Southampton was an early pioneer of the open data movement, showing how transparency of data can revolutionise the way business is conducted, how communities work together and how public services are delivered. Its researchers developed new ways of standardising the presentation of data online so that it can be shared and analysed. These methods underpinned the publishing of datasets through several flagship government projects, including the UK government’s open data portal and the European Data Portal.

The next step was to foster data-driven innovation by transforming access to and use of data across all sectors of the UK economy and beyond.