The ISC’s Committee on Data (CODATA) and World Data System (WDS), and the Research Data Alliance (RDA) announce that the 2021 edition of International Data Week (IDW 2021), originally scheduled for November 2021, will now be held in June 2022 in Seoul, South Korea and online.

The theme chosen for this edition is "Data to improve our world". In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, data have become an important resource that drives science and technology and leads to new discoveries, innovation, and economic growth.

Open Science and the FAIR Principles are important enablers of discovery and innovation, particularly the use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. In 2021, will likely see the adoption by UNESCO of a landmark recommendation on Open Science recognising its importance to help us to address the major global challenges faced by our societies.  Access to trustworthy and FAIR data is a precondition to the science needed to enable us to reduce the impact of diseases, mitigate climate change, and become more resilient to risks posed by natural and human-made disasters.

In addition to highlighting the need for data education and governance, demonstrating the importance of high-quality research data stewardship, data science, and data infrastructures, and exploring the ‘state of the art’ in all things data, IDW 2021 will also emphasise the following subthemes:

• Research Transparency and Reproducibility
• Data, Research, and Industry: The Interface between Data-intensive Research and Innovation
• Empowering and Enabling Society: Data (Science) Education and Data Literacy
• Transdisciplinary Research and Citizen Science

Full details are available on the International Data Week website.