Science Europe and NWO launch initiative for aligning research data management policies

Science Europe, the Brussels-based association of European Research Funding Organisations (RFO) and Research Performing Organisations (RPO), and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) have launched an initiative for the voluntary international alignment of research data management policies. The initiative was presented at the ‘Open Science and Sharing Research Data" event in Brussels on 30 January 2018. Access to and sharing research data are central pillars of Open Science. Many research funders, institutes, and universities are therefore developing policies for managing research data in an Open Science environment, in order to to stimulate good data governance and stewardship. A better alignment of these policies, however, will reduce the administrative burden on both researchers and research organisations. Science Europe and NWO want to create this alignment by exploring ways to establish core research data management requirements, as well as a list of trusted repositories where researchers can store their data for sharing. These should create a uniform basis on which organisations can develop more specific policies. Science Europe and NWO encourage other organisations in the research landscape to join forces in this endeavour. Science Europe will therefore launch a first round of consultations in the early spring of 2018; interested organisations are invited to contact the Science Europe Office.