Organized by the Data Spaces Business Alliance, in collaboration with MyData and the European Commission, it gathered 550+ participants from dozens of industry domains and academia
Berlin, Brussels, December 23, 2021 – The Data Spaces Business Alliance (DSBA), a one-of-its-kind initiative bringing together the key industry players Big Data Value Association (BDVA), FIWARE, Gaia-X, and the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA), organised the ‘Brokering Event for European Data Spaces’, on December 16, 2021.
Curated under the umbrella of the European Commission’s Digital Europe Programme, which focuses on bringing digital technology to businesses, citizens and public administrations – the event was designed to build the European data spaces across specific sectors, and was driven by an impressive lineup of speakers from the European Commission and beyond.
Francesco Bonfiglio, Gaia-X’s CEO said: “The event was a unique platform fully enabling participants to discover, connect, engage with and share a common interest with other industry players – all moving into a common data space infrastructure. Gaia-X will be releasing an animation video soon – stay tuned!”
Companies and individuals from across the entire business and academia spectrum pitched proposals for the creation of data spaces in the fields of green economy, smart communities, mobility, health, public sector open data for AI, tourism, manufacturing, among many others.
The response was overwhelming. With over 750 registrations and 550+ active participants, the event was also an excellent opportunity for all attendees to engage with the DSBA communities. This resulted in nearly 300 matchmaking activities and 100+ one-to-one meetings. Spread over half a day, the event was introduced by the DSBA founding organisations, followed by presentations on the Digital Europe Programme and thirty-minute pitching sessions. The 12 sessions held over 60 pitches.
Ana Garcia Robles, BDVA’s Secretary General, stressed the importance of such pitches and how the event has created real impact: “The success of this first brokering event for data spaces of the Alliance is an example of the great potential of our collaboration to attract expertise and talent from our communities and beyond. We got excellent contributions from research to market, and from data infrastructure to AI and value creation from all over Europe. We are on the right track to develop and support a strong ecosystem for data spaces in Europe.
“Together with members from all Alliance partners and the many research and business institutions from our ecosystems, we will now work on overarching data spaces,” adds Lars Nagel, CEO IDSA. “Over the past years, IDSA has been working on the many ingredients that a data space needs. Ahead of us now is broad application of the data space concept across a wide range of industries!”
Conducted virtually, dozens of industry domains have received a remarkable response in terms of pitches. “Presentations from 12 different industries – but all targeting simultaneously a successful and sustainable approach towards Data Spaces – underlined the need for a common architecture, as well as common building blocks, in order to create interoperable Data Spaces. This is the purpose of the Data Spaces Business Alliance – for the now and for the future”, summarised Ulrich Ahle, CEO of FIWARE Foundation.
The power of collaboration:
The Data Spaces Business Alliance was formally launched in early 2021 to drive the adoption of data spaces across Europe. The Alliance is currently working together in three main areas, namely: technology and architecture, identification and characterisation, and support. Having over 1,000 members combined, the Alliance’s founding organisations represent leading key industry players, associations, research organisations, innovators, and policy-makers from local, national, European levels, and beyond.
About Big Data Value Association (BDVA):
The Big Data Value Association – BDVA (from 2021, DAIRO – Data, AI and Robotics AISBL) is an industry-driven international not-for-profit organisation with more than 240 members all over Europe and a well-balanced composition of large, small, and medium-sized industries, as well as research and user organisations. BDVA/DAIRO focuses on enabling the digital transformation of the economy and society through data and Artificial Intelligence by advancing in areas such as big data and AI technologies and services, data platforms and data spaces, Industrial AI, data-driven value creation, standardisation, and skills. BDVA/DAIRO has been the private side of the H2020 partnership Big Data Value PPP, it is a private member of the EuroHPC JU and is also one of the founding members of the AI, Data and Robotics Partnership in Horizon Europe.
Press contact:
Jaakko Karhu
BDVA/DAIRO Communications Manager
About FIWARE Foundation:
FIWARE Foundation is a non-profit organiSation that drives the definition and encourages the adoption of open standards – based on Open Source technologies, reference architectures and over 800 Smart Data Models – to ease the development of portable and interoperable smart solutions in a faster, easier and affordable way, avoiding vendor lock-in scenarios. Founded in 2016, the foundation has Atos, Engineering, NEC, Red Hat, Telefónica and Trigyn Technologies among its 450+ members. For further information, refer to FIWARE’s Press Kit and follow FIWARE on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Press Contact:
Val De Oliveira
Press Officer and Marketing Manager
valdirene.deoliveira@fiware.org
About Gaia-X Association:
Gaia-X, established in June 2021, is a digital ecosystem self-regulated by its members. The initiative creates an environment where data can be shared and stored under the control of data owners and users with respected rules that make unprecedented opportunities for innovative, data-driven business models and scalable growth. To learn more, click here.
Company Name: Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL
Contact Person: Dr. Vassilia Orfanou, CMO
Phone: +306974825327
Email: vassilia.orfanou@gaia-x.eu
Address: Avenue des Arts 6-9, 1210 Brussels, Belgium
Website: www.gaia-x.eu
About International Data Spaces Association (IDSA):
IDSA is on a mission to create the future of the global, digital economy. Its 130+ member companies and institutions have created the International Data Spaces architecture (IDS): a secure system of sovereign and trusted data exchange in which all participants can realize the full value of their data. IDS enables new smart services and innovative business processes to work across companies and industries, while ensuring that the control of data remains in the hands of data providers. We call this data sovereignty. Visit www.internationaldataspaces.org for more information.
Press Contact:
Nora Gras
Senior Communications Manager
