Legal Aspects

DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/1024 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL means "research data" as documents in digital form, other than scientific publications, that are collected or produced in the course of scientific research activities and used as evidence in the research process or that are commonly accepted in the research community as necessary to validate of research findings and results.

As part of this research process, the law provides a framework for handling research data. The most common issues are found within the framework of copyright and data protection law.

In principle, research data can be subject to copyright protection. Protected works within the meaning of Section 2 (2) Act on Copyright and Related Rights means only the author’s own intellectual creations constitute works. Automatically created and unstructured measurement data usually do not meet these requirements. A very good introduction to the problem with explanations can be found at forschungsdaten.info.

Observance of data protection law is required when information relates to an identified or identifiable natural person according to Art 4 GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR). The BERD∂NFDI website provides valuable guidance and tools, among others. The possible applicability of the GDPR for research data can thus be verified. When it comes to the need for data protection consent as a legal basis and researching relevant legal bases, the interactive virtual assistant: iVA offers support.