Open Data And Open Science

The G8 International Conference on Open Data in April 2013 aimed to make agricultural research more widely available to improve global food security. Carlos Morais Pires from the European Commission discusses the EC’s effort to increase access to data and reviews the G8’s plans.

Modern science relies on data – lots of data that are complex and diverse. Open science – scientific results, the data that feed them, the software that sits beneath them, or the educational resources that help us teach and learn – can transform every scientific discipline and enable cross-disciplinary research.

Research data became important assets because they result from our continuously improving ability to collect facts, measure with unprecedented precision, depth and volume. To reap the advantages of ICTs and to enable global research collaborations, interoperable data infrastructures are essential to allow users to share and exchange data.