Commission and industry aim to master Big Data with new PPP

The European Commission and Europe’s data industry have announced that they will invest €2.5bn in a public private partnership that aims to strengthen the data sector and put Europe at the forefront of the global data race.

European Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes and Jan Sundelin, president of the new Big Data Value Association, which represents the companies involved in the venture, will sign a memorandum of understanding later today.

Speaking ahead of the signing about the importance of tackling the challenges of Big Data, Kroes commented: “Data is the motor and foundation of the future economy. Every kind of organisation needs the building blocks to boost their performance, from farm to factory, from the lab to the shop floor.”

Firms involved in the PPP include ATOS, Nokia Solutions and Networks, Orange, SAP, SIEMENS and research bodies such as Fraunhofer and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence. The Commission has pledged over €500m of investment over the next five years from Horizon 2020, while the private sector is expected to contribute over €2bn.

The PPP will help focus public, private and academic research efforts to support research and innovation in game-changing Big Data ideas, in fields such as energy, manufacturing and health, to deliver services like personalised medicine, food logistics and predictive analytics. By implementing its Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda and concentrating Horizon 2020 support on common priorities, it’s hoped that the PPP will strengthen Europe’s Big Data community and help lay the foundations for the thriving data-driven economy of the future.

The venture will also support ‘innovation spaces’, which will offer secure environments for experimenting with both private and open data, and will also act as business incubators and hubs for the development of skills and best practices. The public private partnership will begin work on 1 January 2015.