ENERGIC-OD: How a pan-European Virtual Hub eases the use of open data

The pan-European Virtual Hub (pEVH), developed as part of the ENERGIC-OD European project, facilitates the usage of geospatial information open data to all users, and SMEs in particular. It is a single point of access to a wide range of datasets. It brokers major open data platforms, and provides added-value services including semantic discovery for multilingual metadata, and data format harmonization. The pEVH services are accessible through a geoportal developed by ESA and through standard services and dedicated APIs for developers. Basic functions of the pEVH will be available for free to all users, with some premium features accessible for a low charge (thus embracing the freemium revenue model). The pEVH will function until at least the end of year 2020, and it bridges the gap between a sustainable business model around open data commercialization, as well as bringing research-driven project outputs to the market.