This presentation details the challenges of fragmented, inconsistent, and administratively burdensome access to sensitive data, which results in significant delays and high costs. To address this, the proposed solution is a unified access framework based on two main components: standardized, machine-actionable data access conditions using the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL), and a Data Access Broker service. The ODRL is a W3C standard for formally encoding permissions, prohibitions, and obligations, providing clarity for human users and machine-readability for automation. The Data Access Broker then automates workflows, performs policy matching and compliance checking, and enforces restrictions, often by deploying data securely into a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) like SANE. This approach promises faster, less arbitrary access for researchers, increased efficiency for data providers, and enhanced reproducibility and scalability for science, paving the way for cross-border data flows in data spaces.
Meer et al. (Thu,) studied this question.