We are launching the European Alliance for Research Excellence

Europe needs to talk more about text and data mining (TDM). It’s not a topic that appears at the top of most lists of policy priorities but it is important. TDM matters because it sits at the heart of a lot of research and innovation, helping create new medical treatments and new technologies which can save lives, create jobs and shape the world of tomorrow.

TDM is a technology that analyses published research and scholarly articles in order to find new patterns or in sights; technology needs to be used because there is so much data being created, not least about the 1.9 million new peer-reviewed articles published every year. TDM has enabled breakthrough medical discoveries, supported kids with learning disabilities, tackled fraud, enabled instant language translation and even helped in the development of driverless cars.

In September 2016 the European Commission proposed a new approach to copyright. While attempting to boost Europe’s research potential by creating a copyright exception for the use of TDM, the Commission has suggested a fundamental and potentially harmful change in how TDM would work for some of its users in Europe.

To help promote the discussion that is already happening about TDM, and solutions to the problems caused by the new Copyright Package, the European Alliance for Research Excellence (EARE) has been launched. This coalition aims at amplifying the voices of TDM users from various sectors and research communities, to promote fair and effective copyright rules for TDM in Europe.

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