Reconciling Open Science with Technological Sovereignty: Can the European Union do it?

Authors

  • Luc Soete Emeritus Professor, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, The Netherlands and Dean, Brussels School of Governance, Free University of Brussels (VUB), Belgium
  • Jean-Claude Burgelman Professor and academic coordinator Open Science, Free University of Brussels (VUB), Belgium and Editor-In-Chief, Frontiers Policy Lab

Abstract

Openness has emerged over the last decades as a core European value and an explicit policy ambition of the European Commission, in its science and research policy. Since 2016 the EU became a formal leader in open science and with its “plan S” it championed open access. Quite recently, a need for a more “realistic” approach has emerged with Europe positioning itself now as striving towards “technological sovereignty”. The question addressed in this paper is how the notion of “openness” can be maintained as a core characteristic of European values in a world in which the geo-political tensions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, have taken their toll. Particularly with respect to the global sustainability challenge, the question can be raised how “technological sovereignty” as opposed to “open science” is likely to contribute to tackling the global climate and biodiversity crises.

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Published

2023-09-20

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2023): Special Issue on "Open Science and Data Protection"

Section

Contents

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