European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services

About the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services

The European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS) was established in November 2013, in order to provide Members of the European Parliament, and where appropriate, parliamentary committees, with independent, objective and authoritative analysis of, and research on, policy issues relating to the European Union, and so assist them in their parliamentary work.

DG EPRS aims to provide a comprehensive range of products and services, backed by specialist internal expertise and knowledge sources in all policy fields, so empowering Members and committees through knowledge and contributing to the Parliament’s effectiveness and influence as an institution.

During the five years from January 2014 to December 2018, DG EPRS answered over 14,100 requests for substantive research and analysis from some 93 per cent of individual Members, it replied to over 2,400 such requests from other parliamentary clients, and it undertook targeted research work for 20 parliamentary committees. In parallel, over the same timeframe, EPRS also replied to over 96,000 reference requests from within the Parliament and over 260,000 citizens’ enquiries. It produced more than 5,000 publications - over 3,500 in both physical and digital form, and over 1,200 online only - so far eliciting 15 million page views electronically, including from around 9,000 unique users within the parliamentary community each year (and over 2,300 each month).

 EPRS & RDA

EPRS, through its RDA membership would like to contribute to state-of-the-art developments in data management by:

• Enhance RDA’s existing set of Recommendations
• EPRS could participate into the debate within RDA as to how to the EP deals with data to exchange good practices
• Contribute to discussion on removing the barriers to data sharing and re-use and contribute to the practical development of concrete solutions
• Access network of colleagues with a broad set of experiences, perspectives, practices, and intellectual frameworks relevant to data-driven innovation
• Gain greater experience and expertise in data science
• Participate in bi-annual RDA Plenary Meetings, workshops and elections
• Participate in RDA scientific meetings

Through its RDA membership, EPRS would like to:

• Expand EPRS's own open data approach;
• Attend Organisational Assembly meetings and electing the Organisational Advisory Board and its co-Chairs
• By connecting  and participating in RDA, EPRS and the EP will have access to experts from over 900 members and this help  increase the visibility of their work with open data
• Through exchange of know-how and good practice, members could contribute to acceleration of data infrastructure development as well as improve one’s competitive advantage professionally by positioning oneself for leadership within the broader research community
• Receive regular updates on the work of the RDA, including updates directly from the RDA Council at each Plenary
• Provide advice to the RDA Council through the Organisational Advisory Board
• Express its support of data sharing and interoperability
• Be an active participant in RDA work and directions on data sharing and interoperability in their sectors, markets and geographies
• Have the opportunity to act as early adopters of RDA Recommendations and other outputs
• Exchange news, strategies and policies across regions