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Who are we?

The Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL represents the core of the organisational structure. It is an international non-profit association under Belgian law (French: association internationale sans but lucratif, shortened to AISBL). It was founded to develop the technical framework and operate the Gaia-X Federation services.

Officially, the Association was founded by 22 companies and organisations in January 2021. Until today, over 300 members have joined and more are welcome. Its members are committed to upholding the values of data protection, transparency, openness, security, and respect for data rights. They are either companies with a provider or user background of data infrastructures, IT-start-ups, research institutions or business associations.

The Association has no business interest of its own. It will develop federation cloud services within the existing cloud infrastructures. To achieve this and to ensure an open and transparent character the Association facilitates the development of an open software infrastructure.

The Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL represents the core of the organisational structure. It is an international non-profit association under Belgian law (French: association internationale sans but lucratif, shortened to AISBL). It was founded to develop the technical framework and operate the Gaia-X Federation services.

Officially, the Association was founded by 22 companies and organisations in January 2021. Until today, over 340 members have joined and more are welcome. Its members are committed to upholding the values of data protection, transparency, openness, security, and respect for data rights. They are either companies with a provider or user background of data infrastructures, IT-start-ups, research institutions or business associations.

The Association has no business interest of its own. It will develop federation cloud services within the existing cloud infrastructures. To achieve this and to ensure an open and transparent character the Association facilitates the development of an open software infrastructure.

Organisational structure

The Gaia-X Association’s General Assembly is composed of all of its members. The General Assembly has complete authority to carry out the objectives of the Gaia-X Association.

The Board of Directors decides on important matters regarding the Gaia-X Association. It is headed by a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson.

The Management Board manages the daily activities of the Gaia-X Association. The Management Board is composed of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Chief Operating Officer (COO), the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), the Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the Digital Communications Director.

Who is who (see profiles)
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Committees & Working Groups

Data & Services Business Committee (DSBC)

The Data & Services Business Committee (DSBC) collects, shares, and aligns needs and achievements between national Hubs, Ecosystems, Gaia-X Lighthouses & projects, and Service Providers to support the creation of Data Spaces and accelerate Gaia-X market adoption. 

In this way, the DSBC (a) pools resources to generate insights on how to drive business value out of the Gaia-X Framework; (b) produces business requirements for both the Policy Rules Committee and the Technical Committee. 

The addition of a Sounding Board for Service Providers focuses on the infrastructure layer of the Gaia-X Framework, aligning with our recent campaign on “Data does not flow on rainbows.”  

Member Lead and Management Lead: Thomas Hahn (Siemens AG), Alberto Palomo (Gaia-X, CSO) 

Policy Rules Committee (PRC)

The Policy Rules Committee (PRC) aims to translate the guiding principles of the Gaia-X initiative, e.g., transparency, data protection, cyber security, portability, and openness, into High-Level Objectives to safeguard the added value of the Gaia-X ecosystem.

Furthermore, the PRC has the role to monitor, integrate and define the relationship with EU regulations and external standards.

Specifically, the Committee guides and delivers the Gaia-X Trust Framework, prepared by the WG Compliance, and the Gaia-X Policy Rules and Labelling Document (PRLD), resulting from the merger of the Policy Rules Document and the Gaia-X Labelling Criteria, prepared by the Policy Rules Document and Labels & Qualification WGs.

Member Lead and Management Lead: Alban Schmutz (Cispe), Roland Fadrany (Gaia-X, COO)

Technical Committee (TC)

The Technical Committee defines and implements the technological vision of Gaia-X. It plans, develops, and is accountable for the Gaia-X technology roadmap and its contributors. It further communicates the Gaia-X technological vision and its related objectives to establish trust and credibility with members and third parties.

The inputs to define the technology roadmap are represented by the high-level objectives of Gaia-X and by the requirements collected from other Committees and members.

The current main deliverables of the TC are the Gaia-X Architecture Document, drafted by the WG Architecture, and the set of common service characteristics schemas and Service Taxonomy, which are delivered by the WG Service Characteristics.

Member Lead and Management Lead: Klaus Ottradovetz (Eviden/ATOS), Pierre Gronlier (Gaia-X, CTO)

Working Groups

The group drafts the Gaia-X Architecture Document, where the founding concepts to establish the Gaia-X Ecosystem are described.

The Architecture Document focuses on conceptual modelling and key considerations of an operating model, integrating the Providers, Consumers and Services needed for their interaction, and is agnostic regarding technology and vendor.

The document reflects the evolution of technical and business functional requirements and provides a reference for the Gaia-X Federation Services

The sub-WG under the Architecture WG is the sub-WG Service Composition owning the Service Composition model inside the Architecture Document.


Lead and Vice-Lead:
Klaus Ottradovetz (ATOS), Arnaud Braud (Orange)

For more information & inquiries, please fill-out the form at the end of the section.

The group specifies the Schema for the Self-Descriptions of Providers, their Service Offerings, and the Resources they are composed of.The Self-Description schema comprises of a taxonomy of specific classes of Service Offerings and Resources, as well as the attributes to describe instances of these classes. This information is released as part of the Trust Framework , led by the WG Compliance.

Furthermore, the WG Service Characteristics works on the Self-Description Information Model, which will be released together with the Sub-WG ICAM specifications. It also contributes to the Architecture Document.

 

Lead and Vice-Lead: Christoph Lange-Bever (Fraunhofer), Anja Strunk (Cloud&Heat)

For more information & inquiries, please fill-out the form at the end of the section.

The WG Data Exchange Services is in charge of the definition of the Data Exchange Services specifications, including high-level architecture and key compliance requirements.

More in detail, the WG defines and maintains the Data Product Conceptual Model and Data Usage Operating Models, defines the Data Exchange vocabulary and supports the definition of the Ontology for Data Exchange.

As part of its mission, the WG is also focused on the scopes and means to express policies for data exchange and on further topics such as traceability of data transactions and observability.

The WG ICAM (Identity, Credentials and Access Management) is in charge of the definition of the Identity, Credential and Access management specifications.

As part of its mission, the WG describes the components for authorization, access management and authentication which provide core functionalities to Gaia-X Participants, with the purpose of joining the trustful environment of the Gaia-X Ecosystem.

The topics covered by the working group include the format of Gaia-X Credentials and the usage of specific types of verifiable credentials and related specialisations to represent identities and assign/delegate rights.

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