The Research Data Summit was held at the Sorbonne University on Monday, January 27^th and brought together nine networks representing more than 160 of the world’s leading research universities.

During this summit the “Sorbonne Declaration” on research data rights was signed. This framework document is intended to promote the sharing and proper use of data (respect for the FAIR principles, data management plan, conservation, etc.). In particular, institutions are asked to recognize the work done by researchers in this field and to set up training and skill development programmes. It also makes governments and research funders aware that they have responsibilities to give universities the necessary financial resources and adequate legal framework to open data. Laws and policies must be implemented to avoid the “lock-in” effect of commercial platforms and data services and thus ensure the openness and reuse of research data.

The nine signatories of the declaration are asking public and private research communities to join this commitment to create an environment that fosters the global sharing of research data and to ensure that peer-reviewed publications are supported by FAIR data to make research results accessible, verifiable and reusable.