Enhanced Data Access for Science, Technology and Innovation

At its 109th session in October 2016, the OECD Committee for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP) discussed and approved a proposed joint development of a possible new overarching recommendation on enhanced access to data, together with the Committee for Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) and the Public Governance Committee (PGC). The OECD Council has adopted five Recommendations concerning the governance of data, starting already in the 1980s. These include:

• The OECD Privacy Guidelines, adopted in 1980 and revised in 2013
• The OECD (2006) Recommendation of the Council concerning Access to Research Data from Public Funding and OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding – this is the CSTP’s central instrument in this domain
• The OECD (2008) Recommendation of the Council for Enhanced Access and More Effective Use of Public Sector Information
• The OECD (2009) Guidelines for Human Biobanks and Genetic Research Databases
• The OECD (2014) Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies
• The OECD (2016) Recommendation of the Council on Health Data Governance

A dedicated project is identifying gaps in current data governance frameworks, which will enable identifying the common elements that could be further developed as general principles on enhanced access to data, possibly resulting in an OECD umbrella legal instrument adopted by Council to serve as reference for any revision of existing OECD legal instruments or for the development of new ones in other policy areas.

A survey was conducted in mid-2017 to assess the current use of the Recommendation, the results of which are summarised in "Open Access To Data In Science, Technology And Innovation – Initial Survey Findings", discussed by the CSTP at its 111th Meeting in October 2017.  

The key issues identified in the survey as requiring policy attention were:

• Data governance for trust - addressing privacy, confidentiality, quality and ethical issues
• Discoverability/findability, machine readability and data standards
• Recognition and reward system for data authors
• Definition of responsibility and ownership
• Business models for open data provision
• Building human capital and institutional capabilities at public agencies, to manage, create, curate and reuse data.

In March 2018, the CSTP joined forces with the Global Science Forum in organising a workshop ‘Towards New Principles For Enhanced Access To Public Data For Science, Technology And Innovation’ with the objective to deepen the gap analysis already initiated through the recent survey report. You will find the agenda, bio-book of speakers and a meeting summary attached.

As a next step, OECD member and partner countries are invited to submit specific case studies of policies implemented in the domain of enhanced access to public data for science, technology and innovation, and extract transferable learnings from these case studies, which would prepare the ground for drafting future new principles and guidelines to enhance access to public data for science, technology and innovation.