Georg's acquaintance with the topic "Open Access" goes back as far as 2002 when he, then a member of the Executive Board of the “German Physical Society”, was deeply involved in establishing the “New Journal of Physics”. From the very beginning, Georg was involved, too, in the planning and the implementation of eLife, the Open Access journal founded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA), the Wellcome Trust (UK) and the Max Planck Society.

Georg Botz was in charge of organising several “Berlin Open Access” conferences and initiated the first Open Access conference for students and early career researchers which took place in Berlin in 2013.

Last, but not least, Georg chairs the Open Access working groups of Science Europe as well as of the Alliance of German Research Organisations.