Brussels, 28/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Ministers responsible for research are expected to endorse the roadmap for the European Research Area (ERA) for 2015-2020, on the second day of the EU Competitiveness Council on Friday 29 May.
Research ministers will only meet for half a day but are expected to adopt conclusions on the ERA roadmap discussed at their meeting in September 2014 (see EUROPE 11164). The Council will then adopt a separate set of conclusions on reviewing ERA governance to make the advisory structure of the ERA “more efficient and effective”.
Building on the EU digital single market strategy the Commission has just unveiled (see EUROPE 11309), ministers will be invited to adopt conclusions on “open, data-intensive and networked research”. In this, they will offer their political support for setting the framework conditions for promoting research and innovation based on big data, which will require support for expanding new career paths and helping the researchers involved in this area.
At the end of the morning, ministers will finally hold a debate on sharing research work and online discoveries (also known as Science 2.0). Should the EU develop an agenda on open science? If so, what does it need to do and how could it help promote the ERA? How can all the different stakeholders involved be best engaged? These are the three questions that the Latvian Presidency of the Council asked the member states organising the debate. (Jan Kordys)