Reports & Publications

Data driven science is seen as the fourth paradigm of scientific research after experimental science, theoretical science and computational science.  

While great focus is given to Big Data (comprising structured as well as unstructured data with a tendency to be homogeneous and standardized), at the opposite side of the spectrum Long Tail Data - characterized as heterogeneous, relatively small data, often with unique standards and not regulated - has received so far less attention and poses its challenges.

The European Commission adopted on 19 April 2016 the communication “European Cloud Initiative – Building a competitive data and knowledge economy in Europe” that sets out a strategy to strengthen Europe’s position in data-driven innovation, improve its cohesion and help create a Digital Single Market in Europe. This is a fundamental step towards the reinforcement of the EU’s competitiveness in digital technologies and in innovation.

The RDA-WDS Data Publishing Workflows Working Group  set out to study the current data-publishing workflow landscape across disciplines and institutions. A diverse set of workflows were examined to identify common components and standard practices, including basic self-publishing services, institutional data repositories, long-term projects, curated data repositories, and joint data journal and repository arrangements.

The Science Europe Working Group on Research Data and the Knowledge Exchange Research Data expert group joined forces to explore how RDM/RDI are, or can be, funded. This briefing paper presents the results of the joint activity, detailing the approach and main outcomes of the study.

Research data systems have matured greatly over the last decade - partly in response to the growing complexity, amount, and heterogeneity of research data. Innovations such as data harmonization, interoperability frameworks, and feature extraction tools are greatly improving the capabilities of research communities to access and manipulate data in computing systems.