EDIH DATAlife actively planned for its own business model and financial independence from day one.
The Impact
DATAlife delivered approximately 1,000 services since the inception of the European Digital Innovation Hub project.
The challenge
Translating complex tech into business value in a low digital maturity environment as in SMEs’ has been the biggest challenge of this Project.
Another major challenge has been how DATAlife would sustain itself after the end of the project and of European EDIH funding.
DATAlife has explored multiple paths, which led to the AI Factory as another channel through which we will be able to provide services to companies. DATAlife also started working on its own business plan because, in certain cases, there are some types of services that the EDIH could start charging companies for.
The solution
DATAlife established itself as an independent legal entity. This is a critical and unique characteristic of this hub. Unlike the majority of other European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs), which are typically consortiums without their own distinct legal status and are represented by a single member, DATAlife operates as a standalone business enterprise. This legal status is highly important because it directly drives their approach to long-term financial sustainability.The necessity to sustain itself without relying 100% on external public funding was a known priority from the beginning, prompting the hub to actively plan for their own business model and financial independence. DATAlife was also able to build trust among the economic actors in the regional ecosystem and set up sectorial roundtables with associated clusters to valorise its services.
The most important thing in digitalisation is data; data is a treasure, and today we have a lot of data that is not being exploited as it could be. And this is what we are working on.
...and Why it matters
EDIH DATAlife became a DEDEP.eu Inspiring Story thanks to its strong dissemination and exploitation strategy. The EDIH already possessed the internal skills and competencies required to handle the exploitation aspect, which involves the actual development and deployment of services within their territory. At the same time, their primary challenges lie in in "storytelling", sharing success stories and effectively communicating the work the hub does. Additionally, the EDIH highlights a need for help in translating the hub's on-the-ground experiences into actionable guidelines and directives for regional policymaker. EDIH DATAlife was involved in the DEDEP.eu thematic event on agrifood and in the dissemination pilots.
This project not only boosted the digital transformation in the Galician ecosystem, it also contributed actively to European policy goals in digital transformation.