G7 Ministers Declare support on Open Science for COVID-19 research

 

 

Last week, in fact, the G7 Science & Technology and Digital Ministers announced the adoption of “A Shared Vision for Science and Technology in Responding to the Pandemic, Protecting Human Health, and Promoting Social and Economic Recovery” stressing on the central role of open science to enhance public access to research results and research data.

 

 

The G7 S&T Ministers manifest their willingness to work in strict collaboration with other relevant Ministers on COVID-19 related issues to:

Enhance cooperation on shared COVID-19 research priority areas (research, public health and clinical studies)

To deepen priorities, including the identification of COVID-19 cases and a better understanding of the spread of the virus, always bearing in mind privacy and personal data.

Make government-sponsored COVID-19 epidemiological and related research results, data, and information accessible to the public in machine-readable formats, to the greatest extent possible.

The purpose is to effectively identify research results, data and other relevant information to fully respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and inherently to prevent future pandemics by strengthening research, clinical care, public health and public communication. In addition to that, the action is to point out any gaps in data, to make anonymised data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, and to recognise the central role of open science in its effort to enhance public access to research results and research data. Last but not least, the stress is on sharing best practices and lessons learned on the ethical and transparent use of data in the response to COVID-19 and beyond, and on sharing tools and methods for responsible, transparent and participatory use of data, highlighting ongoing initiatives, of which repositories (literature and data) are a reference.

Strengthen the use of high-performance computing for COVID-19 response

With the aim of making available national high-performance computing resources, appropriate to the needs of national research communities for COVID-19 and for epidemiological research, always with a keen eye on safeguarding intellectual property. The G7 S&T Ministers also encourage cooperation between G7 partners and ongoing initiatives such as the COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium, the Partnership for High-Performance Computing in Europe and the High-Performance Computing Infrastructure in Japan.

Launch the Global Partnership on AI

To reinforce multilateral collaboration in moving the AI further in order to reflect common democratic values as well as possible common global challenges, including a response to COVID-19.

Exchange best practices to advance broadband connectivity

Providing assistance in distance learning and work; enabling access to intelligent health systems, virtual care and telehealth services; boosting re-skilling programmes thus preparing the workforce of the future; providing effective support in global social and economic recovery, in an inclusive way, never forgetting the need for data protection and privacy and security.

Further details can be found on the declaration