SoBigData++ will expand platform functionalities: i) all current services will be made available through cloud web-based services and/or high-performance computing software packages; ii) a new workflow language will provide an easy-to-use common interface to design and execute complex social mining experiments relieving the data scientist from being responsible for resource allocation and software installation (based on Python notebook, containerisation, etc.) and facilitating the mastering of the complexity of big data analytical processes; iii) The platform will be aligned with the EOSC, in order to become compliant with its policies and be able to utilise computational resources from the European Open Science Cloud.

SoBigData++ will extend its community by widening the multidisciplinary communities identified by the current exploratories with the contribution of the new partners and a clear plan of actions/events for attracting new users and experiments and returning specialized services to that community. Top ranked labs and scholars are added to the consortium to help improving the substantive interdisciplinary resources of the RI: economists (PSE, CEU, SSSA), computational social scientists (CNRS, CEU, UvA), urban scientists (CRA, CEU), demographers and statisticians (UNIROMA1), privacy technology experts (URV), machine learning scientists (UNIROMA1, UPF), think-tank and journalists (RIE, CSD).

SoBigData++ will pursue the EU views on Responsible Research and Innovation will especially uphold values and norms of EU Data Protection law, inspired to strengthen the protection of personal data as a fundamental right, combined with boosting the free flow of personal data as a common good. To drive the project along this path, SoBigData++ will maintain and improve two ethical and legal boards (Operational and High level) with experts in IT law, IT ethics, data protection and experts in various disciplines such as Digital Humanities, Political Science and Sociologist along with external stakeholders. SoBigData++ will resolve legal, ethical, methodological and infrastructural issues arising from working with social data, in order to help scientists to focus on their research. SoBigData++ is also aimed at facilitating data citizenship and democracy through a focus on critical data literacy. We will gather innovative and proactive responses to the structural problems with social and cultural data analytics, for example, Fake News, the Facebook data privacy breach, and algorithmic bias and discrimination. This will ensure that our RI not only develops best practices and resources for practitioners of social mining but that it facilitates wider informed, engaged and equitable participation and impact.

SoBigData++ will amplify the innovation activities by strengthening the opportunities for cooperation through a privileged communication path for events, projects, hackathon and boot camps, relying on successful cooperation with industrial and institutional stakeholders started in Phase 1. We will launch the Challenge US program, calling for companies to share data and ideas to realize together with consortium partners proof concepts of novel services, also leveraging the “Tuscan Data Challenge” experience that was successfully tested in Italy and extending it at the European level.

SoBigData++ will create a non-profit organisation at the end of the first year named SoBigData Association. It will manage membership of all interested entities in Europe – especially those not in the consortium – and will study the viability and possible governance of a future SoBigData Foundation (or another non-profit legal entity) which will be the recipient of the RI management at the end of the project. In any case, CNR will take the commitment to support the platform execution for two years after the end of the project.