At the end of February, the European Commission adopted its proposal for a Council Recommendation on the European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda for 2025 to 2027.
The proposal follows the previous ERA Policy Agenda which ran from 2022 to 2024 and will serve as a three-year roadmap for development goals in the European Research Area, ranging from promoting open science principles to reforming research assessment. To that end, the proposal contains some short-term goals which are to be completed by 2027, and a number of long-term ambitions that will go beyond this timeframe. Adoption of the Commission’s proposal is expected in May.
Overall, the proposed agenda highlights numerous areas of improvement that would go a long way in strengthening the European Research Area and unlocking research and knowledge production in Europe.
The first priority area identified in the proposal, deepening a truly functioning internal market for knowledge, contains a number of crucial issues for knowledge institutions in Europe. One of the key steps the proposal foresees to achieve this goal is enabling open science via sharing and re-use of data. Here, the Commission aims to identify areas for legislative and non-legislative measures to ensure that the EU copyright and data legislation framework are fit for research. Furthermore, the Commission aims to take some meaningful steps towards equity in open science, highlighting the currently fractured European framework and noting the need for investment into infrastructure and to create incentives and recognition for researchers.
Another priority area identified in the proposal is the green transition and digital transformation and other challenges with impact on society and increasing society’s participation in the ERA. One crucial step towards this goal is enhancing trust in science and by extension democratic governance by bringing science closer to citizens.
COMMUNIA supports the Commission’s draft on the European Research Area as some of the proposals align very closely with the priorities identified in our Digital Knowledge Act. A broad and flexible research exception and a comprehensive and strong harmonised approach to a secondary publication right would encourage open science by facilitating the uptake of open-access publication of research. Meanwhile, enabling libraries and other knowledge intermediaries to thrive and fulfil their public service mission in the digital world would go a long way in connecting the public with research and science and increase trust.
