Sitra issues call for funding applications to boost Europe-wide data sharing

In order to share data more easily between companies or from one industry or country to another to drive innovation, it is necessary to develop a reliable data sharing infrastructure, rules, standards and effective regulation. The challenge is that the parties that share data must be able to trust each other while protecting the rights of people, companies and organisations.

Gaia-X is a pan-European project that aims to create a reliable model for data sharing. Sitra is co-ordinating the work of the Gaia-X network in Finland.

Gaia-X aims to define common rules for such things as digital identity management, building trust and data sharing. It also aims to build a European cloud service architecture based on these rules.

Looking for experiences and lessons learned on data sharing

To boost Gaia-X development in Finland, Sitra is launching call for funding applications to collect experiences and lessons learned about sharing data between businesses. The call for funding will also gather lessons learned on how to develop business through data sharing principles.

“The call offers companies and their partners an opportunity to experiment and learn about data sharing and value creation based on the principles of a fair data economy,” says Anssi Komulainen, Project Director at Sitra. Komulainen leads Sitra’s Gaia-X Finland project.

“We are looking for partners to find out what data sharing and data development according to the Gaia-X model means in companies. We are also exploring the types of data sharing use cases where the Gaia-X model could be useful.” 

The experiences and lessons learned from the funded pilot projects will be shared so that others can benefit from the results.

The call for funding is open to applicant consortiums of companies and others that want to share data between several companies. Data sharing must benefit the business of a company or companies.

The deadline for the first round of applications ended on 30 September 2022. The deadline for the second round ends on 31 March 2023. There are further details about this on the application page.

Sitra will hold an information session on the call for funding on 5 September 2022.

The European Gaia-X project, of which Sitra is a member, aims to address the challenges of developing the European data economy. Sharing data among different parties and exploiting related business opportunities are in their infancy in Europe.

In the project’s European network, hundreds of companies and other parties are working together to create a set of rules for sharing data and compatible solutions for data sharing.

A better understanding of where data sharing can be applied will help to shed light on the value and benefits for business.