PRESS RELEASE [Helsinki, Finland, June 22, 2021]

To realise the full potential of data sharing in the respect of EU values

MyData Global announces to have joined forces with ‘Team Data Spaces’ – a coalition of leading European players with experience in standardising, creating and operationalising data sharing – to facilitate the development of European data spaces which are at the heart of the EU’s data strategy.

Data spaces are federated data ecosystems in which the participants can easily and safely exchange data based on shared policies, standards, rules and economic models. By implementing data spaces, the data rights of citizens, businesses and organisations in general will be protected, there will be a guarantee of transparency and fairness, and Europe will finally be able to capitalise on the value of its data.

Data spaces will deliver benefits for a multitude of European stakeholders – including individual citizens and both private and public organisations – by delivering significant societal, environmental and economic value to society at large. They will create a level playing field for data sharing. They will encourage more innovative uses and combinations of data. And they will also be a key enabler for the European AI strategy which relies on access to large volumes of often decentralised high-quality data.

Team Data Spaces brings together a host of thought-leading organisations with a common purpose. The coalition aims to provide a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary strategic approach on economic, technical, societal, ethical and legal aspects for the design and rollout of data spaces.

It promotes a call to action that can realise the full potential of data spaces across four dimensions of support:

• Establish a community of practice for data spaces to consolidate and build upon the significant experience that already exists. 
• Begin to drive adoption of the ‘soft infrastructure’ that will underpin data spaces by unifying technical building blocks and architectures, data governance models and data standardisation. 
• Establish a common roadmap for the development and adoption of a pan-European data space.
• Co-develop a forward-looking approach to create consistent and fair legal and ethical frameworks that navigate the existing regulatory landscape and upcoming legislative agenda. 

“The concept of Data Spaces is fundamental to the European Data Strategy. At the same time, the strategy recognises MyData as an initiative that promises significant benefits to individuals,” says Teemu Ropponen, MyData Global General Manager. “MyData is a human-centric and ethical approach to personal data which aims at a fair, sustainable, and prosperous digital society for all. In this society, people get value from their data and set the agenda on how their data is used, and on the other hand, the ethical use of personal data is always the most attractive course of action for organisations. Our key contribution is to help ensure this perspective is considered in the work of the Team Data Spaces, to make it happen, and to make it right,“ Teemu explains.

Team Data Spaces’ vision is expressed in a short position paper published at dataspaces4.eu. The coalition’s goal is to make data spaces happen and realise their full potential in the respect of European values – and is committed to continuing and increasing our efforts in reaching this goal.

Members include: Big Data Value Association (BDVA), Capgemini Invent, FIWARE Foundation, Fraunhofer, Gaia-X, International Data Spaces Association (IDSA), INNOPAY, Insight, KULeuven, MyData Global, Sitra, TNO, and VTT.

Follow Team Data Spaces at dataspaces4.eu and find out more by contacting Teemu Ropponen at teemu (AT) mydata.org.