Europa

This report published by the European Data Portal (EDP) aims to advance the debate on the medium and long-term sustainability of open data portal infrastructures. 

It provides recommendations to open data publishers and data publishers on how to make open data available and how to promote its reuse. It is based on the previous work done by the data.europa.eu team, on research on open data management, and on the interaction between humans and data. 

Considering the conclusions, 10 recommendations are proposed for increasing the reuse of data. 

The report is available at this link: " Principles and recommendations to make data.europa.eu data more reusable: A strategy mapping report "

What role can data portals play in the context of the data spaces identified in the European Data Strategy? This is the question posed by the European Commission, through its open data initiative 'data.europa.eu', and which serves as the starting point for the report "data.europa.eu and the European common data spaces".

Data.europa.eu and the Common European Data Spaces: Report Methodology

"data.europa.eu and the European common data spaces" is the first of two reports analysing the role that data.europa.eu could play in the context of the emerging European Union common data spaces envisaged in the European Data Strategy. It should be noted that part of this strategy is the development of interoperable common European data spaces across different sectors, an initiative that is still in the process of consolidation.

The objective of the report is twofold. On the one hand, it seeks to identify open data holders who are involved in ongoing implementations of data spaces. On the other hand, it offers a reflection on the role that open data portals could play in these implementations, especially the European portal.

To carry out the development of this first report, its authors (Óscar Corcho and Elena Simperl), conducted an in-depth analysis of the existing official documentation on the European Data Strategy, as well as reviewing online resources and use cases of initiatives such as IDSA, Gaia-X or Open DEI.

Simultaneously, they conducted interviews with developers of data architectures and data spaces. As full implementations do not yet exist, the analysis was based on use cases, work in progress and roadmaps, rather than on operational data spaces.

Main findings of the report

Although this is only the first of two studies, the authors have been able to highlight several far-reaching conclusions:

1. Open data is commonly mentioned alongside private and personal data as a type of data source. However, open data owners are often not involved in initiatives to develop reference data space architectures or their implementations. This situation needs to change by ensuring their involvement.
2. Open data holders have extensive experience in data publishing, metadata management, quality indicators, dataset discovery and federation, as well as in technologies and standards such as DCAT. However, there is very little transfer of knowledge and technologies from the open data community to the data space community.
3. The use of data from multiple sources requires interoperability at various levels. The need for data intermediaries acting as neutral brokers to ensure interoperability is an under-explored issue in the context of data spaces. Public administrations, building on their experience in data publishing, are best placed to take on this role.

The second report - to be published once the data space implementations are available in 2023 - will explore three data space scenarios, with data.europa.eu as data holder or data broker. In addition, it will analyse in detail the challenges and opportunities for the European portal in the context of these developments.

A webinar to further explore the role of the European Data Portal in data spaces

The concept of "data space" arises from the need to provide as much openness of information as possible, while recognising that some data should not be completely open. As a result of this dichotomy, the idea of creating a community of participants who share and use data on the basis of pre-established rules, guaranteeing an environment of sovereignty and trust, was born.

Ideas such as these prompted a webinar on open data and how it fits into broader data space ecosystems to be held on 4 May in the framework of the data.europa.academy. During this session in English, which you can access via this link, some key points of the report's analysis were explored in more detail. In addition to the recording of the session, you can view and download for free the PDF presentation that was used as a guide for the webinar.

Next steps

Ultimately, data spaces belong to an emerging field that still has some biases and limitations. Open government data sources, portals and their practitioners are not as well represented as they could be, even in sectors where they play a key role, such as mobility or smart cities. This needs to change.

The future of the research conducted in this report is to await the publication of the aforementioned second report, which will become effective once more developed European common data spaces are available and the work on reference resources has been completed by IDSA and Gaia-X. These forthcoming actions will allow the formulation of more specific recommendations that can be based on the characteristics of the actual data spaces in operation.

The current Directive 2019/1024 on open data and re-use of public sector information, adopted in June 2019, was established to replace and improve the former Directive 2003/98/EC. Among its objectives was to boost the availability of public sector data for re-use by establishing some minimum harmonisation rules that favour its use as a raw material for innovation in all economic sectors. It should be noted that this directive has been incorporated into Spanish law through Royal Decree-Law 24/2021, of 2 November, transposing several European Union directives.

Among the most significant changes introduced by Directive 2019/1024 was the drawing up of a list of high-value datasets to be highlighted among those held by public bodies.

High-value data: definition and characteristics

The Directive describes high-value data as "documents whose re-use is associated with considerable benefits for society, the environment and the economy, in particular because of their suitability for the creation of new, decent and quality value-added services, applications and jobs, and the number of potential beneficiaries of value-added services and applications based on such datasets".

This definition provides some clues as to how such high-value datasets can be identified. Identification can be carried out through a series of indicators including:

• Potential to generate:
  
  • Significant social or environmental benefits
  • Economic benefits and new revenues
  • Innovative services
• Potential in terms of number of users benefited, with a particular focus on SMEs.
• Ability to be combined with other datasets.

How should high-value data be published?

According to the Directive, the publication of these datasets has to meet the following requirements:

• Be reusable free of charge.
• Available through application programming interfaces (APIs).
• Available in a machine-readable format.
• Feature a bulk download option, where possible.

In addition, they should be compatible with open standard licences.

Which thematic categories are considered high-value data?

The European Data Strategy incorporates high-value data as a common data layer that facilitates, together with data from the private sector, the deployment of sectoral data spaces in strategic areas.

Originally, the directive included in its annex a number of priority themes that could be considered high-value data: geospatial data, earth observation and environmental data, meteorological data, statistical data, business registers or transport data.

However, these categories were very broad. The EU has therefore launched an initiative to establish a list indicating more precisely what types of data are considered high-value and how they should be published. Following an extensive consultation of stakeholders and taking into account the outcome of the impact assessment, the Commission identified, within each of the six data categories, a number of datasets of particular value and the arrangements for their publication and re-use.

The list takes the form of a binding implementing act. The granularity and modality of publication varies from one dataset to another, trying to strike a balance between the potential socio-economic and environmental benefits and the financial and organisational burden to be borne by public data holders. Existing sectoral legislation governing these datasets should also be taken into account.

Open comment period on the draft law "Open Data: Availability of public datasets".

The next step is to get citizens' feedback on the proposed datasets. The European Commission currently has a specific section open on its website, at the end of which any citizen of the European Union can provide their comments to help improve and enrich this initiative. The public consultation will run for four weeks, from 24 May to 21 June 2022.

In order to submit your comments, you need to register using your email address or popular social networks such as Twitter or Facebook.

Remember that in order to express your opinion and for it to be taken into account by the public body, your comment must comply with the established rules and standards. In addition, you can consult the comments already made by other citizens from different countries and which are offered publicly. The website also includes a visualisation that presents data on the number of opinions offered per country or the category to which the participants belong (private companies, academic institutions, research institutions, NGOs, citizens, etc.).

This list will be a really important milestone as, for the first time in many years, it will be possible to establish an explicit and common guide on what are the minimum datasets that should always be available and what should be the conditions for their re-use throughout the European Union.

At the Spanish level, the Data Office, in collaboration with stakeholders, will be in charge of landing this list and specifying other additional datasets, both public and private, based on what is indicated in Royal Decree-Law 24/2021.

The following infographic shows the context driving the development of data spaces, focusing on some related European initiatives such as Gaia-X and ISDA. For more in-depth content you can read the following articles:

• The importance of deploying European Data Spaces
• Gaia-X and the drive for the data economy
• https://datos.gob.es/en/blog/ids-ram-reference-architecture-model-and-its-role-data-spaces
• The Data Office: the challenge of promoting the Data Economy

Click on the infographic to see it in full size and access the links:

The European Union wants to bring digital technology closer to businesses, citizens and public administrations. To this end, it launched the Digital Europe Programme, which aims to close the gap between research in digital technology and its implementation in all sectors of the economy and society. With a 6-year extension (2021-2027), the programme covers areas such as supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and advanced digital skills.

Given that open data has a key potential in the development of many of these disruptive technologies, it is not surprising that within the programme we also find specific grants aimed at their development. This is the case of the "Public Sector Open Data for AI and Open Data Platform" grants, included in the programme's Cloud Data and TEF call (DIGITAL-2022-CLOUD-AI-02).

The objective of these grants is to boost the availability, quality and usability of high-value public sector data, in compliance with the requirements of the Open Data Directive and the re-use of public sector information. This, in turn, is intended to boost the re-use and combination of open public data across the EU for the development of information products and services, with a special focus on Artificial Intelligence.

The importance of high-value data

According to Directive (EU) 2019/1024, high-value data is a set of datasets with a high potential to generate "benefits for society, the environment and the economy, in particular because of their suitability for the creation of value-added services, applications and new, decent and quality jobs".

Initially, the Directive listed 6 categories of data to be considered of high value: geospatial, earth observation and environmental, meteorological, statistical, company and mobility data. However, these categories will be modified in the future to respond to technological and market changes. In Spain, the role of adding new categories of high-value data falls to the Data Office with the collaboration of public and private stakeholders, as specified in Royal Decree-Law 24/2021, of 2 November, transposing several European Union directives, including Directive 2019/1024.

What is being sought?

The grants aim to support public administrations at local, regional and national level to increase semantic, technical and legal interoperability and portability of high-value data.

The datasets generated as a result of the work must meet the following conditions:

• They must be freely available through one or more open data portals of the Member States.
• They must belong to one of the 6 thematic categories indicated in Directive (EU) 2019/1024.
• Both new datasets and datasets resulting from the merging of existing, harmonised, quality-enhanced, etc. datasets are valid.
• They must be available through application programming interfaces (APIs), in a machine-readable format.
• Their publication and re-use conditions must be compatible with an open standard licence.
• They must have quality standards (attribute lists, formats, structures, semantics, documentation and terms of use) that ensure cross-border interoperability.

The proposal should propose concrete Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess the benefits of the implemented solutions for citizens and/or businesses.

What does the aid cover?

The aid covers 50% of the actual costs in a number of "eligible" categories, including staff costs, communication costs, purchasing costs, etc.

To whom is the proposal addressed?

The grants are targeted at public administrations to which the obligations of Directive 2019/1024 apply. Public and private data re-users may be involved in the choice of the datasets to be prioritised.

Only legal entities, not natural persons, from EU Member States associated to the European Economic Area or the Digital Europe Programme can participate.

How to participate?

Proposals must be submitted electronically through the European Commission's Funding and Tendering Portal, using a number of forms provided in the system:

• Application Form Part A. Contains administrative information and the summary budget for the project.
• Application form Part B. Contains the technical description of the project (Max. 70 pages).
• Mandatory annexes and supporting documents

The deadline for applications is 17 May 2022.

There is no doubt that data is a fundamental asset for companies. Properly processed, they generate great competitive advantages, both in decision-making and in the generation of new products and services, enabling technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. This situation has made many organisations wary of sharing their data. However, the situation is changing and more and more companies and organisations are becoming aware of the advantages of this practice.

Data sharing drives efficiency in supply chains, enabling faster and more innovative product development. By sharing their data, organisations also benefit from access to third-party data, which can be of great use in a variety of fields: from training machine learning systems to enriching internal analytics. In addition, the fact that several companies are working in the same field, generating advances, means that the market matures earlier, opening up new business opportunities, as well as reducing the time and costs of marketing products. There are also benefits in terms of transparency and reputation.

Secure and controlled environments, such as data spaces, are necessary for this data exchange to take place in a safe and secure manner.

What are data spaces?

A data space is an ecosystem where diverse actors share data in a voluntary and secure manner, following common governance, organisational, regulatory and technical mechanisms. Some of the characteristics of advanced data spaces include:

• They ensure participants' trust and sovereignty over their data, creating an ecosystem of peer-to-peer data sharing. In a data space, each participant retains control over its own data, indicating the terms and conditions under which it can be used.
• They are independent of the underlying technological solution. This allows for portability and deployment in different physical infrastructures.
• Data is shared under FAIR principles, which facilitates the location, access and use of the data. To this end, datasets must be properly described, including the taxonomies used and their restrictions on use.
• They enable the deployment of different roles, such as data producers, consumers, data service providers, component developers or operators of essential services, facilitating the development of data intermediaries.
• They ensure the identity of the participants, as well as the suitability of the software components used, by means of appropriate approval or certification mechanisms.
• They enable different policies of access and use of information, so that data subjects can determine whether data is shared for free or not, under mechanisms that guarantee its proportionality.
• They ensure interoperability

European data spaces key to boosting the data economy

Data spaces are a key element of the European Data Strategy, which, among other issues, seeks to boost the region's economy through the creation of a single European data market, where data flows between Member States and between sectors of activity, in accordance with the European values of self-determination, privacy, transparency, security and fair competition.

In this strategy, the European Commission has already announced its interest in investing in and developing common data spaces in strategic economic sectors and sectors of public interest, notably those related to manufacturing, sustainable energy, mobility, health, finance, energy, agriculture, public administrations and skills. Once developed, these spaces are expected to be interconnected, so that the data available in them can be cross-exploited.

The creation of these data spaces seeks to overcome the legal and technical barriers linked to data sharing, through common standards, tools and infrastructures in a context of digital sovereignty. According to the European data strategy, the development of European data spaces should be carried out taking into account the following elements:

• The deployment of tools and services for data processing, exchange and sharing, as well as the federation of secure and energy-efficient cloud capabilities and related services. These tools should enable access to data in a fair, transparent, proportionate and non- discriminatory manner.
• The development of clear and reliable data governance structures, in compliance with EU law, with particular attention to the protection of personal data, consumer and competition law.
• Improving the availability, quality and interoperability of data, both within specific domains and across sectors.

In this regard, the European Commission endorses various measures and initiatives for the development of secure and sustainable digital infrastructures. These include Gaia-X, which seeks the development of an open, federated and interoperable data infrastructure in the cloud, and the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA), probably a substantial part of Gaia-X, which promotes an architectural reference model for the development of data spaces.

In the image below you can see these and other European initiatives at different levels related to data spaces. The left and central part shows some of the main European data initiatives, and how these are supported by hardware infrastructures. The right hand side shows the alignment with the most important EU initiatives within the European Data Strategy.

Spain is aligned with Europe in this area: the transition to a data economy is among the axes of the Digital Spain 2025 Plan. Work is currently underway to promote the enabling environment for the creation of sectoral data spaces, through the various data initiatives included in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. One example is the Spanish Gaia-X Hub, aimed at deploying a robust ecosystem in the field of industrial data sharing, comprising companies of all sizes. The aim of this type of action is to create a community around data that favours innovation and economic growth, with the consequent benefit for society.

Content written by the datos.gob.es team

Updated 02/29/24

At the end of 2021, an agreement was reached between the European Parliament and Member States to push forward the proposed Data Governance Act. The aim was to create processes and structures to facilitate the exchange of data between all relevant actors.

Shortly thereafter, it was followed by another new regulatory initiative launched by the European Commission: the so-called Data Act. It is a new regulation that aims to promote harmonised rules on access and fair use of data within the framework of the European Strategy. Once the appropriate public consultation has been completed and, in view of the conclusions of the corresponding impact analysis, this proposal has been formulated, which is set to profoundly transform the European regulatory framework on data.

What are the objectives of the new regulation?

The initiative is based on a basic premise: despite the progress made, there is still a general problem regarding the insufficient availability of data in the European Union as a whole. In this sense, it has been noted that this is not simply a problem specific to the national sphere, so that it has seemed necessary to promote a new European regulation whose main objectives are:

• To increase legal certainty with regard to rights relating to access to and use of data, especially in a technological environment of interconnected objects.
• To address imbalances in contractual relations between companies whose subject matter concerns the availability of data.
• Establish the conditions under which private entities should provide data to public bodies in exceptional situations.
• Promote a framework for efficient interoperability of data from a cross-sectoral perspective.
• Establish minimum guarantees for users of data processing services when they change provider.

Let us look at each of these points in detail.

Boosting access to and use of data

One of the main novelties of the Regulation concerns the adoption of measures to facilitate access to data generated by connected objects (IoT). In particular, it has been identified that there are insufficient incentives for data owners to make data available to the users of the objects and services, who are ultimately the ones who generate the data when they use or enjoy them. In this respect, the lack of adequate regulation means that there is clear uncertainty about the rights and obligations that correspond to each of the parties, i.e. manufacturers of the objects, persons using them and, where appropriate, third parties providing services.

The approach is to oblige manufacturers of the objects to share, under appropriate conditions, data generated during the use of products or services - which may even include reasonable compensation - with the users themselves and even with third parties, in particular for the purpose of facilitating after-sales and maintenance services. As a result, rights of access and use are assigned, as opposed to the recognition of exclusive rights arising from the greater ability to control that would initially be vested in manufacturers and designers.

Moreover, specific measures are laid down to strengthen the legal position of those who use the objects, in particular with regard to data generated during the enjoyment of the related products or services. In this respect, the right to information prior to purchase is reinforced, and the user must be informed of the nature and volume of the data to be generated, how he can access the data and how it will be generated, or, inter alia, who will use the data or how to request that it be shared with third parties. Moreover, the manufacturer of the object or service provider is required to guarantee the user access to the data generated, without being able to require any additional information from the user beyond what is strictly necessary to verify the user's status as a user.

Contractual imbalances between companies

As regards business-to-business relations, the Regulation has established measures aimed at ensuring that there is a reasonable balance and, in particular, at avoiding unfair impositions in business-to-business contracts when negotiating conditions relating to access to and use of data. Thus, on the one hand, the cases in which a clause is considered unfair for a micro/small/medium-sized enterprise are specified, as would be the case, for example, when it would be prevented from making a copy of the data it has itself generated or when undue restrictions are imposed on the means of redress in the event of non-compliance. Moreover, it is specified in which circumstances the conditions have been unilaterally imposed in an undue manner, with the onus being on the company that proposed the clause to prove that there has been no such imposition. The mandatory nature of these measures is reinforced by the express prohibition to ignore them even if there is an agreement to that effect between the two parties.

Provision of data to public entities

With regard to relations between companies and public bodies, the Regulation envisages the mandatory provision of certain data to meet exceptional needs linked to emergencies or even situations where the public interest so requires. This is a measure that would not be applicable to smaller companies and that, in any case, would be subject to a series of limits and conditions, among which the following stand out:

• The requirement to demonstrate the exceptional need that justifies making the data available, specifying the purpose of the use and its duration.
• The regulations on open data and re-use of public sector information shall not apply to the data provided.
• If the purpose of the provision relates to personal data, reasonable measures for pseudonymisation shall be required, provided that this is not incompatible with the intended purpose.
• The purpose of making the data available is for the performance of a task of public interest, the existence of a legal provision is required and that the data could not have been obtained by any other means, including their purchase on the market.
• In any case, this regulation does not affect cases in which the provision of the data by the companies takes place within the framework of the fulfilment of legal obligations derived from the exercise of surveillance or verification functions, as would be the case, in particular, with the performance of inspection tasks by the public authorities.

In any case, this regulation does not affect cases in which the provision of data by companies takes place in the framework of the fulfilment of legal obligations derived from the exercise of surveillance or verification functions, as would be the case, in particular, with the performance of inspection tasks by public authorities.

A strong commitment to interoperability

One of the main problems that the new Regulation seeks to address is the high level of fragmentation of data, in particular due to the existence of "silos" that prevent their interconnection in the absence of effective rules on interoperability. In this respect, an obligation is laid down for data space operators to comply with a number of minimum requirements to facilitate interoperability, in particular as regards the specification of technical and legal conditions allowing automated data processing. Specific conditions are also laid down for smart contracts, i.e. software that executes and settles transactions on the basis of pre-determined conditions from the perspective of data provision, including a European declaration of conformity system and even the establishment of standardisation criteria.

Interoperability requirements may be general in scope or, where appropriate, sector-specific, for which a broad legal approach will be essential, taking into account the requirements of the respective regulatory frameworks applicable in each case. To this end, the definitive boost to European data spaces can undoubtedly be of great importance in order to specify the scope of regulation in some areas of great strategic relevance and of unquestionable public interest.

Safeguards against switching providers

Another of the main novelties of the proposal consists of recognising minimum rights for users of data processing services when they change provider, so as to extend their ability to choose and ensure that they can dispose of their data, applications and other digital assets without unjustified restrictions. It also establishes certain minimum contents that must be included in the corresponding contract with providers, including the obligation to facilitate and actively collaborate in the migration process, the exhaustive identification of the categories of exportable data and applications or, among other aspects, the establishment of a minimum period for the recovery of data once the contract is terminated.

Although all these aspects may represent significant improvements in terms of facilitating access to data, the fact is that the proposal has raised some doubts, especially with regard to the mandatory nature of their transfer in B2B and B2G environments, the possible increase in costs that the new data processing conditions would entail or, among other aspects, the possible contradiction with the principle of minimisation in force in the area of personal data protection and, in general, the coherence with the rest of the European regulatory framework. These are undoubtedly important challenges whose regulation will have to take shape in the coming months during the long and intense process that is now beginning.

Download the infographic in PDF here

This infographic is also available in two pages

Content prepared by Julián Valero, professor at the University of Murcia and Coordinator of the Research Group "Innovation, Law and Technology" (iDerTec). Contents and points of view expressed in this publication are the exclusive responsibility of its author.

The application of new techniques aimed at extracting value from data has become a reality in the current environment, accelerating its transformation into knowledge for decision making. Therefore, it is common to focus on the exploitation of data as an indispensable part of its management, arising linked to the concept of its exploitation the concept of data space, enabling its sharing, involving both the private sector and the different public agencies, whether local, national or international.

A data space is an ecosystem where the voluntary sharing of its participants' data materializes within an environment of sovereignty, trust and security, established through integrated governance, organizational, regulatory and technical mechanisms. The concept of sovereignty is key, understood as the ability of a participant to maintain control over its own data, expressing the terms and conditions that will govern its permitted uses.

What is Gaia - X?

In this context, the Gaia-X initiative was born, a European private sector initiative for the creation of an open, federated and interoperable data infrastructure, built on the values of digital sovereignty and data availability, and the promotion of the Data Economy. The challenge is to establish an ecosystem in which data from European entities are available and shared in a trusted and managed environment according to European principles of decentralization, openness, transparency, sovereignty and interoperability.

Gaia-X aims to develop a federation of cloud data services, enabling cooperation and data sharing between companies and organizations across the European Union independently of infrastructure providers. Gaia-X defines the technical concepts, as well as the governance, for the interoperability of datasets and data infrastructures, assuming the role of orchestrator, mediating between data providers and data consumers via the federated services, and creating a physical decoupling between the data layer and the infrastructure layer.

From the origins

The Gaia-X initiative began to see the light of day in October 2019, when the French and German ministries of economic affairs presented the project. Since then, its growth has been exponential. At the end of 2020, a summit was held, leading to the founding of the Gaia-X association AISBL in January 2021. During that year, Gaia-X is defined as a brand, as well as the first versions of its services. Among its objectives is the development of common standards, best practices, tools, as well as governance mechanisms.

Gaia-X currently has 324 members around the world. Companies, associations, research institutions, administrations and politicians have joined forces to work together in the initiative. The 22 founding members are divided between France and Germany, where organizations such as Amadeus, Atos, OVH, Orange Business Services, Siemens, IDS, SAP SE and Deustche Telekom stand out. However, these 22 have been joined over the years by private and public organizations from Asia (China, India, Japan, Singapore, Qatar, Korea), the USA and mainly Europe (Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Poland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK).

In Spain, in mid-2021, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, promotes the creation of the Gaia-X national hub, an organizational initiative whose objective is to accelerate European capacity in industrial/sectoral data sharing and digital sovereignty, contributing to generate the common European infrastructure, through the launch of a manifesto of interest whose response from private sector companies was overwhelming.

In this way, Spain also joins the Government Advisory Board of Gaia-X, the European partnership to accelerate the response to data sharing. The Spanish Gaia-X Hub seeks that companies of all sizes create community around data, serving to develop and implement innovative solutions based on data and Artificial Intelligence, which boost national competitiveness, paying special attention to SMEs and micro-SMEs. Thus, it is proposed the creation of data spaces in the different productive sectors, interoperable with European spaces and without interfering in other spaces that the industry has planned to develop.

The data economy in Spain

This project aims to contribute to the economic growth of our country. According to the European Data Market study, the data economy in Spain had in 2019 a value equivalent to 2.5% of the national GDP, and it is estimated that by 2025, this value will represent more than 4% of the Spanish GDP, provided that the appropriate legal, political and financing environment is created, which highlights the importance of data in the economy.

Spain's commitment to the data economy is part of the Digital Spain 2025 strategy, which highlights the need to support the digitization of key sectors for the economy, such as tourism and healthcare in particular, but also others such as mobility, the agri-food sector and e-commerce.

Conclusions

Data are the focus of the major transformations taking place in today's environment as a result of the application of new digital technologies. For this reason, no digital economy will be able to consolidate and compete globally without a strong data economy.

The European strategy aims to create a single European data market, open to data from all over the world, in which personal and non-personal data, including sensitive business data, is secure and businesses have access to high-quality industrial data in a way that drives growth and creates value. Through the associated rules and mechanisms, the aim is to ensure that data can flow, European standards and values are fully respected, and the rules for data access and use are fair, practical and clear.

Data spaces in general, and initiatives such as Gaia-X in particular, are key elements in achieving the objectives of the European strategy, serving to foster ecosystems that create new products and services based on more accessible data.

Content prepared by Juan Mañes, expert in Data Governance, with contributions from the Data Office.

The contents and views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author.

7 February 2022 was the date chosen for the launch of the sixth edition of the EU Datathon. Organised by the Publications Office of the European Union, this competition aims to raise awareness of the value of open data and showcase the opportunities for data-driven business models.

EU Datathon 2022 gives participants the opportunity to gain international visibility for their innovative ideas based on open data, as well as compete for a total prize fund of €200,000.

4 challenges available

Unlike the 2021 edition, which presented 3 challenges, this EU Datathon 2022 has 4 challenges to solve:

• Challenge 1: 'The European Green Deal'. The European Green Deal is the blueprint for a modern, sustainable and competitive European economy. Participants in this challenge must develop applications or services aimed at creating a greener Europe, for example to boost resource efficiency or reduce pollution.
• Challenge 2: 'Transparency in public procurement'. Transparency in public procurement helps to track how public money is spent, to fight fraud and to analyse economic and market trends. Therefore, this challenge invites developers to explore the wealth of information available and develop an application to expose it in a transparent way.
• Challenge 3: 'EU public procurement opportunities for young people'. Public procurement is often perceived as a complex field, where only specialists feel comfortable finding the information they need. This challenge invites developers to propose, for example, apps that help young people to easily find the information they need when applying for public procurement positions.
• Challenge 4: 'A Europe fit for the digital age'. The EU aims for a digital transformation that works for people and businesses. This challenge therefore drives the creation of applications or services that improve data literacy, increase connectivity or make data more understandable for all, based on the European Data Strategy.

How to participate?

Participants must submit an idea for an application that links and uses open datasets to address one of the four challenges above. Importantly, at least one of the datasets used to develop the idea must come from the datasets available on data.europa.eu.

In addition, participants opting for challenges 2 or 3 must use at least one dataset published by the EU Tender Electronic Daily (TED).

Who can participate?

The EU Datathon 2022 is aimed at citizens from all over the world interested in prototyping products based on public open data and even developing new business models, for-profit or not-for-profit, through the exploration of such data.

Participation is open to individuals or legal entities, in teams of one to four members. However, staff working in the institutions, agencies and bodies associated with or contracted by the EU Publications Office are not eligible to apply.

How does the competition unfold?

Participating teams must register their proposal via this form by 31 March 2022 at 23:59 CET (Central European Time). After the registration deadline, the competition will run in 2 phases:

1.Pre-selection

The jury, composed of experts from within and outside the EU institutions and agencies, will evaluate the registered proposals on the basis of a number of criteria such as the relevance of the selected challenge or the potential and creativity of the proposed solution.

For each challenge, the 6 highest scoring teams will be shortlisted. All participating teams will be notified of the results on 25 April 2022.

2.Fase final

The 24 shortlisted teams (6 per challenge) will be invited to turn their proposals into applications. Each team will have to produce and email a 60-second video presenting their app and the team working on it by 15 August 2022.

The final of the competition will take place on 20 October. The applications submitted in each challenge will be evaluated by a jury of experts. In addition to the relevance of the proposal, the open data used (economic and social potential, interoperability with other data sources, etc.) and fit for purpose (maturity of the product, benefits offered, etc.) will be taken into account.

What is the prize money?

This year, the total prize money increases considerably to 200,000 euros, which will be divided for each challenge as follows:

• First place: 25,000 euros
• Second place: EUR 15,000
• Third place: 7,000 euros

From datos.gob.es we invite you to submit your proposal. Remember that if you need inspiration, you can take as a reference CleanSpot, the Spanish company that managed to be a finalist in the EU Datathon 2021, winning second place in its challenge.

You also have at your disposal the information about the winning projects of all the editions of the Aporta Challenge, which, like the EU Datathon, seeks to reward ideas and prototypes based on open data that drive improvements in specific sectors of activity. The first year the focus was on the public sector, the second on the agri-food, forestry and rural sectors, and the third on education. The call for participants for the fourth edition, focusing on the field of health and well-being, has just closed.

Good luck to all participants!

The first EU Open Data Days took place from November 23rd to 25th in online format, organized by the Publications Office of the European Union. During 3 days, the open data community was able to learn from experts and professionals from various sectors about the innovations, challenges and opportunities facing the open data ecosystem.

The event, which included Spanish participation, was divided into two parts. During the first two days, the international conference EU DataViz 2021 was held, focused on sharing experiences and best practices in the field of open data and data visualizations. The last day was dedicated to the final of the EU Datathon 2021, an annual competition that seeks to showcase business models linked to the reuse of open data.

EU DataViz 2021: Keynote speakers to highlight the importance of open data

The conference was opened by Hilde Hardeman, the newly appointed Director-General of the Publications Office.

The first day focused on open data as a key driver of digital transformation. Speakers included Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, who highlighted the priority that the government of Luxembourg gave to digital transformation, and Yvo Volman of the European Commission, who presented the EU's perspective on open data and its plans to build a European single market for data, highlighting four pillars:

• A cross-sector governance framework promoting access to and use of data, including the legislative arena.
• The investment of between €4 billion and €6 billion for high-impact projects related to federated data spaces and cloud infrastructures.
• The boosting of digital and data skills, especially in SMEs.
• The deployment of common data spaces in crucial sectors and sectors of public interest.

After presentations by representatives of the European Data Portal and The Govlab, the specialized sessions began, where topics ranging from interoperability and accessibility of EU open data to the creation of open data ecosystems were addressed. The Spanish note was set by Antonio Ibáñez, Head of Transparency and Reuse of Information of Castilla y León, and Nuria Oliver, Co-Founder and Vice-President of ELLIS - European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems-, with two presentations focused on data provision during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Antonio Ibañez explained the challenges faced by the Castilla y León health service in providing complete and clear information, highlighting the complexity of the data and the need to update it constantly. As a result of their work, 1.6 million records were created and made available to the public through 34 datasets and various visualizations and interactive dashboards.
• For her part, Nuria Oliver spoke about Valencia's experience in using data science in the fight against COVID-19. The objective was to make informed decisions based on available information. To this end, different data sources were used, ranging from health data (cases, hospitalizations, etc.), mobile data that allowed estimates of population density and movements, and data from citizen surveys, among others. Epidemiological and predictive models were developed and used as the basis for policy decisions.

The first day's session was closed by Pascal Leardini, Deputy Secretary-General and Chief Operating Officer of the European Commission.

The second day of presentations focused on data visualization. Boštjan Koritnik, Minister of Public Administration of Slovenia, representing the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, opened the day.  Sixtine Bouygues of the European Commission highlighted the benefits and challenges of data visualization for EU administration, and Valérie Saintot of the European Central Bank focused on data visualization as a vector for innovation. Finally, Jonathan Schwabish of the Urban Institute spoke about the importance of applying diverse, equitable and inclusive awareness to data visualization.

Specialized sessions inspired discussions on data visualization as a tool for discovering new insights through storytelling. Internationally successful data visualization projects in fields such as finance or transportation were also explored.

The second day was closed by Paul Hofheinz, president and co-founder of The Lisbon Council, ASBL.

EU Datathon 2021: Spanish company CleanSpot wins second prize

The Open Data Days closed with the final of the EU Datathon. Nine teams had reached the final, selected from nearly 100 proposals from 33 countries, which had to create a mobile or web application using open datasets. The finalists were divided into three categories, aligned with the European Commission's policy priorities:

• Challenge 1: 'A European Green Deal', focusing on the European Green Deal and boosting sustainability.
• Challenge 2: 'An economy that works for people', focused on creating a fairer economic union, enabling economic growth while reducing poverty and inequality.
• Challenge 3: 'A Europe fit for the digital age', which seeks improvements in data-related skills and the European data strategy.

Prior to the final, the teams presented their ideas in a series of videos. In his opening speech, Commissioner Johannes Hahn praised the teams' innovative approaches and solutions to help Europe address its key challenges.

A jury of 18 data specialists chaired by Per Nymand-Andersen of the European Central Bank selected the winners of each challenge. Spanish company CleanSpot won second prize in the 'A European Green Deal' category for its app to raise awareness and incentivize recycling through gamification.

Cleanspot also won the second prize from the public, demonstrating the interest of citizens in this type of solutions.

You can see the rest of the winners here.

The awards ceremony ended the first EU Open Data Days, whose success was evidenced by the more than 2,000 registrations received.

If you were unable to attend, you can watch the videos of all the presentations and participations that made up the three days at this link.