As Europe works to transform its food system in the face of climate change, biodiversity loss, and shifting consumption patterns, one thing is clear: data must be trusted before it can drive change.
The SPOON project has released the first version of its Data Governance Framework, developed by our partner EV ILVO to ensure that citizen-generated food data is managed in a secure, ethical, and interoperable way. Fully aligned with GDPR and the European Data Strategy, the framework turns regulatory principles into practical tools that empower citizens to stay in control of their personal data.
At the core of the framework are specific guiding principles, including user control, transparency, ethical handling, and scalability. These are translated into five operational building blocks covering strategy, data policy, ontology, security and access control, and privacy. Crucially, the framework is not only conceptual but directly operationalised through the SPOON digital toolset, a collective platform designed to understand how people plan, buy, prepare, cook, and dispose of food, using a bottom-up approach.
The framework makes sure that the digital toolset supports user control, secure consent management, promote high data quality, and interoperability across research and innovation contexts. Ultimately, the framework enables SPOON to build trust with citizens, empower them to stay in control of their data, and deliver high-quality, reusable datasets. The SPOON digital platform and its Data Governance Framework is tested across six European pilot regions, laying the groundwork for alignment with emerging European Data Spaces, supporting long-term sustainability and responsible reuse of citizen-generated food data.
Full publication is now available here.
Photo credits: Headway on Unsplash
