Roadmap introduction

The Smart Data Roadmap describes how schemes have evolved in the past and may do so in the future.

The purpose of this section is to lay out observations on how Smart Data schemes have been developed and could be developed to create their intended impact. However it should be of note that Smart Data is new, is evolving, and exists in different stages for different sectors.

The roadmap should help organisations involved in a Smart Data scheme understand what activities they should consider pursuing, depending on how mature the relevant Smart Data scheme is, and how the data infrastructure they build or maintain should align with those activities.

For example, organisations involved in Open Communications or Open Energy should look to activities in 'Building the ecosystem', as those Smart Data schemes are new, and there is still further research and collaboration required to build the data infrastructure needed to launch the scheme. Organisations in sectors outside of energy and telecoms will want to start here too if envisioning a Smart Data scheme in their sector.

Organisations involved in Open Banking and Open Finance may find the activities in 'Growing the ecosystem' more relevant since the banking sector has an established and growing Smart Data scheme with a need for focus on developing new propositions and scaling.

The guidance in 'Evolving the ecosystem' follows the logic of more generic data initiatives, since there are no mature Smart Data schemes yet, and will need to be reviewed and iterated as Smart Data develops more generally.

Our colleagues at CDEI, in partnership with BEIS, have produced a Smart Data Implementation Guide to support decision-makers consider how to design, development, and implement ethical and trustworthy Smart Data schemes. We will be testing how the insights and recommendations in both this guidebook and the Smart Data Implementation Guide can be used together to help deliver Smart Data schemes.