EC and data industry make €2.5 billion ‘big data’ pledge

European Commission VP Neelie Kroes

The European Commission and Europe’s data industry have committed to invest €2.5 billion in a public-private partnership, designed to strengthen the data sector.

Announcing the deal, the European Commission said that the partnership aims to “put Europe at the forefront of the global data race” and could create 100,000 new data-related jobs in Europe by 2020.

European Commission vice-president Neelie Kroes and president of the Big Data Value Association, Jan Sundelin, are to sign a memorandum of understanding to set up the partnership today.

The EU has earmarked over €500 million of investment over 5 years (2016-2020), which private partners are expected to match at least four times over, providing €2 billion.