eDelivery at SEMIC: enabling data sharing in data spaces
As the 2022 edition of the Semantic Interoperability Conference (SEMIC) ends, the eDelivery team looks back to a successful day of networking and debates on interoperability and data spaces.
On the 6th of December 2022, after having taken place virtually for two years, this year's SEMIC returned in person with the topic "Data Spaces in an Interoperable Europe." The conference, organised by the Interoperability Unit of DIGIT of the European Commission, saw attendees from all over Europe coming together to discuss the implementation of data spaces, with success stories from both the public and the private sector.
This year’s edition of SEMIC far exceeded everyone’s expectations. Throughout the day, over 50 high-calibre speakers from academia, private and public sectors took part in panels and discussions in the fully packed rooms of the Square Meeting Centre in Brussels, to chart the future of interoperability and the implementation of data spaces.
SEMIC attendees crowded the eDelivery booth all day long. Thanks to the newly developed marketing material, visitors learnt about eDelivery’s mission, service offering, and its key role in building data spaces such as the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) and the European Health Data Space (EHDS).
The pioneering role of eDelivery in implementing data spaces was also at the centre of the dedicated afternoon pitch, where eDelivery Project Officer Bogdan Dumitriu shared the stage with Licinio Kustra Mano, Digital Health Interoperability and Infrastructure Architect for the EHDS. Together they explained eDelivery's contribution to building the European Health Data Space. The pitch highlighted the importance of standardisation for the achievement of EU-wide interoperability. Standards put data space participants on an equal footing, and only through standardised data sharing will future data spaces be interconnected instead of becoming data silos. The value of eDelivery standards has already been widely recognised: both the European Commission and the Member States have already piloted, embraced, and championed eDelivery as a set of open standards for secure data exchange.
The problem-solution match can be seen in the use of eDelivery in two upcoming data spaces, OOTS and the EHDS. For EHDS, the vital role of eDelivery infrastructure has been highlighted for interconnecting entities participating in the secondary use of health data within the European Health Data Space, HealthData@EU. This digital infrastructure will connect stakeholders such as European Health-Related Agencies (e.g., the European Centre for Disease Control, the European Medicines Agency) and health research institutions, among others. Only a secure, tested, and reliable message exchange protocol can enable data exchange within such a heterogeneous information system: for this reason, eDelivery has been deemed the perfect fit for EHDS. During the pitch, the EHDS representative shared several additional reasons why the building block has been chosen for HealthData@EU: eDelivery ensures a sustainable level and performance regardless of the number and the nature of stakeholders within EHDS, it ensures data integrity and confidentiality in every transmission, and it is flexible and configurable.
This pitch has been followed by the presentation of the OOTS project. Mr Jonathan Attia spoke about French authorities' commitment to the once-only principle and about the OOTS implementation process in France. He also made a reference to the eDelivery building block, which will be reused to create a virtual secure network.
SEMIC represented an invaluable opportunity to interact in-person with the eDelivery community, and our team was honoured to display the pivotal role eDelivery plays in building data spaces. Participation in SEMIC marks the end of in-person events for our 2022 event calendar. However, our team is working hard behind the scenes to deliver a packed calendar of exciting virtual, hybrid and in-person events throughout 2023. Stay tuned!
For more information about eDelivery, do not hesitate to contact us via our portal or by e-mail: EC-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu
The eDelivery Building Block
eDelivery is a building block that provides technical specifications and standards, installable software and ancillary services to allow projects to create a network of nodes for secure digital data exchange.
Domibus is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery AS4 Access Point for the interoperable, secure and reliable exchange of data. It is based on the eDelivery AS4 profile, an open technical specification for the secure, web-based, payload-agnostic exchange of data or documents.
DomiSMP is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery Service Metadata Publisher for publishing and retrieving data necessary for an eDelivery party to dynamically configure its system for message exchange with counterparties using eDelivery. It is based on the eDelivery SMP profile, an open technical specification for publishing service metadata within a 4-corner network.
DomiSML is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery Service Metadata Locator for an eDelivery party to discover the URLs of other counterparties using eDelivery Access Points and their corresponding metadata. It is based on the eDelivery BDXL profile, an open technical specification for locating Access Points within a network, and on the PEPPOL SML Specification, a technical specification defining a BDXL administration API.
Stay tuned for the latest updates on the eDelivery services by checking the building block's twitter and web page. For more information, do not hesitate to register for personalised news or contact us via our portal or by e-mail: EC-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.
Photo by Anna Busdraghi