The availability and effective use of high-quality data represent a central pillar of Europe’s strategy to strengthen its AI ecosystem, as reflected in the AI Continent Action Plan and the European Data Union Strategy. In this context, Data Labs are explicitly recognised as key building blocks for enabling the safe, trustworthy, and value-creating use of data for AI, by linking data holders, common European data spaces, domain-specific data ecosystems, and the EU AI ecosystem.
BDVA, through its role as a member of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, and its active engagement across Data Spaces, AI and data technologies, governance, trust, and sectoral applications, operates at the intersection of AI Factories, data ecosystems, and AI technologies. This positioning makes BDVA uniquely suited to coordinate and guide Data Labs-related activities in a coherent and cross-cutting manner.
Considering the above, BDVA has decided to launch an overarching, cross-cutting initiative, providing structure, visibility, and strategic coherence across its existing activities and Task Forces. The purpose of this initiative is to provide a clear, visible, and coordinated framework within BDVA for all activities related to Data Labs, while fully leveraging existing initiatives, and Task Forces such as:
The initiative aims to:
- ensure coherence and alignment across Data Labs initiatives and domains
- provide a focal point for engagement with key stakeholders and policymakers
- support evidence-based guidance for future phases and investments
- strengthen BDVA’s strategic contribution to European data and AI policies
The BDVA Data Labs initiative will deliver concrete outcomes, including ecosystem and services mapping, gap analysis and strategic recommendations, reference frameworks, guidance documents, and policy inputs.
It is open to all BDVA members working or interested in Data Labs and related activities, with targeted invitations to external experts who can enrich the discussions.
BDVA Data Labs Initiative kick-off meeting
On March 6th (10:00 – 11:30 CET), BDVA is organising the first meeting of its recently launched initiative on Data Labs, recognised as key building blocks for Europe’s strategy to strengthen its AI ecosystem, enabling safe, trustworthy and value-creating use of data for AI.
This initiative’s main objective is to establish a unifying framework that coordinates activities and discussions across BDVA to support and accelerate the development and impact of current and future Data Labs. It will bring together key stakeholders from BDVA community and engage experts to ensure rich discussions and actionable outcomes. The work will build on recently published BDVA materials (AI Factories and the data challenge, AI-ready Data Products, Towards a European AI-data value ecosystem, Data at the core of Europe’s Digital Strategy) to clarify the landscape, map and align existing initiatives, define an evidence-based monitoring process to identify actors and projects that can contribute to establishing Data Labs and provide strategic guidance for future phases.
The initiative and this first meeting is open to all BDVA members, with particular focus in those who are: (i) delivering first stage Data Labs (as part of AI Factories) and data spaces, (ii) providing services aligned with what is described in the European Data Union Strategy and (iii) interested in shaping the evolution of Data Labs towards the next financial EU programmes.
Contact innovation@bdva.eu for more details!