR Impact project,  promoting the adoption and implementation of FAIR practices.

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Scientific Coordinator (Translations & OpenScience project)

Areas of expertise: Translation, Translation technologies, Communication, Multilingualism
As the Scientific Coordinator for the Translations and Open Science project, which aims to explore the possibilities offered by translation technologies to foster multilingualism in scholarly communication, Susanna Fiorini provides scientific guidance in order to implement the current actions and shape the project’s future perspectives. Susanna is a translator and consultant in translation technology for research and international organisations. She has been coordinating the Translations and Open Science project since 2020, funded by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the French Ministry of Culture.

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Technical Manager (CRAFT-OA project)

Areas of expertise: XML publishing, X-Technologies, software and data quality assurance 
Maxim is in charge of the scientific and technical coordination of the Craft-OA project as well as technology exploitation and sustainability plans. He has more than 15 years of experience in information management in industrial and academic contexts, with previous jobs including X-technologies developer (Goethe University Frankfurt), data research associate (BBAW) and ISTQB certified software tester (dots GmbH / Konica Minolta). In addition, he is trained in ancient languages and holds a PhD degree in Egyptology. Maxim publishes on Social Sciences and Humanities and Digital Humanities topics ranging from quality assurance of digital editions to linguistic phenomena in Ancient Egyptian. 

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Project Manager (PALOMERA)

Areas of expertise: Project & Programme management and coordination, Budget planning and control
Mandy Y. Lin is the project manager of OPERAS and is in charge of the project management of the PALOMERA project. With 6 years of project management experience in coordinating EU-funded projects regarding Open Science Cloud under DIGITAL EUROPE, HORIZON EUROPE, HORIZON 2020 and another 4 years of experience in programme management executing the digital transformation of Social Science and Humanities field, Mandy specialises in managing large-scale project/programme involving 100+ partners in a multinational and interdisciplinary context. Throughout her career, Mandy also contributed to several organisational changes including the launch of new offices, company growth & digitization, and unit integration by streamlining business processes,  improving information systems, and facilitating change management. She has a solid finance background controlling budget exceeding € 70 million. She holds a MBA degree and is certified with FitSM (Service Management) Advanced SPD & SOC and ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security) standards.

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Senior Community Engagement Officer for Services (ATRIUM, GraspOS, Skills4EOSC)

Areas of expertise: Science Communication, Journalism, Training, Community Engagement
Carol serves as Senior Community Engagement Officer for Services at OPERAS Research Infrastructure. She focuses on engaging with the community to foster strong connections, drive the adoption and growth of OPERAS services, as well as integrating communication, user outreach, and training strategies in a variety of European projects, such as ATRIUM, Skills4EOSC and GraspOS. Prior to joining OPERAS, Carol spent five years working in Science Communication and Project Management for the ReSEED project at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. With over a decade of experience as a journalist for TV and websites in Brazil and Spain, she brings a unique perspective to her work. Carol also holds a Master’s degree in New Media and Web Practices from the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH/NOVA) in Lisbon, Portugal.

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Service Service Strategy Lead (OPERAS-PLUS, CRAFT-OA, Skills4EOSC, LUMEN and GRAPHIA)

Areas of expertise: Strategy – Innovation – Translating Impact Across Sectors
Elena has over 20 years of experience across various sectors, including technologies, education, and social enterprises. At OPERAS, she works on the development of a sustainable service portfolio aligned with the needs of the research community. Her role connects innovation, technology, and community needs across several projects. She also contributes to the Innovation Lab and the AI Task Force, which explore new directions for services and collaboration within the infrastructure. Before joining OPERAS, Elena worked with diverse international organizations including MIT and Google dealing with projects that integrate entrepreneurship, sciences, and social impact. She holds a master’s degree in management, diplomas in management, history and sociology, and she is completing her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology. Elena’s commitment to social good is reflected in her work with NGOs, where she has developed strategies for scaling impact-driven initiatives.

Federated Infrastructure Manager

Areas of expertise: IT Service Management, Federated Infrastructure, Open Source and Information Security

Over the last 10 years he has been working on the coordination of IT services, operations and security of a large pan-European e-infrastructure, active in their CSIRT, and implementing an ISO/IEC 27001 certified ISMS for the organization. For 20 years he has been supporting researchers and open science with the development, deployment and operation of various GNU/Linux-based IT services together with the deployment and maintenance of compute sites while being a strong advocate of IT services automation. He is certified as Puppet Professional, FitSM expert, ISO/IEC 27001 Professional and ISMS Security Officer, and for TF-CSIRT TRANSIT I and II. Baptiste is working at the OPERAS AISBL and is involved in the technical coordination of the OPERAS and EDCH services.

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Senior Administration and Finance Assistant

Area of expertise: administration, finances
After studying communication and journalism, Jamila Sahraoui began her career in the film production industry, where she worked for several years as a project manager, particularly in post-production and in the organisation of cultural events.
Looking to give a new direction to her professional journey, she shifted her focus towards sustainable resource management and optimisation, within frameworks shaped by the requirements of European projects and ISO standards. This transition led her to join OPERAS, where she now supports the administrative and financial coordination of the infrastructure.

Communication Manager

Area of expertise: communication, dissemination
Marlen is in charge of the communication for OPERAS since June 2024. She has a background in art history, music, modern media and literature. Since 2020, she is working for the Max Weber Stiftung – German Humanities Institutes Abroad, first for the National Node of OPERAS in Germany as a project for 3 years funded. Before she worked in several positions for the German academic exchange service (DAAD).

Content and Communication Specialist

Area of expertise: Communication studies, Communication strategy, Journalism, Public communication
Lorena focuses on producing and editing a variety of external communication content for the OPERAS community (social media channels, blog, website, newsletter etc). Since 2021, Lorena has been working for the University of Coimbra (UC), Portugal, in different OPERAS projects such as OPERAS-P, TRIPLE, PALOMERA and OPERAS-PLUS. She is also the communication officer for Open Science at UC. She holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil (UFBA) and is currently developing her PhD in Communication Sciences at the University of Coimbra.

Community Manager European Diamond Capacity Hub

Area of expertise: open access, publishing, community management and engagement, communication.
Marion Paulhac is the community manager of the European Diamond Capacity Hub since 2025. She has a background in European and International Studies with a focus on Russian studies, as well as a Master’s degree in Publishing. Before joining the Hub, she supported scholarly journals at the University of Toulouse – Jean Jaurès in implementing Open Science practices. She then worked as an editor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) for a humanities and social sciences journal.

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Former members

Communication Manager

Judith is in charge of the communication for OPERAS. She has a background in art history, German language and media computer science and holds a PhD in art history on a photojournalism topic with a scholarship of the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne. Since 2016, she is working in the digital editing office perspectivia of the Max Weber Stiftung – German Humanities Institutes Abroad. Before she worked for the computing team at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and a German publishing house.