The term data collaborative refers to a new form of collaboration, beyond the public-private partnership model, in which participants from different sectors — including private companies, research institutions, and government agencies — can exchange data to help solve public problems. In the coming months and years, data collaboratives will be essential vehicles for harnessing the vast stores of privately held data toward the public good.

Such first definition was laid out by S. Verhulst on Medium in 2015. Since then, the Data Collaborative framework has become a new standard to create public value from data.
The ISI Foundation has joined the Data Collaboratives team at NYU in designing a number of data collaboratives in partnership with UNICEF, Telefonica, Digital Globe, and many other private and public organizations.