The European Commission has recently published two independent expert reports prepared by Mireille van Eechoud and Martin Senftleben.

• Study on the Open Data Directive, Data Governance and Data Act and their possible impact on research, by Mireille van Eechoud.
  This study analyses the possible impact of three major legislative instruments in the European Sstrategy for data (the Open Data Directive, the Data Governance Act and the proposed Data Act) for the field of research, especially for research performing organisations and research funding organisations. It does so against the background of the European Open Science policy pursued, in which the development of a European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is a major undertaking. Although the impact is difficult to assess at this stage, the study identifies and makes recommendations about key legal issues that need to be resolved. These have to do with ambiguities in the scope of application to research data, the interpretation of provisions, and the consistency between the instruments from the perspective of open science research policy.
  
  
• Study on EU copyright and related rights and access to and reuse of data, by Martin Senftleben.
  EU legislation in the field of copyright, related rights and sui generis database rights can have a deep impact on access to data resources for scientific research and the availability of data resulting from publicly funded research. To establish a copyright and related rights framework that offers appropriate data access and reuse opportunities for scientific research, it is necessary to identify potential barriers and challenges that may arise from EU copyright and related rights legislation and corresponding rights management. This study analyses the interaction between copyright and related rights law and data access and reuse for scientific research purposes. It proposes legislative and non-legislative measures to improve the current EU regulatory framework.