Environmental data is precious.
As is shown in the European Green Deal, critically important research relies on data availability, but sometimes that data is sensitive.
How can we share sensitive data without letting it fall into the wrong hands? By using data spaces.
A data space is a data exchange where trusted partners choose to make their data available to each other without ever sacrificing data sovereignty.
Inside a data space, data owners agree to apply the same standards and rules to the usage of their data. Each organisation gets to decide where their data is hosted and under which conditions others can use it.
In this way, qualitatively high-value data sets can be accessed for innovative research and new business models.
A data space will always be the sum of its parts, be they data owners, users, or trusted processing services.
For an analogy, think about Europe. Individual nations are sovereign, but overarching infrastructures have been set up for its members to work together more easily.
The European Green Deal, a policy initiative by the European Commission with the goal of making Europe climate neutral in 2050, brings these two things together. To harness the power of data in matters such as climate change, circular economy, zero pollution, biodiversity, deforestation, and compliance assurance, a common European data space will be invaluable.
The European Green Deal data space will make many environmental data accessible, usable, and useful. It will allow data providers to maintain data sovereignty and protect sensitive data, while unlocking data access for thousands of applications that will help make society more sustainable.
The International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) is on a mission to create the future of the global, digital economy with international data spaces.
Gaia-X is the open cloud platform that aims to enable a free and independent infrastructure ecosystem, moving data owners away from their dependency on commercial cloud providers.
Together, they will enable a new data infrastructure ecosystem where data and services can be made available, collated, and shared in an environment of trust. This means there will be a significant improvement to digital sovereignty, information security, control of operations, and a reduced cloud provider lock-in for customers.
wetransform aims to be compatible with operation on Gaia-X as soon as it is made available.
