JOINStephan Kuster
Stephan Kuster is the Director of External Affairs at Frontiers, where he works with governments, research funders, university leaders and policy makers around the world to advance open access to publications and data. He oversees a team of policy and advocacy experts located in the US, Europe and Asia. His work sits at the intersection of scholarly publishing, open science, research policy and public trust in science—areas that are central to the future of STM and to the role publishers play in a rapidly evolving research ecosystem.
As a candidate for the STM Board, Stephan brings a policy-oriented, international perspective shaped by close engagement with research organisations, funders, universities, governments and publishing stakeholders. In his current role, he monitors and engages with policy developments, advise senior leadership, and help ensure that Frontiers can respond effectively to emerging trends in scholarly communication. He also represents Frontiers in a range of industry and community forums, including STM, OASPA, LIBER and UNESCO working groups.
Stephan is strongly motivated by the opportunity to contribute to STM’s vital work at board level. He believes he can support STM’s strategic priorities by bringing experience in science policy, open access publishing, international collaboration and stakeholder engagement, together with a strong commitment to ensuring that scholarly publishing continues to serve research, society and innovation. Before joining Frontiers in 2019, Stephan served as Secretary General of Science Europe, working with European research funders and research organisations to develop policies, practices and joint initiatives in support of European research. As the European representative on the steering group of the Global Research Council, he helped foster global collaboration among research organisations in areas including research integrity, open science, researchers’ careers and curiosity-driven research funding. He has also advised the European Commission as a member of the Executive Board of the European Open Science Cloud and served on the Open Science Policy Platform. Stephan lives in Zurich, Switzerland, with his wife and two young children.