Sharing (big) data provides great benefits to organisations that wish to reach a shared goal that would be impossible on an individual basis. But how can they do so in a secure and reliable manner? Leo Gommans conducts research into systems that enable data exchange based on digital data marketplaces. His research builds on his doctoral research into multi-domain authorisation systems and the facilitation of the inter-organisational trust necessary for such systems.

Within the scope of his chair and based on examples from the business and scientific communities, Gommans will be studying generically applicable base models that make it possible to securely share data between autonomous parties. Guaranteeing the confidentiality of data and the intellectual ownership of algorithms that use or learn from that data are important starting points.

Gommans is one of the driving forces behind Amsterdam Data Exchange (AMDEX), an initiative of the Amsterdam Economic Board and Amsterdam Science Park. AMDEX is working on a model that can be used to securely share data within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.

About Leon Gommans

Gommans has worked for Air France-KLM since 2008, first as a Senior Infrastructure Architect and since 2015 as Science Officer of the Strategy & Technology Office. At Air France-KLM, he combines his research with his work on the company’s data-sharing needs. For example, sharing data within an industry consortium via a digital data marketplace makes the process of developing algorithms for aircraft maintenance more accurate and possibly even certifiable.

Gommans obtained his doctorate at the UvA in 2014 for his research into multi-domain authorisation systems for e-infrastructures. Since then, he has been a visiting researcher with the Systems and Network Engineering group at the UvA's Informatics Institute. From 2001 to 2008, he also worked as a researcher in the Systems and Network Engineering lab.