Sustainability of (Open) Data Portals Infrastructures reports pt. 4
Publication Date/Time
2020-10-14T07:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
This is the fourth piece in a series about the “Sustainability of
(Open) Data Portal Infrastructures” reports. In this highlight, the
focus is on “Funding Portals: A Business Case Approach to Funding
Model Longevity”
SUSTAINABILITY OF (OPEN) DATA PORTALS INFRASTRUCTURES REPORTS

Over the next months, all six reports included in the
”Sustainability of (Open) Data Portals Infrastructure”
[/en/impact-studies/studies?section=7&source=EDP] will be summarised
using featured highlights. This particular article will focus on the
fourth report, “Funding Portals: A Business Case Approach to Funding
Model Longevity”
[/sites/default/files/sustainability-data-portal-infrastructure_4_funding-portals.pdf].
The report devises a toolkit based on 3 business cases, 4 financing
models and 20 cost considerations that can support portals to develop
a funding strategy.

In most cases, portals and related activities are funded by government
departments. Nationally, this has largely been based on transparency
budgets or municipal IT departments. Few portals are financially
sustainable, and some have no basis for becoming financially
sustainable either. The 2018 Open Data Maturity Report
[/sites/default/files/edp_landscaping_insight_report_n4_2018.pdf]
found that the cost of running portals is subsumed into wider open
data strategy funding and no national governments were identifying the
cost of sustaining an open data portal as its own activity. Also, no
alternative funding models had been explored by portal owners.

BUSINESS CASE DEVELOPMENT

Since Member States are obligated to publish certain datasets, this
can be seen as a regulatory cost. This, to an extent, explains the
cross-state hesitation to explore funding from other angles. However,
this ‘compliance’ approach obscures the possibility of
understanding the funding of open data from a more sustainable point
of view, which can be developed using a business case. The report
discussed in this featured highlight presents three different business
cases, including examples, for opening up data:

 	* DIRECT BUDGET SAVINGS ­– Case: Helsinki Region Infoshare
(regional)
 	* CITIZEN PARTICIPATION – Case: Data Mill North (mixed public and
private publishers)
 	* INNOVATION IN PRODUCTS AND SERVICES – Case: Score/SCIFI (city
and regional)

FINANCIAL MODELS

The choice of business case influences the decisions about the most
appropriate financing models. The report reviews four financing models
and explains how they might work in practice:

 	* INTERNAL (PUBLIC) FINANCING: Internal financing of a portal,
either cross-subsidised or as a regulatory cost, can be referred to as
the status quo. It is sustainable to the extent that it is a
regulatory cost and will therefore be included in budgets going
forward.
 	* CO-FUNDING: With co-funding a consensus must be reached on what
will be shared. Co-funding thus requires a clear decision-making
process and there may be some additional costs of agreements/contracts
or a way to reduce these will have to be agreed.
 	* EXTERNAL FUNDING: External funding happens when the government and
privately held data are combined.
 	* SELF-FINANCING: In order to generate revenue to support financial
sustainability, open data portals could charge for either data,
services or tools using a freemium model.

The business cases can be used with a variety of financing models.
However, not all financing strategies can be used for all business
cases. Details of full implementations, including limitations, of each
of these models can be found in the full report.

COST CONSIDERATIONS FOR PORTALS

After conducting analysis on the report “Ensuring the Economic
Sustainability of Open Data Portals: Understanding Impact and
Financing (2018)”
[/sites/default/files/s3wp4_sustainability_recommendations_ii.pdf] 20
cost areas were identified which must be addressed whenever a business
case or funding model is used. Based on these areas, the report
created a template for developing a budget that covers all the areas.
These methods can be useful for three different parties:

 	* PORTAL OWNERS at all levels from the national to specialist areas
as they can utilise these methods as a toolkit to focus and direct
financing strategy and operations. Also, portal owners can use the
business case approach to understand what data might be valuably
utilised that should not necessarily be opened up.
 	* POLICY MAKERS can use this to help to assess ways in which policy
can be used to support movement away from a focus on open data as an
IT cost and towards integration with other governmental activities.
 	* POTENTIAL FUNDERS who are interested in supporting open data can
use these methods to identify appropriate opportunities and ways to
get involved with publishers across the spectrum.

As stated, this article focused on a few key findings of the report.
For more information on developing a funding strategy for your portal,
explore the full report “Funding Portals: A Business Case Approach
to Funding Model Longevity”
[/sites/default/files/sustainability-data-portal-infrastructure_4_funding-portals.pdf]
on the EDP website. Moreover, keep an eye out for our next the EDP
team’s fifth featured highlight on 20 JANUARY 2021 that will focus
on ”Open Data Portal Assessment using User-oriented Metrics”
[/sites/default/files/sustainability-data-portal-infrastructure_5_open-data-portal-assessment.pdf].
Interested in learning more about the topic? Join the EDP’s webinar
series on “The Future of Open Data Portals
[https://european-data-portal.gitlab.io/future-open-data-portals/]”!

For more information or examples on open data, explore the European
Data Portal’s (EDP) news archive
[/en/news-events/news] and featured highlight section
[/en/news-events/news?type=highlights]. Aware of open data examples or
stories?  Share them with us via mail [/en/feedback/form?type=4] and
follow us on Twitter [https://twitter.com/EU_DataPortal], Facebook
[http://www.facebook.com/EuropeanDataPortal] or LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/10478056/] to stay up to date!
