Towards trusted data sharing: guidance and case studies
Data sharing checklist
1. Define the opportunity
- Has a clear opportunity been defined? How will sharing data create value?
- Does the opportunity create an ecosystem of data sharing with a broad range of participants, or does it enable data sharing between a smaller, more tightly defined range of partners?
- Is the opportunity specific to a particular use, or does it enable a broad range of potential uses?
- Will sharing data allow one or more organisations to improve existing products and processes – for example, by adding a service dimension to products or improving the efficiency of processes – or to create completely new products and processes?
- Will data be monetised and traded, shared in a controlled way for mutual benefit, or made open for all to access?
- Are benefits tangible – for example, the development of a monetisable service – or intangible – for example, better informed decision-making?
- Have security risks been considered?
- Is the opportunity legal? Is it ethical? [5]
Learning from the case studies:
Connecting different data sources and breaking down data silos results in use cases and solutions that are very different and potentially more powerful than those achievable from individual silos. In the CityVerve Manchester project, connecting data across health, transport and energy domains has enabled cross-domain analytics to tackle challenges through actions such as encouraging healthier behaviours or local area energy management. Similarly, the MK:Smart project has allowed analytics across energy, water and transport themes.
The opportunity may involve putting in place measures needed to create a whole ecosystem of data sharing: for example, oneTRANSPORT enables data sharing among an unlimited number of local authorities and third parties.
Alternatively, it may involve an individual organisation accessing data held by another in a controlled way, such as the Grampian Data Safe Haven, which enables authorised researchers to access unconsented health data.
The opportunity may create the technological, commercial and governance solution for a specific application, such as the Advanced Product Concept Analysis Environment (APROCONE) project, which allows data sharing across partners in an aerospace supply chain for the specific purpose of integrated product design. Alternatively, a more general solution that enables controlled data sharing by any combination of organisations, and for any application, may be created, such as Industrial Data Space, for which use cases in logistics, manufacturing and health have been developed.
While most of the case studies presented here illustrate business-to-business data sharing, Databox, Smart Meter data sharing and certain services provided by The Weather Company illustrate instances of business-to-consumer data sharing and how value is shared between businesses and consumers.