Data Sharing Festival 2026
- 18 and 19 March
- Postillion Hotel & Convention Centre WTC Rotterdam
Sovereignty is the key concept. But how do we translate ideas into adoption and scale, from both Dutch and European perspectives?
On 18 and 19 March, 300 professionals in data sharing, cloud, Digital Product Passports (DPP), and Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) from the Netherlands and abroad came together in Rotterdam for the fourth edition of the Data Sharing Festival. Two days full of sharp insights, open conversations, collaboration, and concrete examples within the theme of sovereignty.
The conclusion was clear and echoed throughout the event: we need to act now to ensure that data can be shared safely, responsibly and effectively across sectors and organisations. And the only way to achieve this is by working together.
Watch the aftermovie, download the available keynote presentations and above all: hope to see you next year!
Available keynote presentations
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Barbara Kathmann is a driving force behind the Parliamentary Committee on Digital Affairs in the Dutch House of Representatives and played a key role in putting digitalisation firmly on the political agenda. Thanks in part to her efforts, the new cabinet has for the first time appointed a State Secretary for Digital Economy and Sovereignty at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK). As a digital expert, Barbara Kathmann is a strong advocate for autonomy and sovereignty.
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This plenary session focuses on the development of the basic data infrastructure. It will reflect on the progress made since the last Data Sharing Festival, during which significant advancements have been achieved in adoption across multiple sectors. Steven Schouten will present three key milestones reached during this period and explain their impact on strengthening the ecosystem.
The session will also look ahead to the coming year, with a strong focus on scaling and measurable success across multiple industries. By accelerating implementation and expanding real-world use cases, the initiative aims to further embed the infrastructure and drive broad, cross-sector impact.
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How is the Data Union Strategy contributing to accelerate the adoption and scaling of data spaces in Europe? A powerful look at how Europe is laying the foundations for a future in which data sharing becomes safer, smarter and more scalable. And why this matters now more than ever.
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Simpl is an initiative of the European Commission providing multiple open-source components, free to use, that adhere to EU standards and best practices for data quality and data sharing. It offers a modular, open, and reusable foundation that integrates existing solutions rather than replacing them, completing them with additional development where needed. During the DSF, you will get a quick introduction to Simpl in the plenary sessions. Also, there will be an opportunity to participate in a Simpl workshop: how can you as data sharing initiative or service provider benefit from Simpl? And how can you contribute?
https://simpl-programme.ec.europa.eu/
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The Data Spaces Support Centre (DSSC) is tasked with developing a blueprint for common European data spaces. In this session we present the latest insights from this initiative. How can you apply core concepts and best practices to your own data‑space initiative? How do you progress to the next maturity level and scale? And what role do rulebooks play?
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Smart Connected Supplier Network (SCSN) is a data standard that makes information exchange within the supply chain more efficient, enabling companies to share data more easily, quickly and reliably. John Blankendaal is the Managing Director of Brainport Industries and is responsible for SCSN. He outlines where SCSN currently stands and explains how work is being done on scaling up and expanding the network, both nationally and internationally.
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How Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) enable scalable and secure ecosystems.
Light is shed on what it takes to move from subsidy‑dependence to long‑term resilience. Three real‑world Dutch cases show that hybrid public‑private models are not just an option but a strategic necessity.
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Kick‑off of our new one‑year Data Sharing Valorisation Programme (Data SVP!), designed to unlock real value from data sharing for initiatives ready to take the next step. A combination of tailored mentoring, practical tools, and guidance on essential cross‑cutting themes such as trust and interoperability, helping initiatives overcome barriers and achieve sustainable impact. Starting today, with an Impact Challenge in the afternoon programme.
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Product value chains are heavily globalised, upstream and post-use, often forming cross-sectoral webs rather than discrete chains. So, sharing of product data along value-chains has some complexities.
This presentation will discuss UNECE’s approach to building interoperability for product data and traceability across jurisdictional and sectoral boundaries, in the absence of an organising driving force.
It will provide perspectives on the challenges, lessons learnt across sectors and future orientations, particularly in the co-creation and deployment of the UN Transparency Protocol. It aims to pull the audience into consideration of the difficulties and the transference of existing approaches to global contexts, touching on governance, stakeholder engagement and resourcing.
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Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), from federated learning and differential privacy to synthetic data and multiparty computation, are increasingly central to enabling trusted data sharing across borders, sectors, and organisations. Yet while innovation in PETs has accelerated significantly over the past decade, real-world adoption has not kept pace. Drawing on most recent empirical OECD work, this presentation highlight most recent trends in the PET innovation landscape and explores the extent to which possible market failures and structural barriers are holding back deployment, particularly among SMEs and public-sector organisations, as well as possible policy levers that can help close the gap between technological potential and actual adoption. Finally, the presentation will introduce the forthcoming OECD Global Repository of PET Use Cases, designed to provide decision-makers with concrete evidence of how PETs are being deployed across sectors and jurisdictions.
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Join an energetic guided tour of the MAMI framework: a lightweight decision‑making model that helps architects and data‑space leads converge quickly on practical, adoption‑ready choices.
In this session, we walk through MAMI’s four layers (scheme, participation, data and services), showing how one smart, minimal choice can unlock direct interoperability across data spaces. A compact, inspiring walkthrough for anyone ready to move from theory to real‑world implementation.
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CEN/CENELEC, in collaboration with ISO and ETSI, is developing formal standards for the implementation of Dataspaces and for supporting cloud interoperability. In this session, Terry Guijt (NEN) and Matthijs Punter (CoE-DSC/TNO/Dutch mirror committee) will provide an overview of these standardization developments, their relationship to the EU Data Act, and the ways in which Dutch organizations can participate through the national mirror committee for Dataspaces, Datamanagement, Cloud, and Edge.
If interested in these activities, please also come tot the workshop ‘Advancing CEN/CENELEC Standardization — How and Where the Dutch Ecosystem Can Contribute’ in the afternoon.
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Hyperion is a dataspace initiated by KLM Engineering & Maintenance and the Royal Netherlands Air Force. It enables data‑driven aircraft maintenance and acts as a driver for predictive maintenance: proactive rather than reactive servicing. As such, it is a strong example of how a dataspace can be used to provide the essential fuel for advanced AI applications.
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