On behalf of the European Commission, the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) is conducting the study 'big data and B2B platforms: the next big opportunity for Europe'. The study started in December 2018 to analyse how to accelerate the growth of the data-based economy and to support the development of B2B platforms in Europe. It focuses on 2 sectors: (i) cooperative, connected and automated mobility and (ii) high-impact healthcare.

The study will be completed by December 2020. The study will deliver 2 pilots, one titled 'Fair and equal data sharing for cooperative, connected and automated mobility' and the other with the title 'Piloting a high-quality, diabetes-related data repository by using the latest technologies and big data breakthroughs'. It will be conducted in consultation with stakeholders such as policy-makers, business and industry representatives, SMEs and large companies, as well as academia and researchers. Selected stakeholders will take part in 8 workshops (4 for each pilot) to contribute to designing and testing the main features of 2 pilots. The study also foresees to produce a report aiming to identify potential market deficiencies and regulatory barriers, which may hinder the use of big data, notably by SMEs. The report will be completed by the end of the study in Fall 2020. A final conference will take place in December 2020 in Brussels to inform a broader stakeholders’ audience about the study findings.

Pilot on fair and equal data sharing for cooperative, connected and automated mobility

The pilot aims to prove the concept of a possible solution that can help improve fair and undistorted competition. Particularly, on equal access for all market participants (in particular SMEs) to in-vehicle data, using a shared data platform.

The first workshop of this pilot took place on 11 April 2019 and brought 37 experts around the table. The workshop covered

1. the analysis of the main features of shared server architecture where relevant vehicle data are transferred to an external server and made available to service providers

2. the proposal of the set of services to be provided by the shared server to service providers

3. the discussion around liability, ownership and competition barriers related to data sharing

During the ongoing design phase, the pilot development is focused on identifying and addressing the main issues arising from the pilot implementation of the shared server architecture, touching upon the issues of data transmission, semantic interoperability and standardisation. Furthermore, based on the group of services identified during the first workshop, the services are being coupled with pilot data and reviewed to guarantee services’ feasibility and efficiency which depends on the kind of data – streamed data vs. data at rest – they use. The issues of data privacy are also being further explored through the investigation of the platform’s user registration flows and the methods for services and service providers registration. The progress on the above elements will be presented and discussed with the workshop participants during the second workshop scheduled for Tuesday 17 September 2019.

Pilot on a high-quality, diabetes-related data repository by using the latest technologies and big data breakthroughs

The pilot aims to extract and exploit data from type2 diabetes (T2D) datasets to develop a comprehensive biomarker package that quantifies the relevant processes of the metabolic flexibility system and determines an individual’s metabolic health trajectory and predisposition to certain conditions. The extracted T2D data will be coupled with real world evidence (RWE) data from multiple sources outside the typical clinical research setting. The ultimate aim of the pilot is to test and further develop a federated database infrastructure responding to FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) able to connect data from different research sources. The added value of such an infrastructure will be shown by specific use cases.

The first workshop of the pilot took place on 23 May 2019 with the participation of 28 experts. The workshop covered

· requirements of the infrastructure for data sharing

· the opportunities and barriers for the health data market and commercial use of health data in the T2D domain

During the ongoing design phase, the process for the data selection and extraction is being elaborated together with the ontology (the definitions and rules for data interaction), and some practical examples of how the data will be used in the database.