Executive Summary: In the context of an accelerating digital transformation, governments and Higher education institutions face a strategic imperative to reconceptualise access to publicly funded knowledge as a matter of rights, infrastructure, and governance. As digital governance increasingly becomes central to the functioning of modern states, policy frameworks must evolve from traditional regulatory approaches towards enabling Digital Public Goods (DPG) and open, inclusive digital ecosystems that support the circulation and reuse of knowledge.This policy brief argues that fragmented approaches to openness – treating Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Access (OA), Open Science, Open Data, and Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) as separate policy domains – limit the public value and sustainability of digital transformation in Higher education. Instead, integrated legal and institutional frameworks are required to connect these open solutions across the full knowledge lifecycle, from research and innovation to teaching, learning, and reuse. Such integration strengthens transparency, interoperability, and the long-term sustainability of publicly funded knowledge systems. This policy brief focuses on Higher education institutions which are major producers, curators and users of publicly funded knowledge, and therefore play a central role in the digital knowledge lifecycle. As significant recipients of public funding, they have the institutional capacity to connect research, teaching, and digital infrastructure, making them well placed to advance integrated open policies with wider impact.Advancing open policies requires a shift from isolated digital initiatives towards shared digital infrastructures, including open repositories, interoperable platforms, common standards, and rights-preserving software systems. Within these open solutions ecosystems, OER play a central role by enabling the creation, adaptation, and dissemination of knowledge at scale. When supported by FAIR, TRUST and CARE principles for open data, open access policies for research, and FOSS-based infrastructures, these systems form the digital foundations of knowledge societies.AI anchored in the international human rights law framework should be embedded within these ecosystems in ways that respect open licences, authorship, and ethical, human-centred knowledge creation. Grounded in UNESCO’s Recommendations on OER1 and Open Science,2integrated open policy ecosystems can strengthen digital sovereignty, accountability, and equitable access to knowledge as a digital public good. However, alongside this moral imperative there is a compelling economic rationale: the systematic re-use and sharing of knowledge transforms investment in education and research into a plus-sum game, generating value across sectors and stakeholders. Realising this potential in practice requires sustained government commitment and cross-ministerial alignment, as open policies are a driver for growth and innovation