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Open Data and Open Science policy in Europe

16th March 2017News, Open Data, Open Science

With the pace at which the Open Data and Open Science landscape is evolving, keeping informed of the many policy changes occurring throughout Europe can be challenging. But for those who are currently developing, evaluating or strengthening their national or regional Open Science policies, it is essential, said SPARC Europe’s director, Vanessa Proudman.

In an effort to meet this need, today, SPARC Europe, together with the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), has released a living report that provides a snapshot of various Open Data and Open Science policies, as they currently stand throughout Europe. The report gives an overview and quick access via live links to the sourced policy information, by country. This document is unique in the level of insight it provides on the topic of Open Science and Open Data policies in particular.

“We believe this will be a valuable reference tool for those involved in Open Science and Open Data policy development and evaluation,” said Proudman.

While the 28 EU member states are the primary focus of the piece, EEA countries as well as other nations in the European Research Area are also included.

This report is the first in a series that will seek to shed light on similarities and differences in Open Data and Open Science policies between European nations, and to assess their effectiveness in opening research data. While this initial paper provides an overview; the next installment, due later this spring, will report on results from a forthcoming analysis of some of these policies.

Download the report.