Enabling data sharing for social benefit through data trusts

Earlier this year, GPAI’s Data Governance Working Group launched its new project Enabling data sharing for social benefit through data trusts. This project set out to help realise the potential of data trusts as a mechanism for trustworthy data sharing, by advancing research and practice that supports the creation of real-world data trusts. Data trusts are a type of data institution that allows individuals or groups to pool resources, tasking an independent ‘trustee’ to manage those resources for the benefit of the trust’s members. While the specific motivations of those setting up a data trust will vary in different contexts, data trusts are characterised by their focus on: ● enabling data-driven innovation for social and economic benefit, by creating a trustworthy environment for data sharing. ● re-balancing power asymmetries in data exchanges, by encouraging and empowering the originators of the data to play an active role in setting the terms of data use – and the distribution of the value that creates – and providing a platform for collective negotiation; and ● anticipating, preventing, and managing the vulnerabilities associated with data use, through professional data stewardship.