Rolls-Royce leads data analytics alliance with its sights set on COVID-19 economic recovery

First data was the new oil, then Google said data is more like sunlight. A flood of organisations proposing big data insight into the COVID-19 response would have anyone believe it is the new medicine.One of the more noteworthy initiatives comes from industrial group and aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce. It is spearheading a cross-industry group with a mission to harness data and analytics not just to provide timely information about the virus outbreak, but also to mitigate its economic impact.In a trading statement last week, Rolls-Royce said its R2 Data Labs had "assembled an alliance of leading companies across commerce, banking, travel, technology and research to use data analytics to find new and practical ways to support the global response to the virus".Although the company has not named the parties it is working with, or details of its technical approach, in a blog published yesterday, Caroline Gorski, director of R2 Data Labs, said the aim is to "bring together datasets from all across industry that have not usually been accessible to the public domain"We believe that if we can contribute datasets that wouldn't otherwise be released outside a company or industry's domain, then we can open up the realm of possibility," she added.She assured that such data would be shared over "secured systems and infrastructure using ISO-approved protocols" and that the group would employ anonymisation, desensitisation and privacy protection services where necessary.