The Emergence of a New European Data Economy: A Systematic Research Agenda for Health Data Spaces

Abstract

Data space initiatives, including Gaia-X and the European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation proposal, aim to establish a decentralized infrastructure for data exchange following European values such as citizen-centricity, transparency, and data sovereignty. European regulators did not only set statutory framework conditions but actively combined technical and regulatory aspects to initiate the co-development of a supranational reference architecture. This frames a novel direction towards a European data economy and is therefore supported with public funding of (research) projects in nine domains, starting with healthcare. Health data spaces represent a transformational endeavor that could fundamentally alter the established platform strategies of dominant organizations. We propose a systematic research agenda that examines how scholars can harness research opportunities afforded by health data spaces. We propose abduction, action design research, design science research, and behavioral science research as promising approaches to study this phenomenon at different levels of analysis.