Good Administration and Governance Observatory in the data-driven Digital Society

ongoing

The availability of data is at the basis of the economy, as well as of culture, research and education, personal relationships, and any human experience in general. Especially in recent years, the importance of global data exchange in addressing the health crisis, or international security challenges, has become evident. The European Union strategic documents (e.g. “2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade” of 2021), as well as the EU legislation (e.g. GDPR and the Regulation 2018/1807 on free flow of non-personal data; the Artificial Intelligence Act; the Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information, also known as the ‘Open Data Directive’ (Directive (EU) 2019/1024)) and the objectives to build European Data Spaces point out that the development of the data economy and emerging technologies implies relevant juridical and ethical questions such as the freedom of circulation of data; protection of the individual rights; the scientific relevance of data and phenomena such as the open data and open access; the economic value of information; the access to the information of the public administration; the digital sovereignty of the Europe; the cybersecurity; the relationships with third countries. In this context, the statistical analysis shows a lack of skills and competences on the legal and ethical issues on use of data. Therefore, the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) aims to set-up (with the prestigious support of the Jean Monnet Action) a Centre of Excellence (Good Governance) bringing together jurists and other scientists dealing with the juridical and ethical implications, in the good governance and use of data, focused particularly, but not only, in the sectors of Public Administration and health (both in medical assistance and biomedical research), but also in the issues related to circulation and transfer of data to third countries.