The European Data Forum (EDF) is an annual meeting for industry professionals, researchers, policy makers, and members if the community initiatives to discuss the challenges and opportunities of data in Europe, especially in the light of recent developments around Open Data, Linked Data and Big Data. The forum balances technical (the technology and infrastructure needed to master the volume, heterogeneity and dynamicity of today’s data), application (new products and services that are now possible due to Open Data, Linked Data and Big Data), and socio-economic issues (social impact, legal issues, government policies and regulations, business models, commercialization and innovation in this new era).

Our aim is to bring together all stakeholders involved in the data value chain to exchange ideas that address the above challenges and opportunities, in order to strengthen the European data economy and its positioning worldwide. Discussions at EDF provide input to research, development, and policy activities at the European Commission (e.g., Horizon 2020) and those of the EU member states, with the aim of influencing the development of the new European data economy.

An additional goal of the European Data Forum is to establish and foster a truly European data community and ecosystem. This emerging community enables promising ideas to move from the stage of research questions all the way to successful deployment and market introduction. At the same time, its stakeholders will mutually reinforce their strategies that will result in a forward-looking, dynamic, and well-integrated EU-wide ecosystem.

Because of the strategic importance of multilingualism in Europe, EDF promotes the integration and co-operation of the European data community and the language resources and technology community. The synergy of these communities is critical for new types of multilingual digital services and the creation of a European digital single market without language barriers.