When open data meets data spaces
Publication Date/Time
2024-03-08T09:00:00+00:00
A closer look at the concept of data spaces and the role of open
data 
The European data strategy
[https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/european-data-strategy_en]
sets out the vision of creating a single market for data where it can
flow freely within the EU and across sectors. The creation of EU-wide,
common, interoperable data spaces in strategic sectors is a pillar of
the data strategy
[https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2021/690527/EPRS_ATA(2021)690527_EN.pdf]
and will help overcome existing technical and legal barriers to data
sharing and unleash the potential of data. These data spaces will
bring together relevant data infrastructures and governance frameworks
to facilitate data pooling and data sharing. 

As a reader of data.europa.eu, you might already be familiar with open
data and the value it offers. But what about the data in a data space?
How do data spaces differ from open data portals, and what are the
synergies between these two concepts? This data story explains the
basic concepts of data spaces and how open data can multiply the
impact of data spaces. We start with the foundations of data sharing
and, after explaining what a data space is, end with examples of
European data space initiatives. 

INTRODUCING THE LEGISLATIVE LANDSCAPE OF OPEN DATA AND DATA SHARING 

Let’s start with open data. Why do public sector bodies in the EU
share their data? EU’s open data directive
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/legislation-open-data]
encourages EU Member States to make as much public sector information
available for reuse as possible, because of the additional value
data-based innovation can create across all economic sectors (see the
related impact assessment
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/impact-assessment-review-directive-200398ec-reuse-public-sector-information]).
It was also with this rationale that high-value datasets
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-defines-high-value-datasets-be-made-available-re-use]
were defined for their important benefits for society, the environment
and the economy. 

However, not all data can be made available under an open data licence
[https://data.europa.eu/en/training/elearning/open-data-licensing] and
on an open data portal. For this reason, the Data Governance Act
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-governance-act]
includes mechanisms to facilitate the reuse of certain public sector
data that cannot be made available as open data. The Data Act
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-act] similarly
seeks to make more data available for reuse, such as from
citizen-generated data connected devices.  

Whereas exchanging open data is relatively straightforward since the
licensing terms allow reuse for any purpose, exchanging data with more
restrictive conditions is a more complex transaction. This creates the
need for more sophisticated functionalities to enable data
sharing – enter data spaces. 

WHAT IS A DATA SPACE? 

According to the Commission Staff Working Document on common European
data spaces
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-spaces], a
data space ‘brings together relevant data infrastructures and
governance frameworks in order to facilitate data pooling and
sharing’. The European Commission is funding the Data Spaces Support
Centre [https://dssc.eu/] to enable data spaces to develop coherently
in the EU, for instance by establishing common requirements and best
practices. For a complementary definition of a data space, the Data
Spaces Support Centre’s glossary
[https://dataspacessupportcentre.refined.site/space/Glossary/55443460/DSSC+Glossary+%7C+Version+1.0+%7C+March+2023?attachment=/rest/api/content/55443460/child/attachment/att110362680/download&type=a]
describes a data space as ‘An infrastructure that enables data
transactions between different data ecosystem parties based on the
governance framework of that data space’. 

From a technical point of view, data spaces are a concept of data
management: they put technology systems and rules in place to
integrate and exchange data. What emerges is a federated data
ecosystem based on shared policies and rules. Data is distributed
across storage points and integrated on the basis of what is needed.
Tools are provided to discover, access, and analyse data that is
distributed across industries, companies and entities.​ 

Data spaces exist around the world. In Europe, the EU is funding
specific data space initiatives which typically aim to address the
needs of a particular sector (such as agriculture or health). These
data spaces should follow specific design principles and be
interoperable and interconnected as a single market for data. As such,
they are called the common European data spaces. 

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DATA PORTALS AND DATA SPACES? 

It is important to emphasise that the concept of data spaces differs
from that of traditional open data portals. An open data portal refers
to public websites set up by public administration entities (at the
local, regional, national and supranational level) that publish data
catalogues to support the discovery of public sector information in a
format as open as possible to facilitate access, reuse and
distribution. 

To help understand the difference between data portals and data
spaces, we can use the analogy of sharing food at a picnic. Imagine a
picnic between friends. One friend hosts the picnic as the organiser,
bringing the table and the cutlery (this friend represents the
data-sharing infrastructure in the form of a portal) (Figure 1).
Some friends (data providers) contribute to this picnic by bringing
food and drinks. The data providers put the food and drinks on the
table that is available to the rest of the friends (data reusers), who
can check what is available and drink, eat and use what they like.
This is an open picnic; any friend can come by and participate in the
picnic as a provider or a consumer. The host provides the table and
the cutlery which are needed to consume the food and drink. 

This type of picnic has upsides. Without the host, the friends may not
have come together for a picnic. However, this model also has
downsides. The friends are dependent on the host. If the host is late,
provides a table of bad quality or needs to go home, the friends do
not have other options for their picnic. 

This case is likened to a centralised platform that enables data
sharing among participants. A data portal can serve users’ needs
when a data-sharing ecosystem is developing and requires central
coordination or when more straightforward design principles meet
users’ needs, such as with open data where the licensing terms are
straightforward. 
 
FIGURE 1: An analogy for data portals as a picnic 

However, having a one-size-fits-all picnic that meets everyone’s
needs in every situation is difficult. Therefore, not all data-sharing
ecosystems work like a data portal, which we will explain by picturing
data spaces as a different kind of picnic. In this picnic, there is no
host (Figure 2). Each friend has their own table where they can
offer food and drinks. Friends give or take whatever they need in
direct interaction with the other friends who need, or offer
something. Someone brings food and drinks, someone else brings cutlery
and dishes, and someone else brings a table. Each friend is the holder
of the rights of what they offer. It may take longer for all the
necessary food, drinks, cutlery and tables to come together, but it is
likely that the picnic will take place if there are enough friends and
they are diverse in their choices. The picnic is also more resilient
since multiple friends can offer the same kind of food or supplies and
since it lasts as long as someone is still around. 

This case is likened to an ideal data space with a decentralised
structure, where each participant has sovereignty over their data and
can decide with whom to share it. This structure allows for various
levels of openness in the data – some data is restricted and can
be used by only certain stakeholders. Data spaces support this
additional functionality for use cases that need it. Note: a data
space does not need to be decentralised; several design choices
characterise a data space, of which decentralisation is one of the
more advanced options. 
 
FIGURE 2: An analogy for data spaces as a picnic 

HOW DOES OPEN DATA FIT INTO DATA SPACES? 

Open data is, by definition, already available to anyone, including to
the participants in the common European data spaces. Therefore, open
data can be considered a classic example of the kind of data that
plays a role in all data spaces. Reusers could combine open data and
data from data spaces to make innovative reuse cases that would not be
possible with open data or data from data spaces alone. To refer again
to the picnic analogy, open data is similar to the water provided for
free on every table, regardless of the other arrangements each table
makes. 

Moreover, data spaces may also a be source for new open data, whether
derived from pre-existing open data or created by processing the data
offered by data space participants, in ways that make it suitable for
redistribution under an open licence.  

DATA SPACES IN PRACTICE: THE EUROPEAN HEALTH DATA SPACE AND THE
CULTURAL HERITAGE DATA SPACE 

The data.europa academy organised a webinar
[https://youtu.be/RmMhfRbFiqg] to showcase specific examples of
sectorial data spaces. In this session, the European Health Data Space
and the Cultural Heritage Data Space showed the state of play of these
data spaces and the particularities of their data spaces. Below, we
highlight these use cases, explaining their ambitions. 

	* _The European Health Data Space _

The European Health Data Space
[https://health.ec.europa.eu/ehealth-digital-health-and-care/european-health-data-space_en]
(EHDS) is an example of an ambitious initiative within the broader
health data space, specifically focusing on the EU. The COVID-19
pandemic highlighted the importance of sharing data across sectors to
prevent and tackle health crises and improve our health systems. The
EHDS aims to create a unified, secure and interoperable ecosystem for
healthcare data across EU Member States. This includes empowering
individuals through increased digital access to and control of their
electronic personal health data at national and EU level. As such, the
EHDS is a key pillar of the European health union
[https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/promoting-our-european-way-life/european-health-union_en]
and was the first common European data space in a specific sector to
emerge from the European strategy for data. Specifically, this data
space initiative seeks to facilitate the exchange of health data,
encompassing electronic health records, patient data, medical research
and more, to improve healthcare coordination, research and innovation.
By promoting data sharing while respecting data privacy through
measures such as general data protection regulation compliance
[https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/], the EHDS strives to enhance
healthcare outcomes, disease surveillance and cross-border healthcare
services within the EU. The EHDS represents a significant step towards
harnessing the power of data-driven healthcare while safeguarding the
privacy and rights of individuals in the EU. 

Open data relating to healthcare is already available and could be
used to complement research projects seeking to use data such as
patient records from the EHDS. For example, Eurostat has an EU-wide
database of health data
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/health/database].  

	* _The Cultural Heritage Data Space _

Another example of a data space initiative is the European Cultural
Heritage Data Space called Europeana [https://www.europeana.eu/en].
Europeana is a pioneering initiative focused on preserving, sharing
and promoting information on Europe’s rich cultural heritage.
Europeana brings together millions of items from museums, libraries,
archives and galleries across the continent. Its mission is to provide
public access to Europe’s cultural treasures, including artworks,
historical documents and artefacts, in a digital format. By digitising
and aggregating this diverse cultural content, Europeana facilitates
cross-border access to European heritage and fosters cultural exchange
and education. It strives to play a pivotal role in preserving and
celebrating Europe’s cultural diversity while adhering to copyright
and data privacy regulations and empowering cultural institutions to
share their collections with the world. Europeana is a tool to
preserve and promote the shared cultural identity of the European
continent. 

A wealth of cultural heritage information is already captured in open
data. For example, the location of cultural heritage properties
provides a geospatial context for cultural heritage (Figure 4).
Therefore, such open data could be connected to archival images shared
by a museum in a data space for a richer interpretation of the data. 
 
FIGURE 4: Cultural heritage properties in Cascais, Portugal 
Source: data.europa.eu/https://www.cascais.pt/ 

CONCLUSION 

Common European data spaces support the vision of the EU’s data
strategy of a data-driven society with a single market for data. Data
spaces are complex federated ecosystems for data sharing. They offer
technical infrastructure and governance models to enable participants
to pool, access, process, use and share data trustfully and
transparently. Even though data sharing has been facilitated through
data portals already for a long time, data spaces offer new design
principles that enable new use cases. The participants interact
according to a shared policy and set of rules. This facilitates more
complex data transactions between participants, such as specifying
limits on how and for what purposes protected data can be reused. 

Open data complements the data in data spaces and may encourage the
development of innovative use cases that combine open and non-open
data. Data spaces also offer opportunities for creating new open data,
which could be derived from pre-existing open data or created through
the appropriate processing of data in data spaces. Budding data space
initiatives such as the European Health Data Space and the Cultural
Heritage Data Space inspire ideas of how open data could be combined
with data from data spaces for novel and insightful reuse cases. For
example, granular data from electronic health records can be shared
securely with authorised reusers for combined analysis with open data
about healthcare. Similarly, data from private cultural heritage
collections can augment governmental open data about cultural
heritage. 

Are you curious about data spaces and want to learn more? Watch the
data.europa.eu academy’s [https://data.europa.eu/en/academy] series
on data spaces. Also, stay tuned for our upcoming data stories and
webinars by subscribing to our newsletter
[https://data.europa.eu/en/newsletter] and following data.europa.eu on
social media. 
