The conference at the University of Trento is held as part of the Open Access Week 2018. It is an opportunity to reflect on the progress taken in the last twenty years by the movement on open access to the results of scientific and humanistic research. Today, open science has progressed considerably. There is a large quantity of scientific contents (software, publications and data) that are available free of charge and may be reused, as licensed under open licences. In this context, what is exactly the role of universities and other non-profit academic or scientific bodies? Can the university still claim a leading role in fostering open science? Can it free itself from the business mechanisms and the power of commercial platforms’ databases? Does open science represent a bulwark of university autonomy and academic freedom? This one-day conference tries to answer these and other questions, through visions and experiences offered by experts with different and international backgrounds as well as proponents of Italian universities most involved in the promotion of open science.