(Published on 28.10.2022) There are currently legislative projects under discussion at European and national level that regulate access to data: On the one hand, the European Data Act and, on the other, the German Research Data Act. Of great importance for science are regulations that legally control access to data in public and private hands for publicly funded research.
The Consortia Assembly of the NFDI Association supports the inclusion of a direct data access law for public research and has therefore published a position paper. The position paper gives four reasons for this:

  • Standardised processes, especially in data provision, reduce the risks for the various parties involved through clear legal frameworks, e.g. with regard to data access, data security and data sharing.
  • Structured data access promotes new insights. More efficient analysis procedures and easier linking of data sets as well as establishment of common standards are made possible.
  • If legal regulations are anchored, e.g. on the transfer of data to platform operators, it promotes a common basis for negotiations between all contracting parties.
  • Regulated access to data strengthens the trust to exchange and share data.

The position paper was agreed by the Consortium Assembly of the NFDI Association. 

You can download the position paper here (German).

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