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Strategic conclusions from the 12 and 13 March High-level Conference 'Unlocking the Power of Science Communication in Policy Making', co-organised by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), and Science Europe.

Science Europe has provided feedback to the European Commission on the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through the call for evidence opened for the 2025 GDPR report.

In 2022, Science Europe made significant contributions in various areas, including research culture, research assessment, open science, EU framework programmes, the green and digital transition, and science communication.

For Science Europe, 2021 was a very important year: the association celebrated its 10th year of existence. Founded in 2011, it has grown into a respected and influential voice in the European research policy debate. Moreover, we published a new Strategy Plan for 2021–2026, which maps our collective objectives and sets a specific yet flexible action framework over the next five years.

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: Adapting Liability Rules to the Digital Age

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.

On 27 January 2021, Science Europe presented the second, extended version of its Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management during a webinar with more than 260 participants.
As it was unfortunately not possible to address all questions participants asked during the launch event, this document presents the answers to the questions asked to both Science Europe and the webinar speakers.

This Practical Guide provides guidance to ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of research data. Three complementary maturity matrices provide funders, performers, and data infrastructures with a way to create a common understanding of the approaches needed.

The year 2020 saw a global pandemic attest to the value of science. In the race for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, Science Europe’s Member Organisations were at the forefront of the global response and our association became more relevant and important than ever.

Developed by experts from Science Europe Member Organisations, this guide aims to align research data management (RDM) requirements across research organisations. Originally released in 2019, it was updated in January 2021 to include guidance to support the evaluation of data management plans (DMPs).

In its response to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) Science Europe welcomes the detailed guidance on identifying whether controllership is joint or separate within a given collaboration and identifying an appropriate legal form to establish an agreement. However further clarification through the EDPB Guidelines would be helpful for public research organisations.

In its response to the European Commission, Science Europe highlights that future EU legislation on AI needs to strike the right balance between safeguards for users and developers of AI systems, and a legal environment that fosters R&I.

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.

Does your organisation want to develop requirements for data management plans (DMPs) or update existing ones?

Take a look at our latest publication to find out how to do so in three steps.

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.

Research organisations and funders increasingly ask researchers to create Data Management Plans for their work and proposals. A lack of standardisation means that these can be time-consuming to create and difficult to compare and evaluate. Science Europe presents a framework for the creation of domain-specific protocols that can be used as standardised templates, reducing the administrative burden on both researchers, research organisations, and funders.

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.