At the Open Data Institute (ODI), we have focused a lot on what we call data institutions – organisations that steward (collect, maintain and share) data on behalf of others, often towards public, educational or charitable aims. We have also spent time considering what responsible data stewardship looks like and how data institutions can help make important decisions about who has access to data, for what purposes and to whose benefit.
One form of data stewardship infrastructure that has been gaining notable traction in the past decade – particularly within Europe and Japan – is that of data spaces. In this article, we will lay out what data spaces are, the function they perform, as well as how our work at the ODI on data stewardship and governance can contribute to how data spaces might realise their intended potential.
What are data spaces?
The notion of data spaces originated back in 2005, when the concept emerged as an alternative to data sharing between organisations through bilateral agreements. This approach to data sharing can be restrictive and onerous, stifling both access and innovation. Data spaces were therefore conceived to run contrary to this approach, whereby data would remain at its source, and access by others would be granted in a controlled and secure way. This combination of keeping data distributed and access controlled was intended as an alternative that could address data sharing concerns of organisations that held valuable, sensitive data but required additional measures to ensure that it was stewarded appropriately.
According to the Data Spaces Support Centre, a data space is ‘an infrastructure that enables data transactions between different data ecosystem parties based on the governance framework of that data space’ (emphasis in original). As such, they note that a data space can comprise different stakeholders, including data providers, users and intermediaries. While data spaces tend to focus on specific sectors, these can also be nested and overlapping, which means that organisations can share data in multiple data spaces at once. Furthermore, it is hoped that by adopting similar, standardised protocols, the grounds for interoperability and integration between data spaces might become commonplace. This is important as the ultimate ambition of the project - in Europe - is to create a single European data space, which would involve linking all of the data spaces to create a single market for data. In other words, a data space is an ecosystem of organisations working to share data towards a common cause based on an agreed set of rules to govern data sharing.
What do data spaces do?
As noted previously, data spaces were conceived as a means of fostering greater cooperation with data by overcoming some of the obstacles that exist for organisations that prevent them from wanting to share it. One of the important benefits of data spaces, according to the International Data Space Association (IDSA), is ‘data sovereignty’ within a data space. By this, the IDSA means that organisations that contribute data to a data space retain control over how this is accessed and used, depending on their preferences. Previous ODI research has demonstrated how businesses don’t always see the value of sharing data, and often have concerns about the commercial and legal risks. In response, Data Pitch created a data-sharing toolkit for startups and data holders to help analyse and overcome these barriers in data sharing for innovation in innovation ecosystems. Data spaces can serve to extend these efforts in allaying some of these concerns as organisations retain a stake in how data is used within their ecosystem and control over what data is shared and for what reasons.
In the past decade we have seen various sector-specific data spaces form, including within health, education, energy, mobility, space and finance. The IDSA’s most recent Data Spaces Radar report listed 145 ongoing data space entries that are at varying stages of maturity but included 12 examples that are considered fully operational and one that has reached the stage of scaling. These data spaces are helping to tackle real-world challenges, such as:
- The Once Only Technical System data space which enables the sharing of information between public administrations across borders between EU countries.
- The Catena-X data space which facilitates the sharing of data by automotive supply chain companies to increase transparency and sustainability across supply chains within the sector.
- The EUropean Federation for CAncer IMages (EUCAIM) data space, which is enabling researchers across the EU to access diverse cancer images for the purpose of benchmarking, testing, and piloting of AI-driven technologies.
As can be seen, data spaces are helping make inroads towards solving problems that span the delivery of public services, improving transparency and efficiency in industry and tackling important health challenges. That said, the majority of data space activity thus far has been driven by the private sector across Europe, with a focus on commercial applications of these infrastructures, such as for logistics, engineering and manufacturing.
The European Strategy for Data (2020) set out to create a single European market for data that upholds data privacy for individuals while enabling data use for competition and innovation. As part of the strategy, the European Commission proposed the creation of sector-specific data spaces that could bring together a range of stakeholders within a given domain to encourage data sharing and collaboration on common issues. The Commission's backing and support for data spaces has since taken a further step forward with the Data Governance Act, which supported the setup and development of Common European Data Spaces in 13 strategic sectors, including (but not limited to) agriculture, finance, cultural heritage, language, mobility and tourism.
Commercial focus or social good?
As mentioned previously, much of the initial work on data spaces was done by for-profit organisations, like the Volkswagen AG, thyssenkrupp and Fraunhofer ISST Automotive Supply Chain data space, which aims to increase transparency in the automotive supply chain by increasing trusted data sharing between manufacturers. However, movements from the European Union suggest that data spaces should also focus on the social benefits of data, raising tension between commercial and social interests.
Our use of the term ‘institution’ at the ODI seeks to convey data institutions' responsibility in stewarding data on behalf of a particular sector or community rather than just for their own internal benefit. But this doesn’t mean that data institutions can’t be for-profit organisations - we’ve worked with data institutions such as HiLo Maritime Risk Management, which pairs commitments to the public good with the need to generate revenue and in some cases, profit.
Both the ISDA and Gaia-X, as well as the European Commission, recognise the commercial and social benefits of developing data spaces. Given the benefit that data spaces offer for business in regards to data sovereignty, it’s likely that the concept will continue to receive significant commercial investment in the coming years. This commercial investment may impact future strategic and technical developments in data spaces, giving industry the power to shape the concept. To balance this commercial focus, the EU and the other authorities must be diligent in encouraging wider access to the data and, through funding, steer efforts to more socially focused data spaces.
Next steps for data spaces
Data spaces, as originally conceived, continue to make strong progress in the industrial world of supply chains, engineering and manufacturing. On the other hand, while the European Commission's Common Data Spaces programme has, so far, been funded through a series of open calls, these remain at varying maturity levels. This has, however, been aided by greater coordination and funding in recent years towards data spaces initiatives, resulting in developments such as the formation of the Data Spaces Business Alliance – a collaboration between the IDSA, Big Data Valuation Association, Gaia-X and FIWARE Foundation – and the accompanying Data Spaces Support Centre.
These initiatives have contributed towards developing a vibrant data spaces community and practical resources such as the Data Spaces Support Centre’s Blueprint, now in version 1.5. The Blueprint draws from learnings about previous efforts to help new initiatives accelerate and reach a higher flight level more quickly, protect investments and facilitate collaboration.
The two approaches to data spaces will continue to develop over the coming years and new data institutions will emerge in this space as organisations come together to share data to tackle a common challenge. There are no restrictions to developing data spaces using the evolving architecture, guidance, and principles that are published openly and built on open-source tools.The development and stewardship of data infrastructure is something that we’re increasingly interested in at the ODI. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] if you’d like to work with us on this.
