On the 28th May Commissioner Mariya Gabriel participated in a G7 Science and Technology and Digital Ministerial videoconference called by the United States that currently holds the G7 Presidency.
As the outcome of this meeting, the Science and Technology Declaration was adopted on “ A Shared Vision for Science and Technology in Responding to the Pandemic, Protecting Human Health, and Promoting Social and Economic Recovery” https://www.state.gov/g7-science-and-technology-ministers-declaration-on-covid-19/.
The Declaration is a specific valuable achievement, highlighting the importance of G7 shared values and their strong political commitments to the need to collaborate internationally, to come up with solutions to be available and affordable to all, the importance of science, technology and digital in the COVID-19 crisis, the support to open science and data-sharing in line with privacy protection and the importance of carrying out joint initiatives.
On the digital agenda, a main achievement was the launch of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence that had been initiated by Canada and France under their G7 Presidency and the intention to strengthen international collaboration between High Performance Computing infrastructures.
The G7 Science and Technology Ministers intend to work collaboratively, with other relevant Ministers to:
Enhance cooperation on shared COVID-19 research priority areas, such as basic and applied research, public health, and clinical studies. Build on existing mechanisms to further priorities, including identifying COVID-19 cases and understanding virus spread while protecting privacy and personal data; developing rapid and accurate diagnostics to speed new testing technologies; discovering, manufacturing, and deploying safe and effective therapies and vaccines; and implementing innovative modeling, adequate and inclusive health system management, and predictive analytics to assist with preventing future pandemics.
Make government-sponsored COVID-19 epidemiological and related research results, data, and information accessible to the public in machine-readable formats, to the greatest extent possible, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, including privacy and intellectual property laws. Identify research results, data, and information crucial to addressing the current COVID-19 pandemic response and to preventing potential future pandemics, in an effort to advance research, clinical care, public health, and public communication. Identify current data gaps, make anonymized data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, and recognize the importance of open science, which increases public accessibility to research results and data. Exchange best practices and lessons learned on the ethical and transparent use of data in the COVID-19 response and beyond. Share tools and methods for responsible use of data, and for more transparent, participatory, and accountable use of data, recognizing ongoing initiatives, including on repositories.
Strengthen the use of high-performance computing for COVID-19 response. Make national high-performance computing resources available, as appropriate, to domestic research communities for COVID-19 and pandemic research, while safeguarding intellectual property. Enhance cooperation between G7 partners and ongoing initiatives, such as the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, the Partnership for High Performance Computing in Europe, and the High Performance Computing Infrastructure in Japan.
Launch the Global Partnership on AI, envisioned under the 2018 and 2019 G7 Presidencies of Canada and France, to enhance multi-stakeholder cooperation in the advancement of AI that reflects our shared democratic values and addresses shared global challenges, with an initial focus that includes responding to and recovering from COVID-19. Commit to the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI in a manner consistent with human rights, fundamental freedoms, and our shared democratic values.
Exchange best practices to advance broadband connectivity; minimize workforce disruptions, support distance learning and working; enable access to smart health systems, virtual care, and telehealth services; promote job upskilling and reskilling programs to prepare the workforce of the future; and support global social and economic recovery, in an inclusive manner while promoting data protection, privacy, and security.
