I-Com is an Italian think tank based in Rome and Brussels, founded in 2005 by a group of scholars and managers with the aim to promote policy related debates and, moreover, to analyse competitive and innovative topics. In 2016, I-Com has opened its Brussels office to further develop its activities on a European stage and to solicit the positioning of relevant stakeholders on issues crucial for the competitiveness of the EU and Italian economy. The institute focuses its research on three main areas: Digital, Energy and Healthcare, with a special focus on how to strengthen innovation in the economy.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the current state of data-driven innovation (DDI) across Europe. DDI forms a key pillar in the 21st century sources of growth. According to the OECD, in 2017, the global data traffic per month reached 120 exabytes (billion gigabytes), about 70 times the traffic existing in 2005.