In the last 12 months Open Data achieved more and more attention and European countries were racing to the top in terms of Open Data maturity. Numerous Open Data portals are being developed across Europe and are increasingly backed up by national policies from governments prioritising Open Data in their political agenda. This stronger focus also opened a broader research perspective. Open Data is not only about making public data available and accessible. The recent annual Open Data Day stressed the wider development and the promising potentials of Open Data for the EU, its citizens and cities

Migration has occurred for centuries and impacted the world as we know it today. In the past years, migrants have been heading to Europe due to for example political instability in their home country. By looking at five European countries with migration and immigration data, more insights in these demographic trends can be given. Every year, the Dutch government releases a report on the Migration Chain, that reflects on several aspects of migration to and immigrants in the Netherlands. Subjects that are touched upon include the reason for immigration (work, study, or family reunion), the

Using sustainable and green energy sources can contribute to the preservation of the planet. Until now, European consumers and industries are still dependent on fossil fuels, such as oil, gas and coal. Renewable energy is a sustainable alternative for using fossil fuels and can be generated from the sun, wind, water, earth warmth and biomass. Several European countries that work with these sustainable energy sources and collect data on the process will be touched upon in this article. In Belgium, an approach has been chosen to focus on the climate policy on a city council level, which seeks to

Open Data Portals are a critical part of our data infrastructure: they connect data holders with data users, who in turn create services that citizens and businesses benefit from and rely on. The EDP report measuring the Open Data maturity of portals across Europe 2017 shows the overall maturity of portals is increasing as they develop more advanced features. Yet most do not have coherent strategies for sustainability that address each of the five aspects of how a portal functions: the governance, financing, architecture and operations that make a portal sustainable, as well as the metrics

With Open Data on nearly all subjects, it serves as a source of information for many applications, purposes or services. These examples of Open Data re-use further emphasise, enhance the versatility and show the opportunities offered by Open Data. However despite the widespread use and diversity of Open Data applications, it can sometimes be difficult to present an interesting example of a product or service which uses Open Data. As tangible examples are the best way to spread awareness of the Open Data benefits, the European Data Portal collects and showcases a broad range of Open Data use

Rising demand for new services Every year millions of people flock to holiday areas to relax at the beach, explore nature or go sightseeing. The tourism industry has been experiencing a sustained boom for years and is continuously generating increased revenues in the holiday regions. Since digitisation does not stop at tourism, innovative solutions come into focus here as well. Data-driven services like apps and online communities are increasingly in demand and are frequently used for travel planning. However, a prerequisite for these services is the availability of data. Benefits of Open Data

Insights into a high-prioritised area Not all Open Data has the same potential for re-use. The European Data Portal provides thirteen data categories of which one is agriculture. The ever-increasing climate change has an enormous impact on flora and fauna. This results in constantly increasing heat waves during heavy rainfall at the same time. These extreme weather conditions are very difficult for the agricultural industry to handle. To pay more attention to this topic, datasets and use cases from the agricultural sector from the European Data Portal exemplify the value of re-using Open Data

Increased access to open data There is more open data available now than ever before. With the launch of the European Data Portal in 2015 and national open data portals (i.e. data.gov.ie and data.gov.be), thousands of datasets have become publicly accessible. The core aim of these open data initiatives is that anyone can access, use, and share the data. From citizens to data-driven journalists, entrepreneurs, researchers and businesses; anyone can access and re-use open data for any reason. From data to insights Access to open data enables multiple parties to analyse the same datasets and

Transport data Open transport data is one of the European Data Portal's (EDP) most frequently re-used data domains and is one of the five thematic data domains that the European Commission (EC) has identified as highly impactful. These five thematic data domains are datasets that the EC expects to have the highest demand from re-users across the European Union. They include geospatial data, earth observation data and environment, transport data, statistics and company (or corporate) data. This article will focus on open transport data. Impact of open transport data The EDP offers overs 7,600

On Thursday 30 January 2020, the European Data Portal (EDP) published their latest study titled: High-value datasets: understanding the perspective of data providers . This article is a sneak peek into the study. High-value datasets: understanding the perspective of data providers Making data available as open data across the EU Member States is vital to leverage its potential for the European society and economy, for example, to enrich research, inform decision making, or develop new products and services. The impact of open data is mainly realised through application and depends on factors