On the 19th of March 2014, several NESSI industry partners met European Commission Vice President responsible for the Digital Agenda, Ms Neelie Kroes. The meeting took place in Athens on the occasion of the European Data Forum 2014. The main goal of this meeting was to demonstrate the support for establishing a contractual Public Private Partnership (cPPP) on Big Data Value. The exchange focused on how Big Data technologies could tackle the current societal and economic challenges effectively, and on the timeframe for realizing a cPPP.
At the meeting, the NESSI partners described the need for a cPPP that allows the coordination of activities across research and innovation, policy and regulation, as well as society. The aim is to organize the cPPP as a federation of European innovation spaces, built as the main element for addressing the multi-dimensional character of Big Data. A cPPP would reinforce the collaboration between different data-related actors, by creating a stakeholder platform. The connection between policymakers and large software companies, SMEs, data-intensive sectors (such as healthcare, transport, energy, media and content, manufacturing, retail, environment and the public sector), universities, research institutes and capital providers, would be facilitated thanks to the platform.
The Big Data Value Partnership and the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), according to NESSI partners, should serve as a baseline for the definition of the activities of the PPP. This Agenda would be based on strategic considerations and would define solid long-term research and priorities, as well as set out key performance indicators allowing the measurement of progress of the implementation. A draft SRIA, written by NESSI and Project Big partners is now available for Public Consultation and will be accessible until 5th May 2014 at www.bigdatavalue.eu. You are welcome to share your views and provide input for the challenges and objectives of a PPP on Big Data Value.
The overall aim of the Big Data Value Public-private partnership is to increase the amount of productive European economic activities and the number of European jobs that depend on the availability of high quality data assets and the technologies needed to derive value from them. This PPP could be a powerful tool to provide growth in the EU, in accordance with the objectives of the Horizon 2020 programme.
The NESSI partners highly valued the opportunity to discuss their commitment to support the establishment of a PPP on Big Data Value with Vice President Ms Kroes. The next step of the process will be the NESSI summit 2014, held in Brussels on the 27th of May. On this occasion, the results of the consultation on the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda on Big Data Value for Europe will be presented and further discussed.
The registration for the summit is now open here !