About Digital Sovereignty

Digital sovereignty is about having control over the digital environment. This means having control, direction and freedom of choice over storage, security and processing of data, AI algorithms and underlying models, digital identity and access to applications.

Public money should be spent on things that create public value, ensuring that the benefits of scientific research and education are shared by all. Determining how the university's digital environment is organised is just like working out how university buildings are organised – it's important to work this out for yourself.

Digital sovereignty is vital to protect public values in education and research (such as autonomy, justice and humanity). It also allows for innovation, as it enables you to customise the digital environment. For example, you could develop an AI tool within the learning environment based on faculty data sources.

The university is currently dependent on big tech companies for a large part of its digital environment. The influence of these companies on education and research, plus the power they wield through the enormous amounts of user data they manage, poses an increasing risk given current geopolitical developments. This makes digital sovereignty a strategic priority for the University of Groningen.

The JTS works with the theme of digital sovereignty to develop scientific knowledge on this interdisciplinary subject and to apply it at the University of Groningen and other organisations.

The substantive approach focuses on strengthening academic freedom and collaborates with RUG programmes such as Open Science, data autonomy and DASH/UMCG. The research ties in with European programmes such as EDIC Digital Commons and EuroStack. Our broad-based university combines expertise from various disciplines such as computer science, law, philosophy, business administration and behavioural sciences.

Regional and national cooperation is necessary to achieve greater digital sovereignty. This is in line with the University of Groningen as a fifth-generation university. Together with NijBegun's economic agenda, the JTS is working on a regional digital sovereign ecosystem of knowledge institutions, companies and government agencies around the national AI Factory. This ecosystem is based on cooperation, open standards and open source software. Together, solutions are being created that will lead to greater digital sovereignty for the University of Groningen and the region.