Frontiers is pleased to host its second Data Services Workshop, to be held on 24 April 2018 at the Hotel Renaissance in Brussels. The meeting is organized in collaboration with the EU H2020 projects OpenUP and OpenMinTed, in which Frontiers is a full partner, and SwissCore, the Swiss contact office for European research, innovation and education in Brussels.

This year’s workshop focuses on the application of open research data to support sustainable health initiatives. Drawing lessons from recent successes in the use of big data and artificial intelligence in data-intensive health research, it aims to discuss policy challenges and actions necessary in Europe to unleash the full potential of open research data in health for the benefit of society.

To this end, the event will feature panelists from leading institutions and companies specializing in this data-driven health research, together with representatives from academic libraries, patient advocacy, research funders, universities and the European Commission.

The provisional agenda and confirmed panelists are below.

If you are interested in attending the workshop, registration is open until 10 April 2018. Please note that space is limited. 

Current agenda

09:00–09:15 Welcome

• Fred Fenter – Executive Editor, Frontiers, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Michel Goldman – Director, Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation in HealthCare – I3h, Brussels, Belgium; Field Chief Editor, Frontiers in Medicine

09:15–10:45 Session 1: Breakthroughs in data-intensive health research
Moderator: Charlotte Geerdink – Senior European Advisor for Innovation, Swiss Contact Office for European Research, Innovation and Education

• Exposomics: Paolo Vineis – Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, Imperial College London, UK; Field Chief Editor, Frontiers in Public Health
• Open drug discovery: Lee Wen Hwa – Director, Disease Foundations Network, Strategic Alliances, Structural Genomics Consortium, Oxford, UK
• Text & data mining and health states modelling: Michael Rebhan – Senior Investigator, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland

11:15–13:15 Session 2: Cutting-edge technologies and services for data-intensive health research
Moderator: Fred Fenter – Executive Editor, Frontiers

• Modelling: Samuel Kerrien – Section Manager Data and Knowledge Engineering – Blue Brain Project/EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Data infrastructure: Christine Durinx – Associate Director, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Knowledge management: Ian Potter – Clarivate Analytics, USA
• Artificial intelligence in open access publishing: Mattia Albergante, Lead Product Manager, Frontiers, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Text mining: speaker to be confirmed.

14:15–16:15 Session 3: Policy, regulatory and institutional challenges and actions at EU level to support open research data in health
Moderator: Monica Dietl – Senior Advisor, SCIENCE|BUSINESS Innovation, intelligence and networking

This session brings together stakeholder representatives to identify the key challenges that Europe faces in expanding and leveraging open, big data research in health, and the policies necessary to address these. Aspects likely to be covered include:

• Designing the next Framework Programme (FP9) to ensure it best supports big data research in health according to FAIR principles (whereby results are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable)
• Specific considerations necessary for health research data with respect to privacy, security and public benefit (including the Public Sector Information Directive)
• Achieving balance between data protection and openness to foster innovation (including the General Data Protection Regulation and copyright reform)
• Applications of the European Open Science Cloud in health research, and the actions necessary to realize these opportunities
• Developing the researcher skills base necessary to ensure all EU member states can undertake and benefit from big data research in health
• Engaging citizens in health research prioritization, participation, dissemination, evaluation and consumption.

Panelists:

• DG Research and Innovation: Cornelius Schmaltz, Head of Unit for Strategy, European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, Brussels, Belgium
• DG Connect: Saila Rinne, Programme Officer, Unit Data Policy and Innovation, DG CONNECT, Luxembourg
• Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP): Eva Mendez, Young European Research Universities (YERUN), OSPP, Madrid, Spain
• Public funders: Stephan Kuster, Secretary General, Science Europe, Brussels, Belgium
• Patient groups: Tamás Bereczky, Coordinator EUPATI Germany, Patient Cluster lead IMI Big Data Project Harmony, Berlin, Germany
• Research libraries: Jeannette Frey, Director BCU Lausanne, Vice-President LIBER, Lausanne, Switzerland

16:20–16:30 Close

16:30–18:00 Networking reception