Maria Cotera

Biography

A former academic librarian in the UK and Spain, Maria Cotera is an international speaker and long-standing library activist. In her role as Partnerships Development Manager at Figshare, Maria actively supports open science and responsible research by bringing open access repository Figshare to universities and research institutes across Africa and the Middle East, Eastern and Southern Europe. Maria regularly speaks at international conferences. Her latest speaking engagements include the IFLA World Library and Information Congress (August 2023, Rotterdam); the Open Repositories Conference (June 2023, Stellenbosch, South Africa); the AfLIA Conference 2023 (May 2023, Accra, Ghana); and the Open Science Day, co-organised by UNESCO and the African Open Science Platform on the margins of the World Science Forum (December 2022, Cape Town, South Africa). Her professional interests include open science, research data management practices and open access repositories, and the impact on research for sustainable development.