Skip to main content

Countries request access to data and publications on new coronavirus

A broad group of global science and technology policy makers, including the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, and the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, are calling on leading scientific societies to voluntarily and immediately make available all publications and data related to the new coronavirus, which gave rise to the COVID-19 pandemic, in public repositories and/or in digital form.

The missive recalls that in the face of the current global health crisis, it is essential that all collected information and relevant knowledge about the pandemic be in open access allowing its processing and reuse, aiming at the rapid and complete characterization of the virus and its fight.

This move followed a series of digital contacts and meetings over the last few days, attended by the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel; the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the United States; the Minister of Science and Technology in Brazil, Marcos Pontes; the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan, Hagiuda Koichi; and the Minister of Education in Australia, Dan Tehan.

The Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES), Manuel Heitor, and the Spanish Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque, have actively participated in this process, in close collaboration with several other European ministers.

In parallel, on March 24th, a meeting was organized between all general directors of science and technology at a European level, in which Portugal participated, through FCT and the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (AICIB), and during which the situation described in the following statement was exposed.