Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission
EU Vice President Neelie Kroes said, “We need to ensure that every future [research] project funded by the EU has a clear plan on how to manage the data it generates. Such plans should foster openness and economies of scale, so that data can be re-used many times rather than duplicated.”
With plans for the next big Framework research programme FP8 now being drafted, Kroes said, “We should all should strive to make real progress towards open access to the scientific data produced within the EU’s framework programme research projects.”
Kroes’ comments at a meeting yesterday (6 October) of data experts reporting their recommendations to the Commission, reflect the rising profile of data management issues in EU funded research. A requirement that Framework researchers include a data management plan would be a significant step: while this is already included in some grant applications, it is not a universal or detailed requirement.
The expert group, convened by the Commission, urged even stronger action calling for “Every funded science project [to] include a fixed budget percentage for compulsory conservation and distribution of data, spent depending on the project context.”
On open access, the Commission has over the past few years been edging – in step with the US government – towards a view that all publicly-funded research should be freely and publicly available, rather than locked behind the paid-subscription firewalls of scientific publishers.
The expert group also endorsed that kind of “open access”. As Kroes was speaking at the Commission headquarters building, a colleague, Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, was announcing a broad Innovation Union plan that also included strong language on the need for open access.
“The Commission will promote open access to the results of publicly funded research,” declared Geoghegan-Quinn’s strategy document.
“It will aim to make open access to publications the general principle for projects funded by the EU research Framework Programmes. The Commission will also support the development of smart research information services that are fully searchable and allow results from research projects to be easily accessed.”
Management of scientific data has been a growing issue in many capitals of late, from Washington to Tokyo. In part that is because of the sheer volume. A few examples, cited by the expert group in their report, “Riding the Wave: How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data”:
A single high-throughput DNA sequencing machine can produce 9 terabytes of data in a year, alongside a wealth of even more, related information that, altogether, is the equivalent of 20 times the holdings of the US Library of Congress.
A single radio astronomy telescope, such as the planned Square Kilometre Array, could produce even more – 9 petabytes in 20 seconds.
This unimaginably high level of data production, the expert group reports, is both a challenge and an opportunity – a challenge because it is difficult to manage, store and share, and an opportunity because it changes the way science itself is performed, potentially leading to unforeseen, data-intensive answers to society’s most pressing problems.
The group, chaired by Prof. John Wood of Imperial College London and chair of another Commission advisory body, the European Research Area Board, makes several recommendations:
Develop an international framework for managing this data deluge
Earmark additional funding for scientific e-infrastructure
Develop and use new ways to measure the value of data, and reward those who use it
Train a new generation of data scientists, and broaden public understanding
Create incentives for green technologies in the data infrastructure
Establish a high-level, inter-ministerial group on a global level to plan for data infrastructure.
Note: Science|Business assisted the high-level expert group in the preparation of its report to the Commission.
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