How U.S. Companies Are Leveraging Big Data for Wealth

Currently, the European Union holds a vast but underutilised pool of data, expertise and startups. Without full utilisation, there's a risk that this wealth of resources could end up benefiting other global entities better positioned to capitalise on it and hamper our strategic autonomy and economic security.  Europe has an immediate need to give top priority to the building of technological foundations that support knowledge and innovation by arming people, companies, and Member States with the required skills, infrastructure, and investments, so enabling widespread prosperity and industrial leadership from fully tapping the potential of our research and development strengths and maximizing the opportunities offered by the Single Market.

It's imperative to implement European strategies characterized by a definitive vision and centralised coordination

which are able to draw in substantial private investments. Without the presence of significant European technology corporations, Europe will continue to be susceptible to cybersecurity threats, misinformation campaigns, and potential military confrontations. A competitive environment for frontier research and new business models that favor investment in new technologies is essential for maximizing public interest sharing and limiting the concentration of private value from data. This fifth freedom should encompass several fields, among which research, innovation, data, competences, knowledge and education. The integration of the fifth freedom into the Single Market framework reinforces its role as a cornerstone of European integration. It would transform existing dispersed knowledge, fragmentations and disparities into unified opportunities for growth, innovation, and inclusivity. Among its first flagship activities, the next European Commission should develop, in consultation with all EU institutions and Member State, a thorough and ambitious action plan to flesh out and implement the fifth freedom. Operationalizing the fifth freedom requires a multifarious approach encompassing policy initiatives, infrastructure enhancements, collaborative frameworks, and an unwavering commitment to foster innovation, open science and digital literacy. This report sets out both inspiration and concrete proposals to be explored.

The route forward for the fifth freedom

The collective intelligence of the twenty-first century, which combines the knowledge and skills of people, new forms of data, harnessing the power of technology, has the untapped potential to transform the way we understand and act regarding the future. To achieve this goal, it's vital to stimulate innovation and foster the development of leading industrial ecosystems capable of producing entities of global importance within Europe. Establishing a strong European technological infrastructure poses a strategic challenge, necessitating a shift in governance. This involves granting enhanced authority to a collective industrial policy at the European scale, moving beyond national confines.  A central pillar of this strategy is the creation of a European Knowledge Commons – a centralised, digital platform providing access to publicly funded research, data sets, and educational resources. This empowers citizens, researchers, and businesses alike, allowing them to tap into a wealth of knowledge for innovation and societal progress. To remove barriers to knowledge sharing, the EU must harmonise cross-border data flow mechanisms, particularly interoperability and data protection regulations, and invest in robust digital infrastructure. This facilitates the secure and efficient transfer of non-personal data vital to research and innovation within the EU, supporting the development of European data spaces in key sectors - the chapter on health will focus on the European Health Data Space (EHDS) - to promote data sharing and use for the benefit of the economy and society, and strengthen cybersecurity through regulations, standards, and practices that protect critical infrastructures and citizens' data. 

A single market will help the EU to realize its full research capability and creative thinking

The EU has to aggressively support public-private partnerships in strategic areas targeted on knowledge exchange and innovation adoption with targeted support for SMEs and startups. A comprehensive Open Science framework is needed, incentivizing researchers to make their work openly accessible while fostering data sharing and collaboration. The ethical dimensions of AI and big data use must be central to this framework ensuring responsible technological advancement. Retaining talents is essential for Europe's economic resilience, innovation capacity, strategic independence, and society welfare and should be one of the most important issues. The expansion of established programs like Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions is necessary to increase the mobility of researchers and innovators. This enriches Europe's research landscape, promotes knowledge exchange, and is key to achieving a truly integrated European Research Area. Furthermore, we have to harmonize and consistently apply legislation among Member States, streamline bureaucracy, increase the use of regulatory sandboxes, and guarantee non-discriminatory Internet access. These actions will help to establish a climate in which knowledge flows more freely.