Written by: Dr Nic Fair & Dr Stefano Modafferi, University of Southampton

The DS2 project brings together experts in complex, multi-domain, multi-data spaces for inter-organisational data sharing and aggregation, with the aim to provide a modular software platform that connects data sources, enabling the implementation of efficient and complex data lifecycles.
Before this can happen though, it was vital that we spoke with a wide variety stakeholders and asked them for their opinions and current behaviours relating to inter-organisational data sharing. In this way we would be able to gain an improved insight into:
The business sectors most engaged in data sharing
Existing attitudes to data sharing
Clarity (or lack) of understanding about what data sharing really means and how regulations impact it
Understanding of Data Sharing Agreements and the value of data
What is currently going on in the data sharing domain, in terms of:
Infrastructure
Processes
Training
Awareness and knowledge
Data types
Data formats
Risk assessment and data security
Data sovereignty
The perceived challenges impacting data sharing
To discover this information, we developed an online survey and sent it to 141 European Digital Innovation Hubs for onward dissemination and leveraged DS2 Consortium partners’ business contacts. As a result, we received over 80 responses, which after screening meant 63 completions.
Preliminary Findings
Attitudes were overwhelmingly positive to sharing data both with partners in the same industry sector and beyond.

However, altruistic data sharing wasn’t popular, with a majority of stakeholders being uncomfortable with the idea of data sharing outside of existing partner networks for the benefit of the industry sector as a whole.
Overall, knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of Data Sharing Agreements and the details of the broader legislative environment was poor, and many stakeholders were not sure about the effectiveness of that legislation in any case. Perhaps most importantly, the vast majority of stakeholders also didn’t have a clear understanding of the value of the data they were providing or consuming.
Many organisations are currently sharing data either as a provider or as both a consumer and a provider, and there is data sharing infrastructure in place in most organisations. Production and customer data are the most shared, most often in JSON, Excel and PDF formats.
However, much of the supporting systems are not really adequately in place - training for senior staff is poor; there is low awareness of data governance / ownership matters and data sharing licenses are unknown; risk assessments before sharing data are inconsistently conducted; access controls are the only widely-deployed protection and restriction measure; and there is a lack of clarity concerning what exactly Data Sovereignty is and how it impacts the organisation.
Trust is critical when data sharing. Establishing trusted relationships through clear governance and ownership structures is essential to avoid data misuse. Processes and infrastructure for data sharing should encourage and support the open collection, processing and use of timely, consistent and high-quality data. Cost and complexity also matters. Minimising the cost and complexity of setting up data sharing processes and data sharing agreements is critical. Finally, the confusion over Data Sovereignty needs to be addressed as it often puts stakeholders off from engaging with data sharing.
In the future, these findings will be further analysed, follow-up in-depth interviews with stakeholders will be conducted, and the results used to further inform the development of the DS2 modular software. Final findings will be reported to the EC in the M18 review documents, and the full outcomes formally written up and published in detail as a journal paper.
Its not too late to have your say!
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Closes 17th Feb 2025
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