The momentum for dataspaces and eDelivery
Connecting communities and ecosystems
The debate around data spaces gained an incredible momentum. Nowadays, building data spaces is the widely recognised next step in connecting different data ecosystems and achieving a level playing field in line with the European Strategy for Data.
“Data Spaces are a true paradigm shift" is the message echoing among implementers, policymakers, and civil society. Data spaces aim to tackle many of the missing puzzle pieces for true large-scale and open-to-all data exchanges, such as data catalogues, data permits, data usage policies, data exchange agreements, data quality rules and more. Data sharing through data spaces carries with it the potential to improve the lives of citizens, businesses, and public administrations across the EU.
Now, a new challenge lies ahead: how to leverage the existing interconnections and achievements in the best possible way, avoiding redefining the entire technology platform and focusing the new investments and standardisation in fresh areas. This implies a careful cartography of the existing landscape, selecting and supporting the most appropriate market-ready, tested and reliable solutions and standards for use by data spaces. Making the right selection is a critical success factor for reaching the objective of connecting data ecosystems across the continent and beyond.
eDelivery: a trusted solution for data spaces
The eDelivery Building Block is an established provider of open standards, secure and reliable solutions. The building block is currently used in over 84 projects enabling data exchange across the EU and in various sectors – from logistics to the judiciary. Moreover, the market staying power and flexibility of eDelivery solutions are highlighted by the existence of currently 33 eDelivery conformant solutions that have passed the eDelivery conformance testing. This family has been steadily increasing through the years, with a full and detailed list being available on this page.
Thanks to its solid track record as a provider of open standards for secure data exchange, eDelivery is considered a trusted solution for data spaces. This role has been recognised by both the European Commission and external stakeholders, such as the Member States and businesses.
Firstly, the European Commission is promoting eDelivery as one of the solutions for its service offering for dataspaces. The European Commission’s Directorate General for Informatics (DIGIT) features building blocks like eDelivery as available solutions for trustworthy data exchange to ensure secure, cross-domain, and cross-sector data transfer.
Similarly, eDelivery has already been recognized by the Member States and external stakeholders as a suitable solution for creating data spaces across all sectors, from healthcare to mobility.
For example, eDelivery was selected among the reusable solutions for the European Health Data Space (EHDS) pilot. During the 2022 edition of the Semantic Interoperability Conference (SEMIC), EHDS representatives highlighted the importance of eDelivery for HealthData@EU. HealthData@EU is a data-sharing ecosystem of secondary health data within EHDS, connecting entities such as European Health-Related Agencies (e.g., the European Centre for Disease Control, the European Medicines Agency) and health research institutions. eDelivery was chosen for EHDS because it is flexible and configurable, ensuring high-quality data exchange regardless of the number of stakeholders connected to the network.
Furthermore, the Member States are considering eDelivery as one of the top contenders for the messaging infrastructure in another data exchange ecosystem: the European Freight and Transportation Information (eFTI) project. The eFTI data set comprises data elements in an electronic format, providing mandatory regulatory information from economic operators (mainly companies involved in freight transport and logistics) to competent authorities. The implementation of eFTI is monitored by the Digital Transport and Logistics Forum (DTLF) – an expert group of the European Commission that brings together public and private stakeholders from various transport and logistics communities.
eDelivery’s success in providing open standards also makes it a potential candidate for the European Mobility Data Space (EMDS). Another pillar of the European Strategy of Data, the EMDS aims to unlock the potential of mobility data, which is essential for the digital and green transformation of the sector. Given the importance of the building block, eDelivery has been recognised as a relevant player for the PrepDSpace4mobility. During the first Public Stakeholder forum meeting, which took place on February 28th (slides available here), public and private sector representatives convened to chart the future of mobility data sharing while ensuring alignment with the European Data Spaces Technical Framework.
The Data Spaces Symposium – showcasing eDelivery’s success
eDelivery’s prominent role as a data space co-creator was highlighted during the Building Block's participation in the Data Spaces Symposium & Deep-Dive Day from the 21st to the 23rd of March 2023. The event saw over 500 data space enthusiasts crowding the Postillion Centre in The Hague to chart the future of data space implementation.
During the Symposium, the eDelivery team shared a booth and the stage with the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) team.
The Once-Only Technical System is a fully distributed data space for trusted evidence sharing. It creates an interoperability layer based on common and mature “building blocks", including the eDelivery building block, which creates a secure virtual private network on top of the public Internet. With the Once-Only Technical System, the Commission is establishing a cross-border and cross-sector G2G dataspace supporting the mobility of citizens and businesses in the Single Market.
Throughout the symposium, visitors to the OOTS and eDelivery booth gained access to a dynamic presentation on eDelivery service offering (available here) along with newly developed promotional material (available for download here).
On top of engaging with stakeholders at the eDelivery stand, the team highlighted its role as a data space co-creator during a dedicated pitch on the 23rd of March 2023 deep-dive session. Sharing the main stage of the Postillion Centre with the Once-Only Technical System team, eDelivery’s project officer Bogdan Dumitriu highlighted the building block’s importance in the creation of data spaces. He underlined how the contemporary data-sharing framework calls for cross-sector and cross-domain data spaces rather than isolated data silos.
Ultimately, the Symposium highlighted two vital takeaways: big data spaces are already in deployment – and they will revolutionise the data economy of the future – benefitting citizens, businesses and public administrations.
Similarly, despite legal uncertainties and standardisation challenges, the data space paradigm shift is already happening – and eDelivery is part of it.
The eDelivery team’s participation to Data Space Symposium highlights its key value proposition in building data spaces. Interested in all the webinars planned for the year ahead? You can see them at this link.
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.
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 data exchange. 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.
Photos by eDelivery SMCO