4Science turns 10 – Ten years ago, 4Science was born from an intuition of the Itway group, already for over twenty years a national and international reference point in the cybersecurity sector, and from the meeting of people coming from different worlds: from repositories for the management of research products and data, from cultural heritage and digital libraries to software development.
They were united by an idea… visionary: to grow the dialogue between science and culture, according to the principles of open access and open science, to make knowledge truly shared and accessible to everyone.
In ten years, that intuition has transformed into a living and expanding reality: today 4Science is made up of dozens of people who work every day alongside universities, research institutions, and cultural institutions, in Italy and around the world, contributing to projects that make a difference in the way knowledge is preserved, enhanced, and disseminated.
In this intertwining of knowledge, our most authentic hallmark was born: knowing how to design solutions that are solid and interoperable, but also flexible and adaptable to the most diverse contexts. It is precisely this variety of perspectives that allows us to naturally speak the language of researchers, librarians, IT technicians, and management, building together with them tools that work in the daily life of the institutions we support.
We continue to attract and enhance young talents, curious, competent, and motivated people, who bring new energy and increasingly innovative ideas, contributing to keeping alive the collaborative culture that has always distinguished us.
Looking ahead with a challenge: reaching an ever-increasing number of institutions
Over these ten years, 4Science has grown together with the DSpace community, in which it now plays a leading role in guiding the evolution of the platform. It is also a stable point of contact between the community, universities, and research centers in many countries around the world, a network that makes us proud and motivates us to do more and more.
But the work does not stop here!
We are expanding our commitment in all areas of Open Science and Cultural Heritage, with two initiatives in which we deeply believe:
4Science Academy, created to share not only technologies but also skills and methodologies. With the Academy, we support our stakeholders in an increasingly conscious and strategic use of technology, helping them to integrate it effectively into daily practices in a rapidly changing world.
DSpaceWay, the innovation of 2026, designed to assist even the smallest or less resourceful institutions in transitioning to digital. A sustainable and interoperable SaaS service that makes research and cultural heritage easily accessible, linkable, reusable, and shareable. With DSpaceWay, knowledge does not remain confined but spreads, connects, and generates new knowledge even in these contexts.
And now?
The next step is to continue innovating without losing our identity: that of curious people, passionate about research and cultural heritage, used to working in teams, side by side with institutions.
Now it is time to pause for a moment, look back, and say thank you.
To those who were there from the beginning, to those who joined along the way, to those who choose us every day to build together a better way to share knowledge.
We celebrate our first ten years with the same enthusiasm as on the first day: and with the certainty that the best, just like knowledge, is yet to come.