Recommendations for data policy and procedures for digital service provision

This report (IRISCC Deliverable D6.6) presents a comprehensive set of recommendations to harmonise data policies and procedures for digital service provision within the IRISCC (Integrated Research Infrastructure Services for Climate Change risks) network. It supports the development of a coherent and interoperable policy environment across the participating Research Infrastructures (RIs), to enhance user access and improve the sustainability and impact of services addressing climate change risks. The given recommendations are based on a thorough review of current data policies and digital service practices in key RIs involved in IRISCC, as well as lessons learned from previous European projects such as ENVRI-FAIR and ATMO-ACCESS. The report further integrates recent experience gained regarding RIs, from the development of the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), particularly regarding policy framework design and access strategies. Key recommendations focus on aligning with Open Science and FAIR data principles, while ensuring legal compliance (e.g., GDPR, IPR, licences), ethical standards, and robust metadata and documentation practices. The document provides guidance on access procedures, licencing frameworks, user support, and service interoperability, with a view to streamlining and federating service delivery across disciplines and infrastructures. The report includes a model policy template to facilitate adoption of the recommendations by IRISCC partners. The overall goal is to ensure that data and digital services provided via IRISCC are accessible, reliable, and effectively governed, thus enabling high-impact climate research and informed policymaking. The proposed policy framework will provide a strong foundation for the access management system under development in IRISCC Work Package 8 (WP8).