112 lines
6.1 KiB
HTML
112 lines
6.1 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
|
|
<html newsdate="2017-02-17">
|
|
<version>1</version>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>European Commission responds to the FSFE's information request for Horizon 2020 </title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
|
|
<h1>European Commission responds to the FSFE's information request for Horizon 2020 </h1>
|
|
|
|
<p>The European Commission Directorate-General for Research
|
|
and Innovation responds to <a href="/news/2017/news-20170110-01.html">
|
|
a Freedom of Information (FOI) request about the use, development and
|
|
release of software under Horizon 2020</a> - submitted by the FSFE on
|
|
January 9, 2017.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>With this FOI request, the FSFE directly aimed at shedding light on
|
|
how much money is spent on the use and purchase of proprietary software
|
|
licences through the Horizon 2020 funding for the beneficiary projects.
|
|
Respectively, it intended to figure if and what kind of data is collected,
|
|
apropos of Free Software licences. The FOI request followed the publication
|
|
of the FSFE's <a href="https://download.fsfe.org/policy/letters/20170105-horizon2020-position-paper.pdf">
|
|
position paper for the endorsement of Free Software and Open Standards in
|
|
Horizon 2020 and all publicly-funded research</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>However, <a href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Activities/PublicProcurementForNonFreeSoftware#The_response">
|
|
the response by the Commission</a> revealed that no information is being
|
|
collected on how the EU funds are being spent, when it comes to the
|
|
software used and developed by the beneficiary projects within Horizon
|
|
2020:</p>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<p>"[...] we checked if the requested information existed and the competent
|
|
Commission services informed us that the European Commission does not
|
|
systematically collect information about open source software used or
|
|
developed under Horizon 2020 grants, as this is not a reporting requirement
|
|
in the Horizon 2020 legal basis. Consequently we are not in a position
|
|
to provide you the information that you are looking for. The same applies
|
|
to data concerning Horizon 2020 projects paying licence fees for software
|
|
or developing software on their own."</p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Breaking down the EC's reply</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The EC is justifying the lack of information with the argument that
|
|
"it is not legally mandatory" to collect data concerning the use and
|
|
acquisition of software licences.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>According to the Article 14(1) of the Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013
|
|
establishing Horizon 2020, particular attention in the framework shall
|
|
be paid to the development and application of key enabling and industrial
|
|
technologies as well as future and emerging technologies; and shall
|
|
contribute to the Digital Agenda for Europe initiative. Regarding this
|
|
particular point, <strong>the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020 shall assess
|
|
the efficiency and use of resources, with particular attention to cross-cutting
|
|
issues and other elements referred in the Article 14(1)</strong>. Software
|
|
is no doubt falling under all of the points that Horizon 2020 is supposed to
|
|
focus on when it comes to both industrial and emerging technologies, as
|
|
well as part of the Digital Agenda for Europe. The absence of monitoring
|
|
the use of resources Horizon 2020 projects are allocating to the use and
|
|
development of software in Research and Innovation will not allow
|
|
to assess the efficiency and use of resources of Horizon 2020 in its
|
|
Interim evaluation.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Indeed, in the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/horizon-2020-monitoring-report-2014">
|
|
first Annual Monitoring Report 2014</a> which focuses on the implementation
|
|
of the first year of the programme, information regarding the share of
|
|
EU financial contribution to the Information and Communication Technology
|
|
(ICT) Research and Innovation was missing. According to <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/evaluations/pdf/archive/h2020_monitoring_reports/second_h2020_annual_monitoring_report.pdf">
|
|
the second report for 2015</a>, however, preliminary data show that over one fifth
|
|
of the EU funding in Horizon 2020 contributes to ICT Research and Innovation. </p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>What "no information" means for Free Software and Open Science</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The absence of data about the use of software within Horizon 2020
|
|
beneficiary projects makes almost impossible the accurate estimation of
|
|
the amount of both proprietary and Free Software, being used or developed
|
|
under Horizon 2020 grants.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Taking into consideration the fact that nowadays, scientists irrespective
|
|
of their field of study depend on software in order to successfully conduct
|
|
their research, it is indisputable that almost every beneficiary project
|
|
spends a considerable amount of the hand-out grant in the purchase of
|
|
software licences. The fact that the EC does not collect data on the
|
|
spending of public money for software licences disregards an essential
|
|
part of the modern research.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Consequently, without relevant data, Horizon 2020 monitoring and evaluation
|
|
processes cannot draw safe conclusions. Critical factors, such as the
|
|
re-use of software being developed with Horizon 2020 funding, or the
|
|
costs for re-purchasing the same licences cannot be scrutinized and therefore,
|
|
cannot lead decision-makers to optimised funding solutions. Albeit, the most
|
|
significant complication is the fact that the EC is not in position to
|
|
prove with a degree of certainty that Open Access and subsequently
|
|
Open Science, two of the Horizon 2020 most fundamental principles, are
|
|
implemented in practice. As already argued in the FSFE's <a href="https://download.fsfe.org/policy/letters/20170105-horizon2020-position-paper.pdf">
|
|
recent position paper</a>, Open Science can neither be achieved nor be
|
|
sustainable in long-term without Free Software being its chief constituent.</p>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
<tags>
|
|
<tag key="front-page"/>
|
|
<tag key="openstandards">Open Standards</tag>
|
|
<tag key="open-science">Open Science</tag>
|
|
<tag key="policy">policy</tag>
|
|
<tag key="european-commission">European Commission</tag>
|
|
</tags>
|
|
</html>
|