Science Commons open workshop in Barcelona: the challenge of access to research data in Europe

This July (16th and 17th) Science Commons has organized a workshop in Barcelona. The goal is to conclude the workshop with a set of shared principles that can effectively guide the development of a collaborative infrastructure for knowledge sharing — one that increases the value of each independent contribution to the global knowledge commons. To reach this goal the organizators have design an excellent programme. Furthermore, I’m sure that participants will enrich the discussion.

On the other hand, the last Eurohealth publication, a joint initiative between the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the London School of Economics and Political Sciences – Health, includes an article entitled Access to research data in Europe written by Philipa Mladovky, Elias Mossialos and Martin Mckee:

Summary: The European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) is much more ambitious than its predecessor and health research has been boosted, taking €6 billion of the overall budget of €50.5 billion. Yet, in contrast to other leading research funders, FP7 is largely silent on the issue of access to research data. Sharing health research data is in many ways more complex than other types of research data because of the ethical and regulatory issues. However, these and other technical, legal, cultural and institutional barriers to increasing access to research data should not discourage policy development in this area, since there are many potential benefits.

Keywords: Data, Data Sharing, Research Funding, European Commission

This article could be another input to encourage and stimulate the workshop discussion and to promote Health Commons.