Sitra is launching a call for applications for project funding to collect experiences and lessons learned on data sharing between businesses and more widely. The call aims to explore how the European Gaia-X model for data sharing works in practice. There will be three rounds of applications. The deadline for the next round ends on 31 March 2023.

What is it about?

Sitra is issuing a funding applications call to collect experiences and lessons learned on data sharing between businesses. We are looking for companies that want to pilot data sharing based on the European Gaia-X model. The aim is also to find out how different solutions for data sharing can work together smoothly and how data sharing can create new value and business. For more information on the Gaia-X model and how to create compatible solutions based on it, see the Gaia-X Trust Framework publication.

In its data strategy, the European Commission estimates that the value of the European data economy will increase to EUR 829 billion by 2025. We believe that this is only possible by sharing data across organisational and national boundaries. It requires an infrastructure that enables the reliable data sharing between different parties and supports the interoperability of different solutions. We also need common rules and standards and smart regulation. Above all, however, there must be mutual trust between those that share and use data, as well as trust in the solutions chosen.

Gaia-X is a pan-European project that aims to create models for trustworthy and interoperable data sharing across Europe. It is aligned with the objectives of the European strategy for data and the EU’s new data legislation. In particular, it represents the voice of parties in building European data spaces. Sitra is the co-ordinator of the Finnish Gaia-X-network.

Gaia-X aims to define rules for digital identity management, creation of trust and data exchange, as well as to build a European cloud architecture that complies with these rule structures.

Sitra’s call for funding offers consortiums of multiple applicants an opportunity to experiment and learn data sharing and value creation in line with the principles of the fair data economy. We are looking for partners to find out what kind of data sharing use cases would benefit from the principles underpinning Gaia-X’s work. We also want to explore what it means to build an interoperable solution based on these principles means in practice. For more information about the principles of data sharing, which are at the core of the Gaia-X work, see the international Gaia-X association’s website.

The aim is to also strengthen the capacity of businesses and ecosystems to participate in building European data spaces and obtain related international funding. Sitra will publish the lessons learned from the projects, which will be freely available for use in Finland and abroad.