Dr Hylke Koers heads up the Data Management Services group at SURFsara, an innovative team that develops services to help universities and other research-intensive institutes manage their research data in a robust, safe, easy and cost-effective way.

Hylke joined SURF in 2018; prior to that he was a Product Manager and Product Director at Elsevier, working on innovations to the article format such as interactive plots, 3D viewers, and the Virtual Microscope. He also served as co-chair of the ICSU-WDS/RDA Working Group that created the Scholix framework, an emerging industry standard for linking research data and the literature.

Before joining Elsevier in 2010, Hylke received a PhD in theoretical astrophysics from the University of Amsterdam and served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Research Data Management: Striking the balance between security, privacy, and openness

To gain maximal value from data sharing, data must be properly managed throughout its life-cycle: from ingestion and transfer, to analysis and sharing, and ultimately to publication and preservation. At every stage, access control and security are critical – while at the same time researchers must be able to find and share data in order to realise its full potential. Striking the right balance between “open” and “private”, in a specific context, requires careful design of data management workflows and user-facing services. Tools and technology can help define and operationalise such workflows and make them easy to use while at the same time secure and robust.

At SURFsara, we’re actively engaged in developing services, standards and practices for sharing data in a secure and privacy-respecting manner. We do that through a process of co-creation, often through Proof-of-Concepts and pilot projects that validate ideas and assumptions around technology in a real-life setting. Here we take a cooperative approach to centralise learning and champion standards where that make sense.

In this presentation we’ll talk in more detail about the portfolio of services that SURFsara offers to manage research data and present some recent POCs and pilots where security and privacy are paramount.

Originally educated in theoretical chemistry and physics, Wouter Los entered biology and became interested in the importance of large and high quality datasets, He has been leading a variety of projects on environmental data services and data informatics, more specifically by establishing and developing environmental research infrastructures. He was chair of the Science Committee of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and designed the development of the (ESFRI) LifeWatch infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem research. He coordinated projects on the interoperability of European and global environmental research infrastructures. In parallel he served in various strategic foresight initiatives, for example as member of the European High Level Group that edited the report “Riding the Wave” about data challenges in the next decades. As a follow-up he co-designed and supported pan-European activities on enhancing data science training with strategic guidance for bringing data science competence frameworks into practice for universities, companies and public agencies. Currently he is promoting the establishment of open data markets offering individuals and organizations control over their data in collaborative opportunities.

Trust in an open market for data

Data holders – individuals, organisations and communities producing data – should have the right to decide which data may be shared with other entities of their choice and under which conditions. An operational digital data environment has to bring this principle into feasible and enforceable practice. ‘Feasible’ with respect to simplicity for users and scalability of service performance. ‘Enforceable’ with respect to software embedded legal rules for conditional data sharing between different entities, thus ensuring trust with safe data transactions. Similar to Internet exchange mechanisms or inter-bank cash transfer services, data exchange mechanisms should provide neutral (infrastructure and rules) facilities in the background that will allow for controlled, trusted and secure data transactions. All entities (individuals, organisations, and communities) accepting these ‘market’ rules for trust will shape together an Open Market for Data. Different from the lock-in approach by a single company or state, in an open market the participants will together offer data and services such as data storage, data processing, and new data products. This Open Market will offer them new opportunities for cooperation that each of them are not likely to achieve separately in the current data practice. Public, scientific and private parties in the Netherlands and abroad started to cooperate for bringing this into practice. The presentation will inform about the latest developments.

Douwe Lycklama is co-founder of INNOPAY and thought leader in the various types of digital transactions including data sharing, payment, invoicing, identity as well as the regulatory environment. His drive in these two sided markets is the growing need for collaborative innovation in both private and public sector in order to foster digital economy and entrepreneurship. He is co-author of the book ‘Everything Transaction’ that is published in December 2018.

Everything Transaction: how data is becoming a two sided market

Data sharing between entities and people is rapidly becoming a two-sided market and a necessity for a buoyant digital economy. This session elaborates on organising and scaling data sharing on a sector, country and EU level and how this enables the data economy.

Nanda Piersma is professor of applied sciences in Urban Analytics at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica. The Urban Analytics group researches how organizations in the city can gain better insights from their data through data analysis, algorithms and business analytics.

By setting up collaborations within the institutes and with external partners, the core expertise of the group is expanded and connected to academics. The result is that the group’s research projects cover the whole chain of data science: from data hunting to analysis, visualization and application development.

The Amdex Initiative: Considering business aspects and models

Abstract: is coming soon

Ir. Matthijs Punter is senior consultant at TNO where he specializes on solutions for large scale interoperability. Over the years he has worked with companies and sector organizations in various industries (manufacturing, transport & logistics, e-government) to define open standards for data exchange and architectures for controlled data sharing. These concepts were used to establish new data driven solutions in the respective business ecosystems. Examples include the establishment of a ‘smart connected supplier network’ in Dutch high-tech manufacturing and the definition of a ‘Digital inland waterway area’ to increase the competitiveness of inland waterway transport.

Within TNO key areas of focus include data sovereignty and semantic interoperability. Data sovereignty implies the ability for data-owners to retain control over their data, whilst still enabling data driven innovations. Semantic interoperability relates to the field of capturing the meaning of data and the usage of AI and machine learning to enable reasoning and cross-sector analytics. He is a member of the International Data Spaces Association architecture working group.

Data sharing: commodity or strategic asset?

Many industries consider data sharing as a key enabler for new data driven concepts: it is no longer sufficient to just collect and analyse data within a company – it needs to be merged and linked with data from other stakeholders in the value network. And in many cases this needs to be done at a very large scale: smart everything, everywhere. Consequently, the necessary tools and agreements need to become a commodity: readily available and easy to use, when needed.

At the same time, data is increasingly considered a strategic asset. Whether this is for privacy reasons (GDPR), business reasons (intellectual property, commercial sensitivity, liability, etc.) or both. This implies that businesses need to properly manage their data and the infrastructures used for data sharing. In his presentation Matthijs Punter will highlight how data sovereignty is considered a key concept in many industries.

In his presentation he will highlight the work of TNO within the International Data Spaces Association to address this challenge. In addition, he will show how this has shaped the work in several Smart Industry ‘field lab’ collaborations in the Netherlands in which businesses and research institutes collaborate on data driven innovations.