The goal of the INESData project is to create a Spanish Data Space Incubator to foster Data Space technology adoption and accelerate the development of a Data Space ecosystem in Spain. The project will develop complementary technology, offer storage and processing infrastructure and contribute to the global ecosystem with four National Data Spaces (Language, Mobility, Media, Legal) tailored to the linguistic and data needs of the Spanish-speaking regions, and, more broadly, European Data Spaces.
INESData's context is deeply intertwined with the European Data Spaces initiatives. The project aligns with the European Union's overarching goals to create interconnected, data spaces across different sectors and domains. This initiative aims to leverage data for innovation, economic growth, and societal benefits in Spain.
The project is a UNICO I+D Cloud initiative, with the aim of reinforcing research, development and innovation to promote the consolidation of Spanish companies and universities in Europe in areas such as the Cloud and promote public-private collaboration of both SMEs and Investigation groups.
INESData is situated within the broader European data landscape and aims to contribute to the creation of data spaces that cater to the specific linguistic, market, cultural, and data needs of the Spanish-speaking regions. It addresses both market demands and societal challenges and actively engages with various stakeholders to ensure a holistic and impactful approach to data-driven innovation.
The INESData project is framed within the lines and fundamental principles proposed in the European Data Strategy. This strategy raises the need and opportunity to share data between public and private organizations in an agile manner, going one step beyond what was already proposed in previous initiatives for the reuse of public sector information and open data in Europe, which were supported by directives related to the sharing of public sector data and information. The European Data Strategy is more ambitious in that it proposes the creation of so-called Data Spaces, as essential tools for the sharing of public, private and personal data between different actors and/or sectors, contributing to the creation of a single market.
The creation of some European data spaces is already proposed to facilitate, through strategic sectors, the creation of said European data market, understood as a single and genuine data market in which both personal and non-personal data - including sensitive company data - are shared securely, and in which companies are guaranteed efficient access to high-quality data, which allows enhancing the business growth and creating value.
Moreover, the objective of the European Digital Strategy is the sharing of high-quality data to foster innovation and the creation of added value in the business ecosystem of European countries. This initiative also determines, in line with the initiatives that are being carried out in the world of research data (and more specifically, in Europe, in the context of the European Open Science Cloud), that data must be shared in accordance with the logic of the FAIR principles (acronym in English for “findability, accessible, interoperable and reusable”), while respecting other relevant aspects such as the data protection directive. Likewise, the implementation of data governance models and structures that transparently determine data access and processing rights, and that are supported by data quality metrics, is of special relevance.
In this context, efficient and large-scale data exchange is not only facilitated, but cooperation between public administrations, industry, civil society and researchers is encouraged, promoting data-based innovation. These data spaces in which information is shared securely generally require the use of federated infrastructures in the cloud that allow distributed data storage, where each organization maintains sovereignty over the data it shares, and the provision of services, including those related to large-scale, reliable and energy-efficient data processing. The distributed services or components that are part of said infrastructure must allow not only the collection, structuring and sharing of data in interoperable formats, but also the processing of different types of data (textual, linguistic, multimedia, multimodal) for various purposes. and in multiple application domains.
Through this European cloud initiative, it is intended, among other things, to strengthen Europe's digital sovereignty and increase the competitiveness of European industry. The declaration expresses the need to carry out joint actions by the Member States aimed at combining private, national and European Union investment aimed at deploying these cloud infrastructures and services in an ecological and competitive way.
At INESData, we start from this concept and the need to work on its implementation not only at the European level (as is being done in the common European data spaces) but also in other geographical and administrative areas of application, such as national, regional and local ones, and in those sectors in which said application is beneficial for the associated ecosystems. To achieve this, we are committed to carrying out R&D tasks, which are based on the experience acquired in previous projects and on collaboration with relevant technology companies in the sector.
INESData will focus on simplifying and accelerating the development of a Data Space ecosystem in Spain. It will offer support for Spanish organizations interested in establishing data sharing models by a Spanish Data Space Support Center. We expect this Spanish Data Space Support Center to incubate additional data spaces in other domains over 2024 and 2025
We will offer a practical handbook to provide ready reference with tools, in particular:
INESData is the perfect complementary Spanish effort to European initiatives in the field of European Common Data Spaces. The Spanish Data Space Incubator is funded to:
The members of the project have long previous experience in BDV cPPP, data-driven projects, and Data Space initiatives (i.e. UPM is involved in the Spanish Gaia-X association). The project will bring together some Spanish Data Spaces to enrich the Spanish ecosystem: