Open Science in Europe

... as a means for improving the quality of research for transparency and reproducibility, and their use by the industry and society as a growth mechanism.

The European Research Area (ERA) is a unified research area open to the world based on the Internal market, in which researchers, scientific knowledge and technology circulate freely.

Through ERA, the Union and its Member States will strengthen their scientific and technological bases, their competitiveness and their capacity to collectively address grand challenges.

The Digital Single Market (DSM) forms one of the ten political priorities of the European Commission and, as part of the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE), is also one of the 7 flagship initiatives set by the “Europe2020” strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. DSM envisages a market where “free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured … under conditions of fair competition, and a high level of consumer and personal data protection, irrespective of their nationality or place of residence.”.

We have singled out the following initiatives which put the context around Open Science in Europe. Spedific policies and mandates aim to put these initiatives in practice.

European Open Science Cloud

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is grounded in the EC’s aim to promote the access and reuse of research data which comes out of publicly funded research. At present, there is fragmented access to research data, which exists, stored and is created in many different data centres, institutions and research centres across Europe. Open access to this data is not a given, and the content is not interoperable, restricting inter-disciplinary research.

EOSC will solve this problem by providing easy access to this data, making publicly funded data open. It will provide one single point of free access, ensuring all databases are interoperable. The push therefore for a recognition of the benefits of Open Science - policies and infrastructures - is therefore key.

EOSC Key Documents

After the 2017 EOSC declaration a number of implementation plans have been published. After extensive consultation with scientific stakeholders, this implementation plan was put in place in 2018

See OpenAIRE’s response to the declaration.

In 2019, the most up-to-date European Open Science Cloud Implementation Plan was published.

In the context of the launch of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) implementation phase 2018-2020, two important reports are being published by the Commission that constitute major sources of strategic orientations and concrete actions for the new EOSC governance structure:

1. Prompting an EOSC in practice

Report of the Commission 2nd High Level Expert Group on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC 2nd HLEG)

2. Turning FAIR into reality

Report of the Commission FAIR Data Expert Group (FAIR Data EG)

Why do we need EOSC? Watch the EOSC video.

How is EOSC Governed?

EOSC is governed by three bodies (Executive Board, Governance Board, Stakeholder Forum) and five working groups implement the strategic plan.

For more information visit the EOSC portal

Read more here to see how OpenAIRE is relevant in EOSC, and where our members are active!

European Cloud Initiative

Helping the creation of a Digital Single Market in Europe

As part of the package of measures for Digitising European industry, the "European Cloud Initiative – Building a competitive data and knowledge economy in Europe" aims to strengthen Europe's position in data-driven innovation, improve its competitiveness and cohesion, and help create a Digital Single Market in Europe.

This initiative will provide European science, industry and public authorities with:

a world-class data infrastructure to store and manage data (European Open Science Cloud);
high-speed connectivity to transport data (European Data Infrastructure); and
ever more powerful High Performance Computers to process data (HPC).

Open Innovation, Open Science, Open to the world

“The three O’s” to foster research and innovation policy making

Open Innovation or Open Innovation 2.0 (open in a “user-centric” sense), focuses on new business models and funding schemes to be developed so that everyone, particularly the industry and citizens, have access to knowledge and are able to use innovation workflows to analyse, publish and commercialise their findings. An Open Innovation ecosystem encourages the hatching of new entrepreneurs and the creation of new products, services and, therefore, new markets. The free flow of knowledge, data and new technologies is the key to achieve the transition from research (knowledge) to innovation (products, services). Open Innovation accommodates this need by also completing the missing part of commercialisation.

Open Science follows e-Science, i.e. the computationally-intensive/digitalised research process and practice, while positioning collaboration and re-usability as its driving forces. Open Science opens up the research lifecycle, from the concept of an idea and the collection of relevant material (papers, data, etc) to the publication, archiving and re-use of the research outcomes, including metadata and research data. It creates a new modus operandi for science, where all stakeholders (researchers, funders, research performing organisations, ITs, librarians, citizens, even governments) are involved and research is organised, linked, verified, facilitated by new technologies and, enhanced with collaborative and coordinative activities. Legal barriers in accessing and sharing information and data, as well as, utilisation of data-intensive, cost-demanding infrastructures are among the issues that are eliminated with Open Science.

Open to the World captures Europe’s leading position in scientific productivity and the instruments of the European Research & Innovation, communicated internationally through activities, funding, agreements that enable such collaborations. It also reflects on Europe’s contribution to global societal challenges ensuring the effectiveness of its research and innovation across-borders.

Public Sector Information

A common legal framework for a European market for government-held data

The Digital Single Market encompasses several policy areas where actions need to be further communicated and implemented by Member States, one of them being on “Open Data”. The term refers to all public sector information (PSI) which, according to the PSI 2013 Directive, should be properly described with metadata and published as datasets in an open, interoperable platform. Additionally, to ensure re-usability, standard licenses should be applied to them. It is worth noting that the Directive includes Archives, Museums and Libraries in the public sector bodies, mainly because of their cultural heritage and digitised materials.