Ceremony

European Open Source Awards Ceremony Details

We are delighted to welcome the leading open source actors and contributors to the unmissable event for open source community.

The 2nd Annual European Open Source Awards 2026 

29 January 2026

Brussels, Belgium

Bibliothèque Solvay

From the Academy to the Open Source Community : the European Open Source Academy Magazine is now available 

Can open source be the missing link to Europe's digital sovereignty? Who are the community leaders, organisations and initiatives building on top of open source every day, across the domains of logistics, climate protection, telecommunications, and even entertainment?

We have prepared a special issue for you, reflecting the diversity and range of European voices working with and for the betterment of our digital future.

Read the Magazine

Ceremony Programme

Programme profiles

Master of Ceremony

James Kanter is the founding editor of the EU Scream politics podcast and a former correspondent for Dow Jones-WSJE and the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times in Paris and Brussels. James began his career at The Cambodia Daily newspaper in Phnom Penh, and he is a recipient of the Reporting Europe prize for his coverage of energy and climate. He holds degrees from Columbia College, Columbia University; City St George's, University of London; and Yale Law School.

A word from the European Commission

Thibaut Kleiner is the Director for Future Networks in DG Connect. He has worked since 2001 at the European Commission. The first ten years of his career in the Commission were spent in the area of competition policy (merger, antitrust and State aid). In September 2011, he moved to the digital policy area, as advisor of Vice-President Neelie Kroes, in charge of the Digital Agenda, and supervised Internet policies at large (Internet Governance, cybersecurity, cloud, data).

The success of European open source

Francesco Siddi started contributing to Blender as volunteer when he was a teenager, and joined the team in 2012 as a 3D artist. He has been involved in the project ever since in various roles, organizing events, designing and developing software and producing open movie projects.

He is currently CEO and chairman at Blender Foundation.

The 2nd European Open Source Awards Presenters

Presenting the Special Recognition for Business & Impact

Amandine Le Pape, Head of Section – Business & Impact at the Open Source Academy, is the COO and co-founder of Element, a secure and interoperable open source communication platform built on Matrix - the open standard she also cofounded. Element enables sovereign communications for complex organisations that cannot depend on commercial cloud solutions or unencrypted platforms, serving millions of users including NATO, the UN, the German Armed Forces, the US Navy, and companies like Mozilla. Learn more about Amandine's role here.

Presenting the Special Recognition for Advocacy & Awareness

Lydia Pintscher, Head of Section – Advocacy & Awareness, is the Portfolio Lead for Wikidata at Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. and a passionate advocate for free software and open knowledge. With over 18 years of experience contributing to free software projects, she studied computer science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and serves as Vice-President of KDE e.V. Learn more about Lydia's role here.

Presenting the Special Recognition for Skills & Education

David Cuartielles, Head of Section – Skills & Education at the Europeam Open Source Academy, is the founder of Arduino and an Head of the Masters in Interaction Design at Malmö University. With a PhD in Interaction Design and an MSc in Telecommunications Engineering, David has dedicated his career to advancing education in interactive art, creative coding, interaction design, and embedded technology. He founded Malmö University's IOIO Lab in Design and later established the Full Scale Prototyping Laboratory to bridge engineering and design. Learn more about David's role here.

Presenting the Special Recognition for Community Impact

Astor Nummelin Carlberg is OFE’s Executive Director, responsible for the overall vision, activities of the organisation and policy development. He has extensive experience of European policy making processes, communications and network-building. Astor leads conversations on Europe’s digital challenges and the role of open technologies in achieving its full potential. He sits on the board of APELL, the European Open Source Business Association. Prior to OFE, Astor worked in the European Parliament and he was educated at Middlebury College, the Free University of Berlin and Solvay Business School.

Presenting the Prize for Excellence in Open Source

Daniel Stenberg, President of the Open Source Academy, is a Swedish Internet protocol expert and the founder and lead developer of the curl project, one of the most widely used software components in the world. With 30 years of dedication to Open Source, Daniel has made lasting contributions through software development, protocol work within the IETF, and authorship of key texts on curl, Open Source, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3. A frequent public speaker and currently employed by wolfSSL, Daniel was honored with the European Open Source Achievement Award.

Venue - Bibliothèque Solvay

Bibliothèque Solvay will host this year's European Open Source Awards Ceremony. The library is a magnificent venue created by the vision of one man, Ernest Solvay, in this ancient sociology institute where scientists from around the world came together to share their thoughts and ideas. In this park, Nobel Prize scientists such as Einstein and Bohr gathered for the famous Solvay Conferences. 

In 1894, Solvay implored the government to create an organisation to scientifically analyse social issues, and received a deafening silence. Being an entrepreneur at heart, he therefore decided to create this organisation by himself and the Institute of Sociology was born. The objective was to create a research laboratory and meeting place for scientists. It was a first in Europe. 

In this library, Nobel Prize scientists such as Einstein and Bohr gathered for the famous Solvay Conferences. 

The Bibliothèque Solvay echoes the visionaries and change-makers of the past, and thereby presents the prefect venue for celebration of today’s pioneers and leaders of open source, and disruptors of how we approach technological development.

Getting to the venue

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By Train

The nearest station is Brussels-Luxembourg Station. Exit the station and head toward Rue Wiertz. Walk in the direction of the European Parliament building and go underneath the building (not toward Place du Luxembourg!). Go down the stairs and turn left. On your right is Leopold Park. Enter the park and follow the signs to the Bibliothèque Solvay.
www.be-rail.be

From Gare du Midi (Brussels-South Station):
By metro: take Metro line 6 toward Simonis–Elisabeth or Metro line 2 toward Simonis–Léopold II. Change at Arts-Loi and take Metro line 1 toward Stockel or Metro line 5 toward Hermann-Debroux. Get off at Maelbeek station and take the “Chaussée d’Etterbeek” exit. Turn right and walk for about 10 minutes along Chaussée d’Etterbeek. Cross Rue Belliard and follow the signs to the Solvay Library.

By Car

The Bibliothèque Solvay is located in Leopold Park, between Place Jourdan, the European Parliament, Rue Belliard, and the Museum of Natural Sciences.

Traffic and parking are not allowed inside Leopold Park, so please use one of the following parking options:

Nearby streets (paid parking): Chaussée d’Etterbeek, Avenue du Maelbeek, Rue Froissart, etc.

Place Jourdan (paid parking). From there, walk to Avenue du Maelbeek, cross the avenue, enter Leopold Park, and follow the signs to the Bibliothèque Solvay.

“Forte dei Marmi” parking garage (paid), 61 Avenue du Maelbeek. Walk down Avenue du Maelbeek; Leopold Park will be on your left. Enter the park and follow the signs to the Bibliothèque Solvay.

Opening hours:

Sunday to Thursday: 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Friday and Saturday: 7:00 a.m. – 12:00 a.m.

With a ticket, entry and exit are possible 24/7.

“Interparking Wet/Loi” parking, 19 Rue de la Loi (currently under construction).

Alternative pedestrian exit: Rue d’Arlon, approximately 12 minutes’ walk from the Bibliothèque Solvay.

By Metro

www.stib.be

The nearest metro station is Maelbeek (Metro lines 1 and 5). Take the “Chaussée d’Etterbeek” exit. Turn right and walk for 10 minutes along Chaussée d’Etterbeek. Cross Rue Belliard, enter Leopold Park, and follow the signs to the Bibliothèque Solvay.

How to prepare 

Dress Code - If you are wondering what you should wear to the 2nd Annual European Open Source Awards Ceremony, we have prepared a short guide for you that can help you prepare. Please note we invite various forms of black tie, business formal and other appropriate dress.  We would kindly ask you to refrain from casual or comfy outfits.