Driving better data

Data-sharing advances have been slow but may be the better for it

Research is increasingly all about data—collecting it, processing it, publishing it. How the sector approaches this brave new digital world now will shape researchers’ work for decades to come. 

The EU has recognised this and frequently sets digitisation alongside climate change as a major challenge for the bloc. Progress is being made on pan-EU data-sharing: in October, the Council of the EU agreed its approach to the European Commission’s push for a Data Governance Act. But like many EU initiatives, the move from concept to reality will take some time. In the meantime, researchers face multiple sets of rules, regulations and norms to comply with over data, from start to finish, collection to dissemination. And many of these will remain in play as the pan-EU initiative emerges.