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EU declaration calls for more open data

Published: 31 August 2023

A new EU declaration describes how society can increase the usefulness of research data and how the transition to open science should be promoted. The Declaration proposes, among other things, the introduction of policies for open data, promotion of the FAIR principles and collaboration through EOSC, which is in line with the work already carried out at SLU.

In June this year, Sweden, in its capacity as holder of the presidency of the Council of the EU, hosted a conference on how access to research data and research infrastructure can increase for researchers, companies and society at large. Participants included Mats Persson, Minister for Education, Ebba Busch, Minister for Energy, Business and Industry, as well as Signe Ratso, Acting Director-General of Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission.

At the conference, a declaration was presented that describes how society can increase the use of research data and how the transition to open science should be promoted. The European Commission and 19 countries within the EU/EFTA have supported it.

The declaration emphasizes, among other things, that investments must be carried out so that research data to a greater extent complies with the FAIR principles (see fact box) and that the principles for FAIR data and open science must be strengthened within research infrastructures. In addition, reward models for producers of research data should be developed and open science policies implemented at European, national and institutional levels through the European Open Science Cloud (see fact box).

SLU is working to increase the amount of open data that the university produces and for research and environmental assessment and monitoring data to comply with the FAIR principles to the greatest extent possible, including through the data management policy adopted in November 2022. SLU also participates in national and international collaborations on research data, including through the Swedish National Data Service (SND) and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

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Facts:

The FAIR principles

FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The FAIR principles mean that data must be discoverable, that there must be information on how to access it, that it must be compatible with other data, and that it must be possible to reuse it.

  • Read more on the SLU library's website: FAIR data.

European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)

EOSC is a European collaboration that aims to develop a virtual environment with services and tools to share and reuse research data and promote open science. SLU has been a member of EOSC since 2022.