Those responsible for the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT), Social Security (General Treasury, National Institute of Social Security, Social Institute of the Navy and IT Management), the Bank of Spain and the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) have signed an agreement by which they will allow combined and integrated access to records and databases owned by them to researchers who carry out scientific work in the public interest.

Access to the data will be carried out through procedures that ensure at all times the confidentiality of the information, the protection of personal data, respect for current legislation and statistical secrecy, guaranteeing the impossibility of directly identifying any of the subjects. or units whose information is contained in the databases.

In this way, the Spanish administration makes a significant qualitative leap and places itself at the same level as the most advanced countries in terms of the management of public data, by making one of its main assets available to researchers, the data, so that they are used in analytical projects that can inform the decision-making process, as well as the design and implementation of public policies.

The reuse of data provided by citizens, companies and entities to public institutions by carrying out work for scientific research purposes reinforces its added value, contributing significantly to the economic and social progress of countries. Access to cross-referenced information from databases of different institutions also allows for maximizing the value that this information can bring to the research.

Likewise, this action is in line with the objective of the recently approved European Data Governance Law, a key pillar of the European strategy for data, which seeks to increase trust in data exchange, strengthen mechanisms to increase its availability and overcome technical obstacles to its reuse for purposes that benefit citizens, such as research for the public interest.

Access operation

The operation of the system will be determined by a monitoring commission, made up of representatives of the signatory institutions, which will decide on the viability of the access requests submitted, as well as on the most efficient procedures to manage them, always taking into account that the institutions involved In each request they must agree to the transfer of their data.

The evaluation of each application will analyze aspects such as the social interest of the results that are intended to be obtained in the research, the profile, trajectory and scientific publications of the main researcher and the associates or the history of research projects of the entity that endorses the project. Depending on the confidentiality regime and the legal framework applicable in each case, it may be necessary to manage the request for access to the combined data of the different institutions using a secure center in one of the signatory institutions.

The monitoring commission, whose secretariat corresponds to the INE, will begin its work immediately, so the system will be fully operational before the end of the first quarter of 2024. Publicity about the operation of the access system will be carried out as extensively as possible by all signatory institutions.

Extension of the agreement to other institutions

The agreement remains open so that other institutions of the Administration can join in the future. This would allow new databases to be incorporated and increase the number and type of research work that can take advantage of this system in the public interest.