NGDI

Next Generation Dataspaces Initiative 

The NGDI project is developing the technological and organizational foundations for the next generation of European data spaces. The goal is to enable interoperability between domain-specific data spaces, thereby promoting innovative, cross-industry business models. With the help of semantic web technologies, large language models, and distributed persistent identifier systems, barriers to entry for companies are lowered, enabling sovereign, secure data usage across sector boundaries.

The challenge

Data rooms are increasingly becoming the central infrastructure for secure data exchange in business and society. Currently, however, domain-specific data rooms in areas such as mobility, energy, health, and culture are largely isolated from one another. This fragmentation leads to new data silos at the data room level and prevents cross-sector data value creation. In addition, the barriers to entry for small and medium-sized enterprises are high due to a lack of standardized tools and intuitive usage options. The effective use of semantic web technologies to ensure interoperability has not yet been sufficiently implemented. It is therefore crucial for the competitiveness of European industries to develop mechanisms that enable seamless, secure, and sovereign interoperability between different data spaces.

Our services

Within the framework of the “NGDI” project, Fraunhofer ISST is particularly concerned with the analysis and synthesis of governance mechanisms for the next generation of data spaces. This builds on many years of experience gained from collaboration with the International Data Spaces (IDS) and Gaia-X initiatives, as well as from managing the Fraunhofer Research Center for Data Spaces. Extensive expertise from projects such as Catena-X, Mobility Data Space, HEALTH-X dataLOFT, and Silicon Economy is being incorporated into the development of information architectures and strategic roadmaps. In addition, the requirements for interoperability and federation from existing domain-specific data spaces are being systematically analyzed and consolidated into a holistic concept. This lays the foundation for trustworthy, cross-sector data spaces.

The result

“NGDI” provides white papers with guidelines for governance and business models, develops infrastructure frameworks for distributed persistent identifiers and LLM-based services for automating data space interoperability, as well as demonstrators that show the added value of federated data exchange. The project results are evaluated in at least three existing data spaces and create the basis for new data-driven services across industry boundaries. In this way, “NGDI” makes a decisive contribution to European data sovereignty and competitiveness.

The partners

• Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT (lead partner)
• Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST
• University of Galway, Insight Centre for Data Analytic