The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021) provides an international framework for the global transformation of societies towards Open Science. It sets out the fundamental principles of human rights and ethics that define the leading role UNESCO has in ensuring science benefits all by promoting just and equitable access to knowledge and the goods of technology. This was preceded by a UNESCO paper on The right to information in times of crisis: access to information – saving lives, building trust, bringing hope! (2020), Access to Information in Times of Crisis (updated in 2022), and more recently the Global Framework for Open Science in the Face of Pandemics (September 2022).
On 29 March 2023 the CODATA International Data Policy Committee (IDPC) organised a thematic session on ‘Open Science and data policy in times of crisis’ at the UNESCO-hosted symposium ‘Towards a FAIRer World: Implementing the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science to address global challenges’ organised by UNESCO, the International Science Council (ISC), CODATA, and the World Data Systems (WDS) at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The session examined the scientific, political, and societal frameworks needed to develop data policy with a view towards addressing crisis situations. It considered the underlying ethical, human rights, and humanitarian frameworks required to support data policy during crisis situations within Open Science while also implementing the FAIR principles (for data stewardship) and CARE principles (for indigenous data governance). The session identified the following needs:
- to examine the scientific, political, and societal frameworks needed to develop data policy with a view towards addressing crisis situations;
- to consider existing legal and ethical regulatory frameworks for data privacy and use of personal data;
- to consider the underlying ethical, human rights, and humanitarian frameworks needed to support data policy during crisis situations; and
- to support the development of tools that promote the responsible collection, management, and use of data when generating scientific evidence in crisis situations, before, during and after.
It is foremost to this fourth need that this project is addressed, though also as a pathway for addressing the first three needs. Thus, this project suggests the need to examine the implementation of the Recommendation into open data frameworks with particular attention to the development of tools to promote the responsible practice and use of data when generating scientific evidence in crisis situations and how to engage with other UN agencies and organisations, UN member states, scientific organisations, leading think tanks, and civil society.