Interviews

As we celebrate the one year anniversary of the Data Portability & Services Incubator, we spoke with Sara Mateo, the project coordinator, about the past, present, and future for DAPSI. Sara Mateo, DAPSI Coordinator What is your assessment of this first year of the project? Definitely, it has been a special year for everybody. After the first months of project, mainly spent in preparatory actions, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.All countries worldwide have suffered disruptions and face challenges at health, economic and social level. There is a complicate horizon and uncertainty, mainly for small companies. Nevertheless, moments of adversity are also moments of opportunity. Thus, I believe that the lockdown was somehow a time for innovators to think about new projects and dedicate time to make them real.  This could be one of the key ingredients for the high participation in our 1st open call. Data Portability and Services awoke the interest of the researchers and innovators, exceeding our expectations in terms of call participation. We received 182 applications. A hard and intense process of selection resulted into 11 winning proposals with more than 1.3M€ of funding committed to support them. We officially started the incubation programme with our innovators in September. Let’s see the interesting results they deliver in the coming months! What are the lessons learnt and main achievements so far? One of the main insights after this first year and the first call is that Data Portability is a topic of huge interest in Europe. The large community of followers on twitter (with +1.000) prove it, as well as, of course, the results of the 1st open call. We have also learnt that remote work is possible. We have managed to adjust our DAPSI programme towards a 100% virtual format with successful results. Some sessions were designed to be physical, but the current situation made...

DPella is part of the first and very selective batch of projects that entered the DAPSI programme. We spoke with Alejandro Russo, DPella project coordinator, to learn more about them, their technology and ambition. Can you tell us about yourself and your team? The DPella team is composed of Marco, Carola, and me. Marco and I are professors in computer science with expertise in building security solutions for data privacy. I am located at the Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden – where I lead a team of four brilliant Ph.D. students -, while Marco is located at Boston University, USA. I have known Marco since my first steps as a Ph.D. student 15 years ago!, but it was in 2018 that we got the chance to start working together – a collaboration that led us to the decision of founding DPella. Our team is not all about pointy-hats academics, but also have an entrepreneur onboard: Carola, who was born in a family of Argentinian entrepreneurs. I have known Carola for my whole life. She is an architect who is passionate about developing ideas around software – a passion that I witnessed in the nine years that she has been running her own software company. I could not be happier with the team: we are diverse, have different backgrounds, and are 100% intellectually honest with each other. Where does your passion for data privacy come from? I have been always passionate about data privacy. It is something that originated during my early high school years during the 90s. Back then, I got introduced to the (pre-Internet) world of BBSes, which were a great source of knowledge about security vulnerabilities and techniques to create secure software. During those years, I found it fascinating to learn how to discover private information that no one...

The first DAPSI Open Call for data and service portability innovators was open between the 20th of February and the 22nd of April 2020. A total of 182 applications were submitted accounting for 59% of the number of applications started. OPEN CALL RESULTS: FINALIZED OR IN PROGRESS Profile of applicants Applicants were asked whether they were applying as a group of individual(s) and organization(s), as a team, as a consortium, as a natural person or as a legal entity. Out of the 182 proposals, 71% (130 applications) were submitted by single legal entities, 10% (19 applications) by a group of individuals (teams), another 10% (18 applicants) by a group of organizations (consortiums), 6% (10 proposals) by groups of individual(s) and organization(s), and finally, 3% (5 applications) by single individuals (natural persons). PROFILE OF APPLICANTS Countries The first Open Call received proposals from 33 countries. It is possible to see a predominance of French (39), German (24), Romanian (23), Spanish (18) and British (15) applications, followed by applications from Portugal, Netherlands, Greece, Finland, Belgium or Italy among others. A large number of countries were covered thanks to the communication and dissemination efforts in getting participants from all the eligible countries. COUNTRY OF APPLICANTS DAPSI challenges selected In this first Open Call, DAPSI allowed for applications within 3 established challenges. Applicants were able to select between Data Compatibility & Interoperability, Data transparency, Security & Privacy and Other. The distribution of applications received among the different challenges can be seen in the figure below, which shows Data Compatibility & Interoperability as the challenge chosen by the majority of applicants (46%), followed by Security & Privacy (28%), Data Transparency (22%) and finally Other (4%). SELECTION OF DAPSI CHALLENGES Submission evolution The graph below demonstrates the first Open Call submissions curve along time, in which approximately 46% of the submissions were made in the last submission day. And the 83.5% of the submissions were...

Assessing the most pressing challenges in the Data Portability domain As a starting activity of the Data Portability and Services Incubator a survey was conducted on research challenges in the domain of data portability. We spoked with Kathrin Knautz, from Fraunhofer IAIS, to find out more about it. As the task leader of the survey on research challenges in the data portability field, launched under DAPSI’s project, could you explain what was its purpose and why was it so important to do it as a starting activity of the project? The aim of the survey was to assure that the relevant research domains and challenges in Services and Data Portability are addressed and assessed to contribute to the development of this field. The results of the survey form the basis of the research questions to be addressed for the 1st Open Call document. What kind of participants were you looking for and how did you reach them? We were looking for researchers from various domains such as legal analysis and compatibility, cryptography or database management. Additionally, the needs of users and industries were important aspects for us, so that the defined challenges would address their expectations and use cases. To obtain diverse answers from various groups, the survey was spread by using different channels. One channel were the internal networks of the project partners; a second one utilized expert networks. We also shared the survey on scientific events (e.g. conferences) and contacted selected experts after a previous analysis of the relevant backgrounds. In addition to the first survey, we launched a second one, which contained the same questions as the first survey, but was intended for the members of the Advisory Board. Overall, 221 participants took part in this survey of which 71 answered all questions. Most respondents work in the fields of research, development and entrepreneurship. Only a few respondents work in other areas e.g. in...

Building the future for data portability Launched in November 2019, the Data Portability and Services Incubator (DAPSI) will empower internet innovators to develop new solutions and services addressing the challenges of Data Portability as underseen in the GDPR. We spoked with the project’s coordinator Sara Mateo to find out more about the programme. As coordinator of the Data Portability and Services Incubator, launched under the European Commission’s Next Generation Initiative, what is your perspective on the Data Portability regulation and its practicality? With the GDPR, Data protection is recognised as a fundamental right. Data Portability is part of this citizens’ right. It will give users more control over their personal data, to reuse it and transfer it from one service provider to another easily. However, although the purpose is clear and might sound easy, is far less in practice and there is still much work to do to really implement it. Research is needed to set the principles to allow the development of Data Portability solutions. How is DAPSI approaching the process of fostering innovation on the Data Portability field? DAPSI is a programme designed to support internet innovators contributing to the Data Portability field. We will support them with up to 150k€ equity-free funding, training in business and data related topics, coaching, mentoring, visibility and community building support. It will give them the financial support, skills and guidance needed to deliver a viable and operational solution in 9 months. With this opportunity, around 50 brilliant researchers and developers will have the resources to make Data Portability happen. Who are you looking to involve in the programme? We target internet technologists, researchers and innovators willing to make a better internet, delivering new services with potential to improve the internet infrastructure or those with the purpose to reach the market in the short run with their solutions. They can participate as natural person or legal entity, individually or...