LNDS – ready to support responsible re-use of public sector data
Monday 4 December 2023 marked a historical moment for Luxembourg National Data Service (LNDS) namely the inaugural launch event and the first edition of Data Summit Luxembourg. In the presence of around 300 guests, LNDS was inaugurated through an official ribbon cutting performed by Minister for Research and Higher Education and Minister for Digitalisation, Stéphanie Obertin.
Official inauguration of Luxembourg National Data Service
At 10am, at the start of the inaugural Launch Event of LNDS, the Plenary Hall of the European Convention Center Luxembourg (ECCL) was full of people. After a welcoming video and a few welcoming words by CEO Bert Verdonck, the word passed to the official opening speech by Minister for Research and Higher Education and Minister for Digitalisation, Stéphanie Obertin. Minister Obertin addressed the importance and impact of the launch of this new organisation:
“the launch of the Luxembourg National Data Service is not simply a technological event, but a declaration of commitment to a future where data is a driver of shared prosperity and where we are committed to prove that the value of data can be unleashed without compromising on concerns for data privacy and security. By joining forces, encouraging innovation and protecting the rights of our citizens, we can create an even stronger, smarter and more resilient Luxembourg.”
Declaring readiness to serve
Following the opening speech was the official declaration – LNDS is now open and ready to serve! The LNDS website is launched, services are built, and the first data projects with external partners are in process. Data partners shared further content on the projects, later during the event.
As a symbolic act and sign of the official inauguration of the Luxembourg National Data Service (LNDS), Minister Stéphanie Obertin cut the ribbon. From here on, the day continued with an overview of LNDS Services, mission, and purpose to serve National and European level interests, led by discussions and presentations by the LNDS Leadership team, Bert Verdonck, Matthieu Paret, Christophe Trefois, Wei Gu, Regina Becker as well as Romain Martin, Chairman of the LNDS Board of Directors.
It was not only the official inauguration LNDS as an organisation – including now 34 people across different areas of expertise. Like our Head of People, Matthieu said:
“We are a remarkably diverse team of colleagues representing more than 20 nationalities but what combines us is our passion for data and our values! We are trustable, thriving, and transparent.”
Launching data services and products
On stage, the dynamic team of LNDS showed that a lot of work has been done in the first year of LNDS, resulting in the launch of also:
- LNDS presence on the open data platform data.public.lu, with first datasets on from the Synthetic Data Factory as well as our KPIs.
- The project on creating a national catalogue to discover public sector data in Luxembourg, namely the Luxembourg National Data Catalogue – a metadata catalogue, which is a place where you can discover datasets from the public sector.
- The opening of the Synthetic Data Factory development repository. The Synthetic Data Factory provides synthetic datasets based on available national public data, including statistical distributions for people, companies, streets, infrastructure, and many other objects. It is a service we are not building alone, everyone is welcome to join. Through collaboration we can accelerate its development and make it more sustainable.
Some of the services could be visited through the various stands in the Foyer, right outsides of the Plenary Hall, where engaging networking went on over lunch and coffee, accompanied by delicious food. Among the networking opportunities, there was a possibility to test out a visualisation of the Synthetic Data Factory, thanks to the collaboration with Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and an interactive collection of drawing data on the map.
Presenting Data Projects for Impact
However, the event was by far not only about LNDS. As said by our CEO, Bert, “our mission to support research, innovation, and policy making with high quality data. We exist to enable value creation from secondary use of data, in order to create impact through data – together”.
After the inaugural launch event first edition of the Data Summit Luxembourg brought to light initial impact of data projects. Seven different partner organisations, also known as “data partners”, presented the collaborative data projects. Data partners included MyConnectivity, the Luxembourg Environment Agency, Observatoire National de la Santé, C2DH, Luxinnovation, Ministry of Research and Higher Education and Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research.
Connecting national and European level interests
Another important highlight of the event came with the keynote presentations, showing the impact of involvement on European level as well as a discussion on the status of European Data Spaces and their impact for Luxembourg.
We were honoured to have the presence of Saila Rinne, Acting Head of Unit, eHealth, Well-Being and Ageing, at DG CONNECT of the European Commission sharing about EU digital health and data initiatives, some of which LNDS is actively involved in.
Before the event came to close, it invited to an interesting roundtable discussion around Data spaces in Europe and their relevance for Luxembourg. Ulrich Ahle, CEO of the Gaia-X, who is co-creating the Schengen-X event side-by-side with the Data Summit Luxembourg on the other side of the European Convention Center, as well as Federico Milani, Deputy Head of the Data Policy and Innovation Unit at DG-CONNECT of the European Commission, joined Bert on stage.
Continue discussions and launch a data project with LNDS
Creating value from data can only be done in collaboration. Hence, we invite parties interested to initiate a data project to familiarise themselves with the onboarding process and fill in a form for an onboarding meeting, in order to initiate a data project.
We want to thank our partners, guests, and staff for making the first LNDS event a reality! We are launched and ready to enable value creation from secondary use of data for you 🚀✨
Join Data Summit Luxembourg 2024
“This year’s Data Summit Luxembourg is the first of many. We aim to evolve it into an annual, signature event for local and international participants, to become the ultimate learning event for data sharing and analysis.” CEO of LNDS, Bert Verdonck
The next edition of Data Summit Luxembourg is already announced. The 2024 edition takes place on the 11 December 2024 in the European Convention Center Luxembourg.