The European Union and Research Data: Rules, Rights, and Perspectives

Thursday 11 September 2025, 14:30-15:30, Open Science Café with Ludovica Paseri and Elena Giglia

Agenda

14:30 – 14:40 Connection opens and welcome remarks by Elena Giglia
14:40 - 15:00 Presentation by Ludovica Paseri
15:00 – 15:30 Q&A and discussion

Summary

The management and governance of research data is currently caught between two seemingly conflicting factors: on one hand, the autonomy of the scientific community, which is guaranteed by academic freedom; on the other hand, the EU's complex regulatory framework for research data. To see if these two sides can align, we need to look closely at the flow of research data. Here, it helps to separate incoming research data (data collected or created outside of research but reused for the benefit of science) from outgoing research data (data developed within research and later shared). Analysing this data flow highlights three main obstacles to research data governance: (i) regulatory uncertainty and the increasing standardisation of research practices; (ii) the ineffectiveness of some current strategies; and (iii) the underrepresentation of the scientific community in policymaking. The goal is to present data stewardship structures as a way for public actors to take a proactive role in promoting academic freedom, using different levels of intervention and involving the many interests at stake.

Speakers

Elena Giglia (moderator): Head of the Open Access Project Unit at the University of Turin. She plays an active role in national and international working groups on Open Science and is a partner in several Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects. She was part of the Ministry of University and Research committee that drafted the National Plan for Open Science, which is soon to be published. She was also a member of the "Open Access and New Indicators" working group at ANVUR (2013-2014). She regularly participates in national and international conferences on various aspects of Open Science, including evaluation, and is highly active in training, raising awareness, and promoting these topics.

Ludovica Paseri (speaker): Research Fellow in Philosophy of Law and Legal Informatics at the Law Department of the University of Turin. Her research focuses on data governance, privacy, personal data protection, and the interplay between law, technology, and science. She is a fellow of the Nexa Centre for Internet & Society at the Politecnico di Torino. Ludovica recently edited a double special issue on "Open Science and Data Protection" for JOAL (Cornell University, 2023), published a monograph on open science (2024), and another one on data governance, focusing on public interest, altruism, and participation in EU data policy (2025).

Target audience

This webinar is created for the Italian community and is aimed at researchers, research support staff, technicians, and technologists interested in learning more about Open Science and FAIR principles.

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