International Data Spaces (IDS) enable organizations to securely exchange data without having to run data streams through a centralized platform. As a result, the original owner always retains control of the data and sets restrictions and conditions for its use. IMT has no doubt that ‘data sovereignty’ is a fundamental concept of the rising data economy: a trustworthy environment is meant to underpin any exchanged data between companies in the future. IDS is an open standard that can be implemented in the software of multiple companies.

As a ‘French IDSA Hub’, IMT promotes the concepts of IDSA among public and private organizations in France and points out useful initiatives that can support the IDS development on French national level. The aim is to accelerate activities in the field of data sharing by starting new initiatives in France and also by connecting existing initiatives among European countries within EU projects, such as BOOST 4.0.

IMT has been given this key role in the field of data sharing on the basis of its extensive knowledge in the field of ICT and its position within initiatives in several sectors, such as industry or healthcare.

Why IDS?

The sharing of data within sectors, as well as increasingly between organizations across sectors, is necessary to be able to compete. It is no longer sufficient to only collect and analyze data within a company. Only by combining data sources with those of other stakeholders can draw valuable conclusions to companies and optimize their business operations within the chain or across complex value networks: from earlier recognition of anomalies in a production process to streamlining a supply chain.

This makes data a strategic asset for more and more companies, with the consequence that organizations want to keep control of its usage. One example is controlling privacy (GDPR) or commercially sensitive information. However, data sharing itself is also becoming more complex: artificial intelligence, for example, offers opportunities while also making it necessary to properly manage matters such as meaning, context and quality. At the same time, the costs of data sharing must be reduced in order to make large-scale implementation possible.

IMT considers standardization in the data sharing area, as developed by IDS (among others), as a key method to address these issues. This also works well with the broader range of technologies that IMT is working on. Its research activities in the industry sector for instance need to rely on a standard for easy exchange of data and/or train algorithms and realize the promises of the Industry 4.0 (i.e. Industrie du Futur in France).

IMT and the International Data Spaces Association 

The IDS Initiative is managed by the International Data Spaces Association, a European non-profit association with currently 100 members from numerous industries, ICT and research institutes across 19 countries, predominantly European. IMT is a member of the association and is especially active in the Architecture WP. Through the French IDSA Hub, this knowledge and experience can now be made available to other industry players in France, allowing them to develop their own applications.

There are already 6 official IDSA Hubs

Tendency: more and more countries are establishing country hubs in alignment with the IDSA in order to build bridges for growth in the respective countries. IDSA would like to use these partners to disseminate its standard on data sovereignty and data ecosystems in Europe and beyond, and to intensify cooperation with international R&D organizations and companies.

At present there are already six IDSA Hubs (Netherlands, France, Finland, Czech Republic, Italy and Spain). Three more countries are about to sign the contract with International Data Spaces Association.

To the IMT website: www.imt.fr/en

For an overview of all IDSA Hubs: www.internationaldataspaces.org/get-involved