Reinach, Switzerland, 22.03.2022 – Open Industry 4.0 Alliance welcomes the EU Data Act. As a community of implementation pragmatists, it will effectively support its members following the rapid introduction of this new EU regulation. The Alliance sees itself as a personal trainer for the industry's data fitness, driving the exchange of innovations and best practice in the field of data economy within the newly established working group ‘Data Spaces’.

The European Union says that around 80 percent of industry data isn’t being used. The recent EU Data Act, presented to the public on February 23rd, aims to legally regulate the flow of data and its use among connected devices and digital service providers in Europe. It intends to create a legally secure framework for consumers, as well as for companies and public authorities, to use data spread via the internet. This legal framework aims to promote the exchange of data, especially between companies, and open up more business opportunities in the field of digitalization. “We as the Alliance are strong advocates of a regulated data exchange and therefore support the EU Data Act. However, we hope that by the time the draft is finalized in 2023, it will not result in an overly complicated law, which would make implementation unnecessarily difficult,” says Nils Herzberg, spokesperson for the board of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance. “In any case, our Alliance members will find it easier to put the law's requirements into practice. This is because, as an alliance of pragmatists, we will employ best practices across our working groups for the compliant use of machine data and help save members implementation costs. Our members can increase the pace in the market and gain impetus for new business models from the Alliance community.”

REMOTE MAINTENANCE ON SOLID FOOTING, NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN SENSOR CALIBRATION

“We increase our members’ fitness in terms of the EU Data Act. We are, so to speak, the personal trainers for data fitness and help our members by providing our shared knowledge and best practices”, says Ekrem Yigitdoel, Managing Director of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance. “The law is also designed to protect smaller participants in a supply chain – this also fits very well with the structure of our Alliance, where both large, international corporations and smaller specialists work together as equals. We are also developing easier pricing models for data use and exploitation. Remote maintenance, for example, can be placed on legally sound footing. But there are also new possibilities in the remote commissioning of machines and the calibration of sensors and signal transmitters.”

‘DATA SPACES’ WORKING GROUP AS A BASIS FOR THE ALLIANCE DATA FITNESS PROGRAM

The newly formed Alliance working group ‘Data Spaces’ had its first kick-off meeting in March. It brought together representatives of the European Commission, end users and members of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance to exchange views on the potential of the data economy and its expertise. The next ‘Data Spaces’ meeting will take place in April. The goal is to work with established industry and technical working groups to create the implementation requirements for data spaces and then advance innovation and best practices within the manufacturing data economy.

ACCOMPANYING VISUALS AND PDFS

Portrait photos of Ekrem Yigitdoel and Nils Herzberg with abbreviated quotes.
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