Information technology has driven, directly or indirectly, much of Europe’s economic growth during the last decades as the role of data transitioned from the support of business decisions to becoming a good in itself. An open approach towards data value creation has become critical in the new networked economy, with Europe well placed to nurture this new revolution. However, to date Europe’s data economy has yet to achieve the same levels of growth as those in the US and Asia. Data Pitch will seek to address this critical gap by creating a transnational, Europe-wide data innovation ecosystem that will bring together data owners and Big Data technology providers, with startups and SMEs with fresh ideas for data-driven products and services. Our project will: - explore the critical factors that impact the way organisations create value from sharing data; - organise a competition addressing economic, societal, and environmental challenges, present and future, to identify promising digital innovators and data-empowered solutions; - create a cross-sectoral, secure data experimentation facility which will offer the winners of this competition a purposeful environment to nurture their ideas; and - support them by solving common concerns through funding, technical, legal, marketing, and commercial assistance. Drawing on the experience from key players in the consortium, we will establish a European Data Innovation Lab (DIL), guided and promoted by the hugely visible engagement channels and commentators at the Guardian and an international network of hundreds of organisations that have already confirmed their intention to join forces with and support Data Pitch. Together with them we will make the European data economy stronger and help the region re-gain leadership in innovation through digital transformation.

The H2020 work programme aims at increasing citizens’ participation in the digital society and making infrastructures “smart”. These processes are increasingly data-driven. Our central motivation is that sharing, connecting, managing, analysing and understanding data on the Web will enable better services for citizens, communities and industry. However, turning web data into successful services for the public and private sector requires skilled web and data scientists, and it still requires further research. WDAqua aims at advancing the state of the art by intertwining training, research and innovation efforts, centered around one service: data-driven question answering. Question answering is immediately useful to a wide audience of end users, and we will demonstrate this in settings including e-commerce, public sector information, publishing and smart cities. Question answering also covers web science and data science broadly, leading to transferrable research results and to transferrable skills of the researchers who have finished our training programme. To ensure that our research improves question answering overall, we require every individual research project to connect at least two steps of the question answering process.Intersectoral secondments (within a consortium covering academia, research institutes and industrial research) as well as network-wide workshops, R&D challenges and innovation projects further balance groundbreaking research and the needs of society and industry. Training-wise these offers equip ESRs with the expertise and transferable technical and non-technical skills that will allow them to pursue a successful career as an academic, decision maker, practitioner or entrepreneur. Our research programme capitalizes on previous research excellence of the beneficiaries; the training programme builds on the excellent local programs of the academic beneficiaries, as well as on a significant commitment from non-academic partners to management.

The Open Data INcubator for Europe (ODINE) project will set up an environment to support and advice SMEs and start-ups in creating commercial added value from open data. Drawing on the experience from key players in the consortium including Wayra (an incubator/accelerator), Fraunhofer IAIS and the ODI (both data facilitators and incubators), Telefonica (providing computing infrastructure and strong links to data protection and privacy stakeholders), and the University of Southampton (renowned for its open data research and home of Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt), we plan to establish a EU-wide, industry-focused network of open data companies around Europe, promoted and guided by the trusted authorities and commentators at the Guardian and OKFN. To achieve this we shall take an approach that follows ‘best in class’ practice for incubators and which makes it as a simple and smooth as possible for SMEs to apply for help. We will offer: (i) a transparent, fair, and efficient proposal process for SMEs and start-ups, based around Wayra, IAIS and ODI’s existing and successful processes; (ii) a network of European open data SMEs and start-ups; (iii) initial investment in these companies through an open call; (iv) incubation and mentoring by ODI, Fraunhofer and Wayra academies, with the possibility of acceleration via Wayra, Telefonica Ventures, and Fraunhofer Venture; (v) access to data services and computing infrastructure from IAIS, ODI, OKFN and Telefonica; (vi) expert support from serial entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, and coaching from business schools; as well as (vii) high visibility through promotion of success stories by the Guardian, ODI and the OKFN. A successful open data incubator will significantly help Europe to regain leadership in technical innovation, balanced with the ethical treatment of data for which the public are crying out, and to create skilled jobs that help Europe become more productive and competitive in the 21st Century.