Search

The 2020 edition of the Science Europe High Level Workshop on ERA was co-hosted with the Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education. It explored how research and innovation can contribute to crisis recovery and to societal resilience in the context of an evolving research culture.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

This report highlights the main ideas and insights that emerged from the 18 and 19 October 2022 Conference on Open Science, organised by Science Europe.

The Roadmap, approved by the Science Europe General Assembly in November 2013, is Science Europe’s action plan to contribute to the elements of a successful research system. It acts as a framework for voluntary collective activity, providing a long-term strategy for the association. The ‘Priority Action Areas’ are those in which Science Europe members believe that there is a potential to achieve tangible and substantive progress, and where they can add real value by working together.

The Science Europe Strategy Plan comes at a crucial time for European Research an Innovation (R&I) and includes an updated vision, mission, values, and set of strategic priorities for the association. It supports its Member Organisation in their mission to create world-class scientific knowledge, delivering more benefit for our societies.

Science Europe welcomes the efforts made towards the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). In this open letter, the Governing Board of Science Europe reinforces its view that research data should be permanently, publicly, and freely available for re-use. The proposed EOSC aims to further this goal but a number of important questions still remain.

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.

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.

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 responds to the global consultation on the UNESCO Draft Principles on Open Science Monitoring. The principles are a step in the right direction, aligning with the priorities and practices of Science Europe's Member Organisations.