Austria’s Data Strategy

Austria’s Datenstrategie (Data Strategy) is a comprehensive framework that addresses the country’s approach to data governance, usage, and infrastructure, with the goal of fostering innovation, competitiveness, and societal well-being. The strategy is designed to be adaptive, recognising that the field of data is rapidly evolving. It sets up mechanisms for continuous evaluation and refinement of the strategy through stakeholder consultations and adjustments in response to new technological and societal developments.

The strategy emphasises the creation of decentralised, secure, and resilient infrastructures to handle data more effectively. Some key initiatives include:

• Sovereign and secure cloud infrastructure: Development of energy-efficient and secure cloud solutions, with emphasis on utilising existing infrastructures for scaling. This ensures data processing, storage, and exchange can meet growing demands while maintaining sovereignty and security.
• Interoperability: To enable smooth data exchange across sectors, the government plans to promote technical and semantic interoperability between data systems, especially in domains like health, mobility, and environmental data. The strategy supports using synthetic data where possible to enhance data sharing without risking privacy violations.
• Data spaces: These are collaborative environments where data from various actors (e.g., public institutions, businesses, researchers) can be shared securely and transparently. Inspired by EU initiatives like Gaia-X, Austria will invest in Data spaces to foster collaboration, innovation, and economic growth across sectors.
• 5G and fiber networks: The strategy also involves expanding high-speed broadband and 5G networks to support the efficient transmission of large datasets, which is critical for enabling real-time data applications.

Responsible data usage

This goal is centered on unlocking the potential of untapped data by making it more accessible and reusable, with a focus on responsibility and compliance with privacy standards:

• Public sector as a role model: The government will lead by example, making its vast repositories of public sector data accessible through initiatives like Open Data and Once-Only Platforms. The strategy promotes improved cataloguing and licensing of public data to ensure transparency and reuse.
• Data quality: Improving the quality of public data is essential for better decision-making. Efforts will be made to standardise metadata, enhance the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of datasets, and appoint Data Stewards to oversee data governance across public institutions.
• Open data: The public sector will continue to release open data sets through portals like data.gv.at, enabling businesses, researchers, and the public to use these resources for innovation. The goal is to ensure open data becomes a default across government sectors, fostering transparency and economic development.

Innovative data culture

The strategy advocates for a cultural shift in how data is perceived and used, emphasising that data can be a powerful tool for societal progress if used responsibly:

• Data literacy: A key aspect of this vision is improving Data Literacy across all sectors of society. The Digitale Kompetenzoffensive Österreich initiative aims to equip citizens, employees, and students with the skills to understand and use data responsibly by 2030.
• Cross-sector collaboration: The government aims to promote interdisciplinary collaborations where data is shared across industries and sectors (public and private) to unlock new economic and research opportunities. This includes data altruism, where individuals and companies voluntarily share data for the common good, especially in fields like health and environmental research.
• Training and workforce development: New education and training pathways will be developed to produce a workforce equipped to handle data-intensive roles, such as Data Scientists and Data Stewards. This also includes re-skilling existing employees to meet the demands of a data-driven economy.

Alignment with European standards

Austria’s data strategy aligns closely with the European Union’s Data Strategy and related legislative initiatives, such as the Data Governance Act (DGA), Data Act, and AI Act. These European frameworks aim to establish a common data market across member states with clear rules for data sharing, governance, and innovation:

• Data sovereignty: The strategy prioritises ensuring that Austrians have control over their personal and organisational data, supporting initiatives like the Right to Data Portability, where individuals and businesses can control and transfer their data freely across services and borders.
• European data spaces: Austria will actively contribute to the creation of sector-specific European Data Spaces (e.g., health, agriculture, energy), ensuring that Austrian data remains interoperable and accessible across the EU.

Data governance

Effective governance is a central pillar of the strategy, ensuring that data is used securely, ethically, and transparently:

• Data Governance Act: Austria will implement the EU’s Data Governance Act, establishing clear structures for managing data. This includes the appointment of institutions and officers (e.g., Data Stewards, Data Protection Officers) responsible for overseeing data governance in public and private organisations.
• Data protection: Anonymisation, pseudonymisation, and other privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) will be crucial to ensuring that data usage complies with GDPR and respects individuals’ privacy. Additionally, efforts will be made to enhance data security to prevent breaches and unauthorised access.
• Data altruism: Under the Data Governance Act, Austria will support data altruism initiatives, where organisations and individuals can donate data for socially beneficial purposes, such as improving healthcare or supporting environmental sustainability projects.

Sustainability

In line with the European Green Deal, the strategy integrates sustainability into its data initiatives. It aims to leverage data for:

• Climate action: Using data to reduce the carbon footprint of industries, optimise resource consumption, and promote sustainable practices. Data will play a critical role in smart city initiatives, enabling cities to better manage energy, water, transportation, and waste.
• Digital transformation for the environment: Projects such as the Green Data Hub will explore ways in which digital technologies and data can contribute to achieving environmental sustainability goals, addressing challenges like climate change and resource efficiency.

Data-driven innovation and economic growth

The strategy acknowledges data as a key driver of innovation and competitiveness for Austrian businesses:

• Data economy: By enabling better access to data through open platforms, Austria seeks to stimulate the creation of new business models and markets, particularly for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Innovation in data-driven fields like Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be encouraged, and public sector data will be made available to fuel these innovations.
• Data spaces and ecosystems: Austria plans to participate in EU initiatives such as Gaia-X to create Data Spaces where businesses, researchers, and public entities can collaborate in a secure and trusted environment. These spaces will promote data sharing across industries like health, manufacturing, and agriculture.