TEHDAS establishes European guidelines for data partnerships
Partnerships are a way for European organisations to collaborate in the field of data. TEHDAS has made recommendations for setting up cross-border collaboration between organisations wishing to share and use data for everyone’s benefit.
The recent report of the joint action Towards the European Health Data Space (TEHDAS) proposes guidelines for establishing cross-border partnerships for sharing health data for secondary purposes, such as research and policymaking. These partnerships will likely increase as the EU aims to accelerate the secondary use of health data with the forthcoming European health data space.
The report identifies six main steps for establishing bilateral or multilateral partnerships, ranging from initiating and framing a partnership to specifying resources and funding, legal work, and finally defining information activities to promote the results of the partnership.
EU countries face similar challenges from health threats and chronic diseases that could be more efficiently solved by using the full capacity of the European research community. Cross-border partnerships are a step towards deepening co-operation in European data sharing.
As an example of these types of partnerships, is the Memorandum of Understanding between the Finnish Findata and French Health Data Hub.
Large-scale European collaborations in data sharing ensure there is an adequate amount of good quality data for research, to decrease the risk of bias in data, create new potential for linking health and data from other fields, and to support the deployment of artificial intelligence for more timely and real time assessments.
Fostering co-operation in research and innovation contributes to increasing Europe’s competitive advantage and international resilience and impact.
The document also touches upon the main obstacles in establishing a cross-border partnership, such as differing interpretations of law in member states, insufficient funding, and data security. TEHDAS has previously suggested options to overcome common barriers to data sharing.
The list of authors in the report was updated on 5 April.
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