Blog post by Stephen Wyber
As the launch of the European Commission’s proposals for the European Research Area (ERA) Act get closer, there is growing interest in how it will look to deliver on its promise to make a reality of the “Fifth Freedom”: the free movement of knowledge.
This idea was most recently championed by former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta in his report Much More than a Market. Letta identifies the movement of knowledge as a primary driver for EU competitiveness and hence one of the six key areas of action the EU should focus on.
Currently, discussions around this freedom focus heavily on researcher mobility, such as the recent proposals for model contracts designed to help researchers move between Member States.
Beyond Mobility: The Freedom to Stay
Efforts to support researchers to travel – either for shorter periods in order, for example, to access research infrastructures, or for longer ones to take up posts in other countries – have long been a feature of the EU’s work. They have transformed careers and lives, and enabled research that would otherwise not have been possible.
However, the Letta Report introduces a crucial counterpoint: for the Single Market to work for everyone, the Freedom to Move, must be balanced by the Freedom to Stay. This is a powerful point, echoed by Vinciane Gaillard of the European University Association in a recent ECAS event. If freedom of movement simply leads to brain drain and a sense of decline in favour of richer, more dynamic regions, the European Union is unlikely to win friends.
In his Report, Letta points out that this is why cohesion policy matters, as it ensures investments in the capital and skills necessary to enable growth and jobs in every corner of the bloc. He also highlights the importance of looking at housing, digital services and infrastructures, and investment in basic services.
Closing the Gap via Knowledge Rights
While Letta does not explicitly link the Fifth Freedom to the Freedom to Stay, the connection is clear. A system that requires relocation to access resources inherently disadvantages those unable to move and strips talented individuals from their home regions.
So, beyond Letta’s recognition of the existing financial support for the Freedom to Stay, he could have mentioned the EU’s work to support “widening,” referring to the drive in its research spending to support capacity development in parts of Europe that are otherwise at risk of being left behind. The overarching idea from that perspective is to make it easier for researchers and institutions to win projects from where they are.
However, equally important here is the potential to participate in cross-border research initiatives across Europe, regardless of where researchers are based. As a recent European Research Council report underlines, access to networks and participation in wider discourse matters. For the ERA Act and other EU law to support the Freedom to Stay, it must remove the legal and digital barriers that currently force researchers to travel.
In particular, Knowledge Rights 21 is calling for the following reforms to be central to the ERA Act:
- Eliminate “knowledge tourism” via Secondary Publication Rights: Researchers should not have to travel to wealthy institutions just to access richer and deeper library collections. A major step can be made by introducing a legislated secondary publication right at EU level. This would ensure that researchers and institutions enjoy a right to post publicly funded research works to open access repositories, and in turn that taxpayer-funded research is accessible from any location.
- Harmonise copyright rules around research to facilitate cross-border collaboration: there is extensive evidence of the value of collaboration for research in terms of the quality and impact of results. However, working together when different rules apply around what researchers can do with materials to which they have access does not help. This, however, is the current situation under EU law, which does not even mandate copyright exceptions for research. It is time to update copyright laws to have a truly European regime for the use of such materials, focused on enabling research.
- Guarantee digital access to materials across borders: In the physical world, libraries have long shared books to fill gaps in collections. In the digital world, this right is under threat. EU law must clarify that libraries can share digital works to meet research needs at least on an ad hoc basis. In parallel, possibilities to share materials within collaborations are also limited, such as data for text-and-data mining, obliging relicensing and so additional costs. Finally, access to research infrastructure must include robust remote-usage rights, rather than just focusing on physical visits.
- Accelerate open science practices across Europe: the logic of open science is that research advances faster and more effectively when there is the possibility to share. However, due to capacity and other constraints, progress across the EU remains uneven. Beyond funding, the EU needs to provide a legislative impetus for change. As well as setting out open science as a key policy priority, the ERA Act can accelerate progress in areas like rights retention and modern research assessment by requiring regularly updated national Open Science strategies.
Conclusion
The ERA Act represents a landmark opportunity. As discussions continue with the Commission, Parliament and Member States, KR21 will advocate to ensure that, in parallel with steps to make it easier for researchers to travel to build international careers, it is also easier to build such careers while staying at home.
By reforming copyright and information law, Europe can ensure that the “Fifth Freedom” benefits every researcher, regardless of where they choose to call home.
31 March 2026
