Data Sharing Toolkit: Lessons learned, resources and recommendations for sharing data

Data plays a major role in the European economy, and building a European data economy is one of the strategic goals of the European Commission. Through the increase of data science techniques, not least Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the value and role of data as an asset becomes ever more crucial. This has made it more important for data to be accessible. However, much of the data that many solutions require are held within private organisations - and are only available if they are shared. Data sharing in this sense means allowing third parties specifically permissioned access to datasets to generate value. This toolkit has been developed to help organisations that want to generate value by sharing data or facilitating data sharing. We explain the concept, challenges, and processes to enable successful data sharing, and provide resources and recommendations. It is derived from experience collected in the Data Pitch programme and related national and international initiatives, such as the Smart Cities Innovation Framework Implementation (SciFi), the European Data Incubator (EDI), as well as several recent pilots for data trusts in the UK.