The transition from science to e-Science is happening: a data deluge emerges from publicly- funded research facilities; a massive investment of public funds into the potential answer to the grand challenges of our times. This potential can only be realised by adding an interoperable data sharing, re-use and preservation layer to the emerging eco-system of e-Infrastructures. The importance of this layer, on top of emerging connectivity and computational layers, has not yet been addressed coherently at ERA or global level. All stakeholders in the scientific process must be involved in its design this layer: policy makers, funders, infrastructure operators, data centres, data providers and users, libraries and publishers.ODE is proposed by the Alliance for Permanent Access and four of its members: CERN, Finnish Computer Centre for Science, Helmholtz Association and UK Science and Technology Funding Council. Collectively, we represent all the stakeholder groups listed above and have a significant sphere of influence within those communities. This will allow us to identify, collate, interpret and deliver evidence of emerging best practices in sharing, re-using, preserving and citing data, the drivers for these changes and barriers impeding progress, in forms suited to each audience. We will:-Enable operators, funders, designers and users of national and pan-european e-Infrastructures to compare their vision and explore shared opportunities-Provide projections of potential data re-use within research and educational communities in and beyond the ERA, their needs and differences-Demonstrate and improve understanding of best practices in the design of e-Infrastructures leading to more coherent national policies-Document success stories in data sharing, visionary policies to enable data re-use, and the needs and opportunities for interoperability of data layers to fully enable e-Science-Make that information available in readiness for FP8