Great success of the first EU Open Data Days

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.