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May 2, 2023
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A European strategy for Data

May 2, 2023
Communication from the European Commission

#DigitalEU

 On February 19th, the European Commission released its Communication ‘European strategy for data’, which outlines a strategy for policy measures and investments to enable the data economy for the coming five years. This data strategy is presented at the same time as the Commission’s Communication on “Shaping Europe’s digital future” and a White Paper on artificial intelligence.

To fulfil its ambition to become a leader in the global data economy, the EU needs to deal with a range of issues such as connectivity and storage, cybersecurity and the lack of digital skills. Better governance structures and an increase in the available pool of quality data available for use and re-use are also a requirement. This Communication outlines the strategy to tackle these issues, making full use of the existing strong legal framework already in place (for example with the GDPR and database rights) and the potential offered by the single internal market.

"The objective of the European data strategy is to make sure the EU becomes a role model and a leader for a society empowered by data. For this, it aims at setting up a true European data space, a single market for data, to unlock unused data, allowing it to flow freely within the European Union and across sectors for the benefit of businesses, researchers and public administrations. Citizens, businesses and organisations should be empowered to make better decisions based on insights gleaned from non-personal data. That data should be available to all, whether public or private, start-up or giant."

OpenAIRE welcomes this strategic communication and stresses the strategic importance of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) as the key tool how the EU27 remains a global leader in Open Science, by sharing the data resulting from its research programmes and by facilitating discovery, access to and reuse of data and services throughout the European Research Area (ERA) and beyond.  The successful implementation of EOSC as a common data space for research output will serve as a template for other common data spaces, for example for health and financial data, and for mobility. 

 OpenAIRE is looking forward to play its role in EOSC as an active contributor, by providing policy guidance, training, and dedicated services and infrastructure.

The Commission recognises the importance of data interoperability and quality (including structure, authenticity and integrity) as  key for the successful exploitation of data. Right now, interoperability issues still impede the combination of data from different sources. The application of standard and shared compatible formats and protocols for gathering and processing data from different sources is key to overcome these issues. With its Research Graph, OpenAIRE wants to set the example for scientific data interoperability. 

With the Research Graph, OpenAIRE wants to set the example for scientific data interoperability. 

An important gap identified in the communication is the lack of expertise and skills, with relatively low levels of data literacy amongst the general population and significant participation gaps. OpenAIRE offers a range of resources that help researchers and research administrators to become more data literate. 

OpenAIRE offers a range of resources and support tools that help researchers and research administrators to become more data literate. 

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