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Introducing OpenREL: Rights Expression Languages for Open Science and International Data Spaces – A Practitioners' Approach

Tsiavos, Prodromos

Abstract

As Open Science infrastructures evolve, it is increasingly evident that traditional open license structures no longer meet the complex needs of Research Performing and Funding Organizations (RPOs/RFOs). Today’s research ecosystems require more nuanced and layered approaches to data access, sharing, and reuse—particularly within international data spaces, discipline-specific workflows, and AI-driven environments. Researchers and infrastructure providers now need clear, machine-actionable mechanisms to express complex rights, regulatory restrictions (such as GDPR), intellectual property allocations, terms of use, and licensing conditions.To meet these challenges, the EOSC Beyond project has developed OpenREL, a new Rights Expression Language (REL) vocabulary and toolkit tailored for Open Science. Building on standards like ODRL and CCREL, OpenREL introduces advanced features for representing conditional access, role-based reuse, dual licensing, and the articulation of both legal and ethical rights and obligations. OpenREL supports EOSC’s mission to enable FAIR, secure, and trusted data reuse across diverse access models.This 90-minute hands-on workshop will begin with an introduction to OpenREL’s structure and logic, followed by collaborative group work. Participants will engage with real-world scenarios involving datasets, services, and research software. In small teams, they will use simplified OpenREL templates to address key questions: What are the conditions for reuse? How can ownership be traced? Who holds which rights and responsibilities? How can these be represented in a machine-readable way?The session aims to open community dialogue on rights governance in Open Science and collect feedback to shape this vocabulary and toolkit.

Full text

@openaire_eu OpenREL Workshop Rights and Value Flows in Open Science 1 A Hands-on Simulation on Rights Expression, Compliance & Value Return Prodromos Tsiavos(OpenAIRE) · Wim Hugo(DANS) · Melios Katsamakis(OpenAIRE) · Deborah Thorpe(DANS) · Sotiris Minogiannis OSFAIR 2025 – CERN Science Gateway – Geneva 16 September 2025 Key items and components ●Value Matters ●Stakeholders ●Sharing is Caring ●Challenges ●OpenREL ●Workshop Framing ●Discussion 2 Who Are We? https://app.sli.do/event/e2SsXiLTsYNZZbg2RU3g1q/embed/poll s/7bbb015b-6ffd-4f25-9d56-406be37fce93 3 Value Matters ●Increasingly research results are read / accessed not just by humans (H) but (mostly) by non-humans (NH) ●Google Zero effect ●The raise of Agenting Research Assistants ●How is value understood - explicated and expressed at a H-NH environment ●How does value return to the different stakeholders in the research production, storage, dissemination and consumption chain 4 Stakeholders ●Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) as a source of rules ●Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) as a collector and an infrastructure ●The Researcher and the Research team ●LLM producers and providers 5 What's the key value goal for you? https://app.sli.do/event/e2SsXiLTsYNZZbg2RU3g1q/embed/poll s/5a6f439b-4b6f-4687-ae80-62e4007f14da 6 Sharing is caring (but is changing) Need: ●to incorporate rights structure in the science production life-cycle ●to go beyond copyright: ○Personal Data (GDPR) ○Ethics (AI ethics frameworks) ○Third party rights (contractual conditions) ○Terms of Service/ Terms and Conditions (beyond the licensing framework - limit abusive behavior) ●to be able to express rights and Terms in an easy and functional manner ●to minimize transaction costs for content re-use ●to become as open as possible as closed as necessary 7 Challenges: The Age of AI & TDM ●LLM development relies on Text and Data Mining (TDM): analysis of large datasets. ●Traditional open licences per se do not address ●Licensing vs. Limitations/ Exceptions ○Clarity ○Need for contractual / licensing expression ○Commercial vs non-commercial use. ○Secondary Publishing Rights (SPRs) and their legal and contractual implementation 8 Challenges II: existing rights expression language landscape ●Arbitrary terms (in Licences and TnCs) ●Inadequate support of different types of rights (IP vs. personal data), types of conditions (licences vs. ToS) and types of rules (legal vs. ethical) ●Abusive reuse of research results 9 16 ● Metadata → data about data ● Describe rules of use: ○ Who can use ○ When (embargo / open) ○ Under which conditions (licence, GDPR, ethics) ● Make rights clear & machine-readable Workshop Framing II: Metadata in Digital Rights 17 Workshop Framing III: JSON vs XML ● Past: XML → heavy, complex ● Now: JSON → lighter, web-friendly, easier to read ● Used by APIs, repositories, AI tools ● For this exercise: simplified JSON (no brackets/parentheses) 18 Example JSON ● Real JSON: detailed, layered (copyright, GDPR, ethics) ● Simplified JSON: only obligations, permissions, restrictions ● Focus: meaning, not code 19 20 21 Workshop Framing IV: What we will be doing ● Forming teams on the basis of roles ● Identify value goals ● Explicate value goals into conditions ○ Must do (obligation) ○ Cannot do (limitations) ○ What to do (conditions) ● Explicate conditions into REL modules ● Understand and negotiate flows of value 22 Workshop Framing V: Time ● Workshop Introduction and REL Presentation ● Teams formation ● Stage I: Value Identification and Explication ● Stage II: Obligations, Permissions and Conditions Identification ● Stage III: JSON expression ● Stage IV: intra-teams negotiation ● Stage V: Value-centric REL reflection 23 Discussion ● What’s value to you ● What’s your biggest challenge ● What’s the biggest opportunity Thank you OpenAIRE AMKE General Assembly | September 25, 2024 24 Location www.openaire.eu Twitter @openaire_eu Email [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]w.nl THANKS OpenAIRE AMKE General Assembly | September 25, 2024 2 5