Countries request access to data and publications on novel coronavirus

A broad group of global science and technology policymakers, including the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, and the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, are asking the main scientific societies to make all publications and data relating to the new coronavirus, which has given rise to the COVID-19 pandemic, available voluntarily and immediately in public repositories and/or in digital format.

The missive recalls that in the face of the current global health crisis, it is essential that all the information collected and relevant knowledge about the pandemic is open access, allowing it to be processed and reused, with the aim of quickly and completely characterizing the virus and combating it.

This move followed a series of contacts and meetings via digital media in recent days, which included the participation of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel; the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) of the United States of America; the Minister of Science and Technology of Brazil, Marcos Pontes; the Minister of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology of Japan, Hagiuda Koichi; and the Minister of Education of 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, actively participated in this process, in close collaboration with several other European ministers.

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