The G7 Science and Technology Ministers have released a communiqué with science policy guidelines. These include suggested guidelines on FAIR Data treatment and open science. Read the full communiqué.
The Science Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, met in Venaria on 28 September 2017. In this meeting, they discussed a set of possible common actions and areas of cooperation, to create the conditions for researchers to provide their best possible contribution to the advancement of knowledge in crucial domains for future prosperity and sustainability. The ministers approved a statement that moves from the priorities identified by the earlier Taormina Summit and offers to the G7 for consideration a set of specific policy guidelines aimed at translating such priorities into concrete actions. Two of these guidelines relate to Open Science.
Open Science guidelines
“19: We recognize that ICT developments, the digitisation and the vast availability of data, efforts to push the science frontiers, and the need to address complex economic and societal challenges, are transforming the way in which science is performed towards Open Science paradigms. We agree that an international approach can help the speed and coherence of this transition, and that it should target in particular two aspects. First, the incentives for the openness of the research ecosystem: the evaluation of research careers should better recognize and reward Open Science activities. Secondly, the infrastructures for an optimal use of research data: all researchers should be able to deposit, access and analyse scientific data across disciplines and at the global scale, and research data should adhere to the FAIR principles of being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.”
“20: We support the work and results achieved so far by the G7 Open Science Working group. The OS Working Group has identified priorities that deserve and require common aligned actions, both in encouraging openness and data skills in scientific research practice, through workforce development and training. We encourage the OS WG to follow-up actions taken by G7 members according to the WG’s recommendations and to collect good practices, in order to report to the next G7 Science Minister’s Meeting. In particular, we support the OS WG deepening its efforts on the two topics identified above (paragraph 19), namely the incentives for openness of the research ecosystem, including the role of research indicators and metrics relevant to open science, and the infrastructures and standards for optimal use of research. The summary report of the OS working group is attached to this Communiqué.”