A common cloud-based data space for science and business
Access to a common cloud-based data space for science and business – that is the declared goal of FAIR Data Spaces. The FAIR Data Spaces project, initiated in May 2021, aims to link Gaia-X and the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) by means of a demonstrator domain, creating a pilot data space for industry and research in compliance with the FAIR principles. FAIR means that data and objects are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
FAIR Data Spaces intends:
- to bring together the communities of Gaia-X and NFDI both nationally and internationally;
- to design a road map for the collaboration of Gaia-X and NFDI;
- to clarify ethical and legal frameworks for data exchange;
- to discuss and to pilot common technical basics;
- to demonstrate the use of Gaia-X technologies for providing and using research data in compliance with the FAIR principles.
The FAIR Data Spaces project wants to promote innovations by improving the knowledge transfer between science and business, thus realising unused potentials.
About Gaia-X and NFDI
Gaia-X is a business-oriented European data infrastructure project whose main goals are digital data sovereignty, open, transparent and trustworthy data availability, and innovation. The project aims to create a secure and user-friendly federated data infrastructure of existing cloud providers to enable a sovereign handling of data and applications.
The National Research Data Infrastructure is a science-driven initiative which aims to systematically describe research data, save them for the long term and make them accessible and reusable along the FAIR principles across disciplines and borders. To achieve this goal, consortia are being built for various disciplines that develop custom-fit solutions for their scholarly communities. In addition, a cross-consortial exchange for the definition of general standards is being fostered.
The role of the ZBW
The ZBW is responsible, jointly with other project partners, for roadmapping, communication and community-building. The key activities are:
- identifying common goals and development of a vision;
- building the FAIR Data Spaces Community in Germany and Europe;
- internationalising the Community;
- making FAIR Data Spaces topics visible to business and scence.
Project duration and partners
Duration: 2021–2024
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
The project partners are:
- Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V. (FhG) (Coordination)
- National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) e.V. (Co-coordination) Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (JLU)
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (JLU)
- TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology
- University of Cologne (UzK)
- Leipzig University (UL)
- RWTH Aachen University
- FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure
- Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD)
- Heidelberg Academy of Science (HAdW)
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
- University of Marburg (UMR)
- University of Münster (WWU)
- ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics
- Atos Information Technology GmbH
