Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group

The OPERAS Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group (AI SIG) aims to promote the responsible use of AI in scholarly communication within the social sciences and humanities. The AI SIG provides a dedicated OPERAS space for the exchange of knowledge, the alignment of practices, and the development of shared approaches to AI-driven methods, services, and infrastructures. The group addresses a wide range of stakeholders involved in scholarly communication, including researchers, infrastructure providers, publishers, project consortia, and policy-oriented bodies, and offers them expertise and strategic advice on the ethical, transparent, and meaningful integration of AI technologies.

The AI SIG’s work focuses on fostering collaboration across OPERAS projects and Special Interest Groups, supporting innovation while ensuring compliance with Open Science principles. Through regular meetings, expert contributions and community-driven analyses, the group seeks to harmonise AI-related strategies, particularly in areas such as large language models, metadata enrichment and content discovery. By facilitating dialogue between technical development and scholarly practice, the AI SIG strengthens OPERAS’ position as a trusted player in the European research infrastructure landscape.

A brief history

The Artificial Intelligence SIG was established in 2025 following the growing need within OPERAS to address artificial intelligence in a coordinated way. Initial efforts were undertaken through the AI Task Force, which functioned as an exploratory and consolidating platform for emerging AI-related activities, mapping existing practices and identifying priority areas across the OPERAS community. The increasing level of engagement and the strategic relevance of these activities demonstrated the necessity of a more permanent and structured forum.

Members

Tomasz Doussot, Coordinator of the AI Special Interest Group

Tomasz Doussot (CNRS) is an editor for Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine and coordinator of PépiNord, a diamond access journal incubator of MSH Paris Nord. He’s involved in multiple networks such as Médici, Repères and OPERAS, coordinating SIGs and work groups around AI and journal support. Contact: tomasz.doussot@cnrs.fr

Patryk Hubar-Kołodziejczyk, Coordinator of the AI Special Interest Group

Patryk Hubar-Kołodziejczyk holds a PhD in Social Sciences and works as a digital humanities specialist at the Digital Humanities Centre of the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN). His professional expertise focuses on natural language processing (NLP), data science, Linked Open Data, and Semantic Web technologies. He collaborates with the Department of Informatology and the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw. Contact: patryk.hubar@ibl.waw.pl 

Aleš Mendiževec, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU)

Aleš Mendiževec, PhD, is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). His research is currently focused on political philosophy and philosophy of technology. Regarding the latter, his current work is focused on the history of AI and on cybernetics as its prehistory. He is exploring different approaches in modelling intelligent agents and their philosophical presuppositions (do they rely on data or on a priori rules, how are they integrated in the world etc.). Connected to this he is also interested in the notion of artificial general intelligence and in conceptualizing epistemological limits of generative AI (in short, what exactly are they good for, in what domain or field of reasoning do they lack capabilities etc.). Contact: alesme@zrc-sazu.si

Elena Sokolova, OPERAS

Elena Sokolova is a Service Strategy Lead at OPERAS, working on the development of the service portfolio and supporting innovation initiatives such as the Innovation Lab and the AI Task Force, later transitioned into the AI SIG. Before joining OPERAS, she led innovation ecosystem development for several years, contributing to programs for early-stage ventures, including AI-focused and technology-driven tracks, and supporting commercialization and collaboration across academia and industry. Her earlier career includes senior roles in marketing and collaborations with organizations such as Coca-Cola, Google, MIT and others. Contact: elena.sokolova@operas-eu.org

Jonni Karlsson, Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV)

Jonni Karlsson is a senior planning officer at the Secretariat for the National Open Science and Research Coordination in the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. Secretary for the ‘Culture of Open Scholarship’ expert panel and several working groups including ‘Open Science and AI’ and ‘Citizen Science Support and Services’. Editor for http://www.openscience.fi. Contact: jonni.karlsson@tsv.fi

Julien Homo, Foxcub

Julien Homo is the CEO and Data/AI Architect at Foxcub, and currently serves as Technical Coordinator for the EOSC LUMEN and GRAPHIA Horizon Europe projects. He specialises in semantic technologies, Knowledge Graph engineering, AI-driven data platforms, and the integration of ontologies with LLMs (GraphRAG, hybrid reasoning, semantic retrieval). Julien leads the development of Data/AI platforms and contributes to technical work packages on interoperability, metadata modelling, and next-generation AI services. With a background in data architecture and applied AI, he works across research infrastructures to design FAIR-aligned, explainable, and sustainable AI-knowledge ecosystems. Contact: julien.homo@foxcub.fr

Lídia Samuel de Sousa, Católica University Press

Católica University Press (UCP PRESS) assumes its position with recognized prestige in the academic and business environment with the mission of amplifying the objectives of the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP): to produce international-level science aimed at the common good and to preparing generations for the future through excellence of teaching. Contact: uceditora@ucp.pt

Maria Olímpia Especiosa, University of Coimbra

Maria Olímpia Especiosa is a doctoral researcher in Classical Studies at the University of Coimbra and a member of the OPERAS-PT node. Her work combines philology, translation studies, and Open Science, with a particular focus on collaborative and multilingual research workflows. She contributes to the development of MONDAECUS, a platform for community-driven scholarly translation, and participates in European projects that explore reproducibility, multilingualism, and equitable access to knowledge within the SSH domain. Her current research interests include how AI-assisted tools can support responsible, transparent, and culturally sensitive translation practices in the humanities. Contact: operas-pt@uc.pt

Dr. Maria Papadopoulou, University of Crete

Dr. Maria Papadopoulou is Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and Classical Philology in the Department of Philology at the University of Crete. She directs the TALOS – Artificial Intelligence for the Humanities and Social Sciences Lab and leads the research team of the European TALOS AI4SSH project. Her work focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, and the humanities, with particular emphasis on knowledge graphs, ontologies, and semantic technologies for historical and cultural data. She is interested in how computational methods can support the study of ancient texts, intellectual history, and cultural heritage. Dr. Papadopoulou holds a PhD from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and an MA in Linguistics from Lancaster University. Her research has been supported by several international distinctions, including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship from the European Commission and the Seeger Fellowship at Princeton University. She has been a visiting professor and researcher at universities in China and France. She is actively involved in international initiatives connecting AI and the humanities and co-organizes the conferences TOTh – Terminology and Ontology: Theories and Applications and SA4AW – Semantic Annotation for the Ancient World.

Monica Roos, ERIH PLUS

Monica Roos is a senior adviser at the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills where she is responsible for the professional and technical development of the Norwegian register and ERIH PLUS. She has a seat in OPERAS Executive Assembly representing ERIH PLUS, and in Norway ERIH PLUS is currently working as the OPERAS national node of Norway. She also has a seat at the National Forum for Open Research, a gathering of institutions contributing to make research more open. Contact: monica.roos@hkdir.no

Stefano De Paoli, Abertay University

Stefano De Paoli is professor of Digital Society at Abertay University in Scotland. Stefano works on user research and contributes to OPERAS projects such as GRAPHIA or FASCA. He  has also contributed to the design of the GoTriple platform. Stefano has experience working with Large Language Models in data analysis, and engages in debates about the adoption of LLMs in the SSH fields. Contact: s.depaoli@abertay.ac.uk

Susanna Fiorini, OPERAS

Susanna Fiorini is a translator with expertise in translation technologies and multilingual communications. She mainly works for cultural and academic institutions, as well as for international organisations. She is a PhD candidate studying the usability and acceptability of machine-translated outputs for professional translators in institutional communication. At OPERAS, she is responsible for the scientific coordination of projects related to multilingualism, translation and technologies in scholarly communication. Contact: susanna.fiorini@operas-eu.org