The central neutral organizations of the German and European data space ecosystem want to carry the successful build-up phase of recent years into a phase of broad adoption, economic impact and internationally connectable data spaces.
Data spaces have moved beyond the pilot phase. The task now is to take them into broad use: into small and medium-sized enterprises, into public administration and into new sectors. With its call for the Data Spaces Hub Germany, the Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS) takes up this development. acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, Fraunhofer ISST, the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) and the Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL are applying jointly to coordinate the hub. The acatech Foundation leads the consortium.
The right step at the right time
Germany today has many successful data space initiatives. The challenge is no longer to explain data spaces but to make them usable more widely and to bring their impact to bear in the economy, public administration and society. The new hub follows directly from the work of the data space community and the engagement of the Federal Government, always in coordination with European data space activities. Over the past years, industry, research and policymakers have created technical foundations and standards, brought the first data spaces into operation and built a network of committed actors. That this work will be continued is an important signal. Anyone who wants to make industrial and administrative data usable for sovereign AI applications needs data spaces – and a body that eases entry, pools knowledge and makes the benefits of data sharing visible.
Building on what works
The hub does not have to start from scratch. The Gaia-X Hub Germany, which acatech coordinated until August 2026, brought together a broad community of companies, research institutions, associations and public administration across numerous sectors. The partners already help shape central European data space activities – from Gaia-X and the Data Spaces Support Centre (DSSC) to standardization, interoperability and the practical introduction of data spaces in industry and public administration. The consortium intends to build on these structures, formats and contacts and to extend, improve and complement them: thematically beyond Gaia-X, bringing together the many facets of data spaces, with a focus on practical implementation and with offerings for everyone who is only just getting started.
Orientation across the entire data space landscape
If awarded the contract, the hub is to provide orientation across all data space related activities in Germany and bring together:
- industry, research, public administration and policymakers,
- all data space initiatives,
- all sectors,
- all political levels and departments,
- actors at every level of knowledge – from first interest to operating their own data space.
Neutral mediation, competence across all service areas
The basis is a neutral intermediary role. acatech holds the lead, participation in the hub’s offerings is not tied to any membership and the hub is open to all initiatives and approaches.
The partners contribute complementary strengths: acatech brings many years of experience in networking, community management and knowledge transfer as well as access to the academy’s network of science and industry; Fraunhofer ISST brings application-oriented research and technological implementation expertise; IDSA brings its international community, its leading role in the IDS Reference Architecture Model (IDS-RAM), the IDSA Rulebook, the Dataspace Protocol (DSP) and standardization as well as its experience in building and scaling data spaces; Gaia-X AISBL brings its Trust Framework and the international network of Gaia-X Hubs. Together, the consortium covers all service areas of the hub – from the central point of contact and knowledge transfer through business models and technical implementation to onboarding support.
“Data spaces are not created on paper. They are created by organizations that share data, apply common rules and generate concrete value. That is exactly where we want to support companies, public administrations and data space initiatives. The Data Spaces Hub Germany can become the place where knowledge, standards and practical implementation come together.”
Lars Nagel, CEO of the International Data Spaces Association
