Digitalization as a systemic change and a driver of RDI policy – CSC gave a statement to the Transport and Communications Committee of the Parliament of Finland about Finland’s digital compass
Overall, CSC supports the objectives set by the digital compass and thinks that they are heading in the right direction. When implementing the Compass, further attention must be paid to digitalization as a systemic change, ecosystem thinking, interoperability, and the connection between the digital compass, and RDI policy and financing.
Digitalization is a systemic and cross-cutting change in society, that requires new understanding and thinking as well as new systems, processes, structures and human-centricity. This also requires development of competences in all fields and levels of education. The cornerstone of digitalization and data utilisation is interoperability which must be promoted at all levels of the European interoperability framework (technical, semantic, organizational, legislative). In addition, data must be easily findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable, in accordance to the FAIR principles.
Increasing data intensity requires more efficient tools for processing, analysing and managing data, paired with horizontal ecosystems to support e.g. the development of RDI capacities, business, international partnerships and new innovations of data economy. This entails, among others, making the objective related to quantum computing more ambitious while also paying attention to the opportunities that emerge from combining quantum and supercomputing. When it comes to the LUMI supercomputer that is already mentioned in the objectives of the Compass, attention must also be paid to the opportunities LUMI provides for industry as well as to ensuring political commitment and national funding for replacing the current LUMI system with a new one when it reaches the end of its lifecycle before 2030.
Digital compass has also a clear connection to RDI policy and financing since RDI requires capacity to manage, process and combine large masses of data. From the point of view of digitalization and data economy, it is important to bring RDI financing to a sustainable level, remove bottlenecks of RDI projects, and recognize the strategic, horizontal and long-term nature of RDI. One of the biggest bottlenecks for Finland to increase its share of EU’s RDI financing is the lack of matching and preparation funding, which should be recognized in the implementation of the digital compass.
As a whole, the digital compass is an important opening. It must not be forgotten but be developed into a tangible and strategic tool that spans across electoral mandates to guide the development of digitalization and data economy as well as to create growth. The plan must be transformed into concrete objectives which will be advanced in broad stakeholder cooperation and whose impact will be measured and made visible.
Read the full statement (pdf) (in Finnish).