The large consumer online platforms have shown that data is an asset that directly translates to value, and this value can be multiplied by fusing data shared among stakeholders in a value chain. However, this creation of value which makes possible the Data Economy is profiting today only the so-called GAFAM empire organisations, particularly in B2C scenarios. However, there is ample scope for Europe, there is no standardised digital platform controlling the B2B market. According to European Council conclusions (21-22 March 2019)2: “The EU needs to go further in developing a competitive, secure, inclusive and ethical digital economy with world-class connectivity. Special emphasis should be placed on access to, sharing and use of data, data security and on Artificial Intelligence, in an environment of trust”.
Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) are the key for overcoming these entry barriers for SMEs. A DIH is an orchestrator of the R&I actors in a specific geographical region that serves as a one-stop shop for SMEs to access services to pursue their digital transformation. DIHs can help in breaking the data silos in European industry, stimulating innovation where value is driven by data sharing, by providing technologies for digital trust, e.g. for compliance with the GDPR regulation. Providing access to public and publicly funded data, as well as providing companies with guidelines and technologies for sharing private sector data. REACH will leverage on the emerging networks of Big Data DIHs to foster the incubation process of datafuelled companies with the aim of bringing to market innovative data-driven products and services in data value chains, pursuing the following impact aims (IA):
● IA1. Contributing to the effort of unlocking the data-driven economy in several sectors such as retail, tourism, manufacturing, finance and insurance, media, healthcare, consumer support, transport, energy, public administration.
● IA2. Making Europe’s technology-/data-driven start-ups among the topmost world players in big data solutions and data-driven services.
● IA3. Developing new data value chains while safeguarding shared trust. We define in our context a “data value chain” as a multi-stakeholder data-driven business model where data is securely exchanged among parties, either persons or organisations, with the aim of creating value for all involved stakeholders. The data lifecycle occurs thus throughout different parties. Data is generated (recording and capturing data), collected (validating and storing it), analysed (processing and analysing the data to generate new insights and knowledge) and exploited (putting the outputs to use, whether internally or by trading them) by different partners. Multi stakeholder heterogenous data needs to be correlated to generate insights.
