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2023 proved to be another landmark year for Science Europe: building on the achievements of the previous year and setting the direction for new approaches in vital areas of research policy.

This initial position by Science Europe on ‘Dual-Use’ Research, was submitted on 30 April as a response to the European Commission Consultation on the White Paper on ‘Options for enhancing support for research and development involving technologies with dual-use potential’, following a preliminary discussion with our Governing Board and prior to a broader discussion with our Member Organisations in the context of our upcoming General Assembly Meeting.

Ahead of discussions on 4 July in the European Parliament, Science Europe highlights its concerns regarding the potential impact of the Digital Services Act on the research and education sectors and the legal uncertainty that it is likely to create.

Research organisations, libraries, repositories, and university networks call for the the exclusion of not-for-profit repositories, digital archives, and libraries from the obligations of the Digital Services Act.

Science Europe Response to the European Commission’s Consultation on a Future Data Act

Science Europe Response to the European Commission Consultation on European Digital Principles

Science Europe Response to the European Commission Inception Impact Assessment for a Data Act.

Science Europe joins forces with other stakeholder organisations to argue for an exemption for not-for-profit scientific and educational repositories in the Digital Services Act (DSA). Please note this is for internal use only as this document was sent to a selected number of Parliament and Council representatives to advocate for the exemption.

In its response to the European Commission, Science Europe highlights that the foreseen scope of the new legislation is not clearly defined and greater clarification should be introduced to ensure that the Digital Services Act does not have unintended effects on research.

In its response to the European Commission Roadmap for an upcoming legislative proposal on the governance of common European data spaces, Science Europe reinforces the need to consider sectoral policies to ensure coherence.

Science Europe calls on the European Commission to take into account the important role of the research sector as producer and user of data. The longstanding experience of the research sector should feed into the development of an overarching EU data strategy that promotes data access across sectors.

In its response to the EC consultation on the European Strategy for Data, Science Europe also underlines the need to consider sectoral policies to ensure coherence between overarching and sectoral policies.

In this joint statement research and Innovation stakeholders call on the EU institutions to seek a balanced approach to data sharing in response to the European Commission’s proposal for a revision of the Directive on re-use of public sector information (PSI Directive). While the partners are supportive of the European agenda to promote Open Science and innovation, and share a common commitment to the principle of making research data ‘as open as possible and as closed as necessary’, there is a need to focus on the optimal re-use of research data and not on the (unconditional) opening of such data.

Science Europe supports the principle that research data should be “as open as possible and as closed as necessary.” However, the particularity of research data as well as of data about research activities requires careful consideration on which aspects are better dealt with by legislative acts or by guidelines developed by the research sector.

This open letter, signed by the European Research and Innovation community, calls on Members of the European Parliament and the Council to secure Europe’s leadership in the data economy by revising the Text and Data Mining (TDM) exception in the draft of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. It calls for the TDM exception to apply to any person that has legal access to the content to help the European data economy grow, foster innovation, and encourage entrepreneurship.

This open letter issued by the international research community calls on Members of the European Parliament to halt the adoption of harmful provisions found in the current draft of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which could threaten Open Access and Open Science.

LIBER Europe, CESAER, EUA, LERU, and Science Europe — who together represent hundreds of universities, libraries, and research funding and performing organisations — call on Members of the European Parliament to modify the current EU copyright reform proposal. Amendments in five main areas of the proposal are critical if Europe wants to be at the forefront of a prosperous and growing digital society. Europe must take the lead to develop legislative frameworks that allow fair dissemination, access to, sharing and use of available knowledge.

The recent legislative proposal from the European Commission to reform EU copyright law addresses some needs, but not to the full extent required. Science Europe calls for research and data mining exceptions to ensure that copyright legislation is friendly to research and innovation.

Text and data mining (TDM) is hugely important for science as it can facilitate better research and the free flow of knowledge across borders. This report urges policy-makers to update the legal framework in the context of the upcoming EU copyright reform in order to allow TDM for commercial and non-commercial means, and also to clarify the legal position surrounding it.

Text and Data Mining (TDM) helps the analysis and extraction of new insights and knowledge from vast amount of digitally-available content. It offers great potential for research, but also for the economy and society as a whole since it enables innovation. This paper gives an overview of some of the legal hurdles faced by researchers using TDM practices, flags possible action lines for research organisations, and calls for a more science-friendly EU copyright law.

This paper expresses the concerns of the medical and health research communities about the lack of a specific consideration when regulating the privacy of individuals and protecting personal data in the context of medical and health research in the General Data Protection Regulation.

The European Institutions are currently entering the crucial stage of the legislative process that will revise the EU Data Protection Directive and lead to the European General Data Protection Regulation (DPR). Scientific research produces high impact results, depending heavily on access to and use of datasets that include personal data. In order to continue to perform scientific research for the benefit of Europe and its citizens, researchers need an appropriate DPR that reconciles the safe processing of personal data for scientific research and the protection of individual rights to privacy