The European Innovation Act must recognise the role of data as the most valuable raw material of innovation
Today’s most disruptive innovations emerge from combining vast amounts of data from various sources. It is safe to say that data is the most valuable raw material of innovation. The upcoming European Innovation Act must prioritise creating optimal conditions for finding and using data for innovation purposes. This will require building data capacities and ownership for European researchers and companies, including by continuing to develop the supercomputing and AI resources needed for data processing. Perhaps most importantly, increased attention must be paid to equipping European innovators with the skills that data-driven innovation requires.
The Innovation Act must be aligned with ongoing and upcoming efforts to tap into Europe’s underused data resources. European innovators must benefit from the European data spaces and repositories, consisting of the existing sectoral data spaces (including the European Open Science Cloud), the upcoming EuroHPC AI Factory Data Labs as well as tools and policies for effective and secure storing and sharing of data, including reliable network connectivity between the various data infrastructures. The governance of a federated European data infrastructure must be designed so that it fosters European ownership of data and supports responsible use of sensitive data whose role in e.g. health research and innovation can be game-changing.
A key element of European data infrastructure is a European web index, a giant library catalogue that keeps track of all open web content and makes this data available for European users, including for RDI purposes. Currently only non-European tech giants have such indices which gives them practically full control over e.g. search engine markets. Having Europe develop its own web index would make European innovators more competitive and less reliant on non-European actors. The European Innovation Act must promote the development of a European web index, based on the work done in the Open Web Search project.
One of the problems for the European Innovation Act aims to tackle is limited access to research and technology infrastructures. Here, we must ensure that existing and upcoming resources are used in an optimal way. A prime example are the EuroHPC resources, especially the AI Factories that are designed to provide European researchers and companies with a one-stop-shop for the computing, data, talent, training and support they need in their work. The European Innovation Act must be integrally linked to EuroHPC to ensure that European innovators are equipped with state-of-the-art tools needed to keep up with global competition.
World-class research and technology infrastructures may also be a part of the solution to another problem identified in the Call for Evidence, i.e. the need to do more to attract and retain talent. The most talented people usually want to use the most advanced tools, so state-of-the-art infrastructures play a key role in talent attraction. Such infrastructures also contribute to further talent development as people learn by doing and from each other when making use of them. They also provide a platform for interdisciplinarity and cross-sector collaboration, thereby fuelling fruitful exchanges of ideas and competences. Another way to address the talent deficit is to link the European Innovation Act to EU skills policies, such as the EU skills academies and joint study programmes in the areas of AI and data, foreseen in the Union of Skills communication. At the same time, it is crucial to understand that new technologies crosscut and transform all fields of society and must therefore be taken into account in all fields and levels of education, not only the technical field itself.
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Irina Kupiainen
Irina Kupiainen is responsible for CSC’s Public Affairs.