Research groups concerned about public-data drive

The EU should reconsider including research data in an initiative to open up public-sector information, a group of prominent research and industry bodies has cautioned.

Research data cannot be treated in a similar way to the executive, judicial and administrative data originally covered by the EU’s public-sector information directive, the group warned on 12 November. Politicians are negotiating whether and how the directive should be extended to cover data from publicly funded research, but the group said they should think again.

“The legal frameworks for research and administrative data simply cannot be the same,” they said in a joint statement. The group included the European University Association, the association of research funders and performers Science Europe, and the industry association Business Europe.