TILT & TILEC workshop on European data spaces

With the increasing prevalence of digital devices and online interactions, people are generating more data than ever before. The technical ability to harvest it and the economic incentive to do so are growing. The privacy risks associated with its use have led to the emergence of data protection legislation, such as GDPR. Still, the economic potential of data is enormous, which leads to legislation allowing for sharing, such as the Data Act or the Data Governance Act. Currently, policy work is ongoing focused on the development of environments designed to facilitate data sharing in sector or domain specific areas, such as finance, health, and energy. Policymakers have labelled such environments European Data Spaces (EDS). 

TILT’s academic expertise at the intersection of technology and 1) competition and innovation, 2) fundamental rights and 3) governance, puts its members in a unique position to contribute to the ongoing policy discussion on the institutional design of EDS. The TILT workshop on EDS is aimed at exploring TILT’s members work and interests related to the institutional design of EDS. The workshop will provide an opportunity for TILT members to share their ongoing research, identify common themes and approaches and explore opportunities for collaboration in this area.  

The workshop is co-organized with TILEC. 

Program:

13:30-13:45 Opening remarks (Konrad Borowicz)

13:45-14:00 Policy context: the road towards European Data Spaces (Inge Graef) 

14:00-14:15 Policy context: the JRC Policy Report (Eimear Farrell) 

14:15-15:00 Sectoral data spaces: governance features 

Panel description: The JRC policy report frames the main policy issues around a common European data space in terms of data governance. It defines data governance as the exercise of decision-making and authority for data-related matters. In this panel, each contributor shall use the data governance framework to briefly answer the following questions in relation to the data space of their interest: 

• What kind of data are we talking about? 
• Who are the key actors? 
• Who has decision-making powers and authority? 
• What levels of governance exist? 
• What shapes those powers and authority? 
• What is the role of legal, regulatory, organizational and contractual arrangements? 

            14:15-14:30 Financial data space (Konrad Borowicz)

            14:30-14:45 Health data space (Maurice Schellekens)

            14:45-15:00 Energy data space (Brenda Espinosa Apraez) 

15:00-15:15 Coffee break 

15:15-16:00 Sectoral data spaces: research methodology  

Panel description: In this panel, each contributor is asked to summarize and justify their research approach or methodology to studying the data space of their interest. Contributors are asked to explain how their approach or methodology differs from the one adopted in the JRC report. The three presentations will be followed by a roundtable discussion featuring other TILT researchers working on European data spaces who will share their thoughts on research approaches and methodologies in this area. 

            15:15-15:30 Financial data space (Konrad Borowicz)

            15:30-15:45 Health data space (Maurice Schellekens)

            15:45-16:00 Energy data space (Brenda Espinosa Apraez)

            16:00-16:30 Roundtable discussion on approaches to studying data spaces 

16:30-17:00 Data as an economic good, data as a commons, and data governance

16:30-16:45 Gijs van Maanen

16:45-17:00 Bertin Martens[

16:30-16:45 Closing remarks (Konrad Borowicz)

Participants:

Konrad Borowicz, Assistant Professor, TILT and TILEC

Brenda Espinosa Apraez, Post-doctoral researcher, TILT and TILEC

Eimear Farrell, Scientific expert, Joint Research Centre, European Commission 

Inge Graef, Associate Professor, TILT And TILEC

Leona King, Legal Researcher, KU Leuven and Data Spaces Support Center 

Gijs van Maanen, Assistant Professor, TILT 

Bertin Martens, Visiting Fellow, Breugel and TILEC

Eugerta Muçi, PhD Candidate, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Marta Musidlowska, Legal Researcher, KU Leuven and Data Spaces Support Center

Maurice Schellekens, Assistant Professor, TILT 

Organizer: Konrad Borowicz