Hank Jan Vink is Mana­ging Direc­tor ICT Inno­va­tions at TNO. Pho­to credits: TNO

Henk Jan Vink is Mana­ging Direc­tor Infor­ma­ti­on and Tech­no­lo­gy Inno­va­tions at TNO. He was elec­ted to the Board the Gene­ral Assem­bly during our 2nd IDSA Sum­mit. Here he ans­wers some ques­ti­ons, why he is invol­ved in our asso­cia­ti­on and what is so spe­cial about our initia­ti­ve:

Why are you taking an active part in the Inter­na­tio­nal Data Spaces Asso­cia­ti­on?

TNO has been very active in many dif­fe­rent data-sharing initia­ti­ves, both on a natio­nal and a European level. From this expe­ri­ence, we belie­ve that IDS has the poten­ti­al to beco­me the best data-sharing initia­ti­ve glo­bal­ly. As we have shown over the last coup­le of years by con­tri­bu­ting to the IDS Refe­rence Archi­tec­tu­re, we are ful­ly com­mit­ted to the suc­cess of IDS and want to con­ti­nue to con­tri­bu­te to its expan­si­on.

What is so spe­cial about IDSA in your opi­ni­on?

The IDSA has a firm backing in rese­arch, but with a strong com­mit­ment also from busi­ness key play­ers. IDSA can be very rele­vant for socie­ty and eco­no­my. The idea behind IDSA – what we all con­tri­bu­te to and whe­re we pro­fit from the advan­ce­ment of IDS as a who­le – is how we want to inno­va­te. For us, this is a good model to leverage the intel­li­gence of the com­mu­ni­ty, whe­re each mem­ber can play its role.

Ima­gi­ne the Inter­na­tio­nal Data Spaces Asso­cia­ti­on ten years from now – what should be the achie­ve­ments accom­plished by then?

Set­ting up an IDS Con­nec­tor with anyo­ne in the world that is trusted by IDS should be as easy as online shop­ping. The sys­tem gives IDSA all rele­vant infor­ma­ti­on – who is out the­re, what data is avail­ab­le, under what con­di­ti­ons, and how to con­nect. For orga­ni­za­ti­ons, we will make data- sharing a safe, cost-effi­ci­ent and rewar­ding
expe­ri­ence that allows their busi­ness to grow and con­nect with others.