Highlights from EBDVF 2025: Advancing Cross-Data Space Interoperability and Value Creation

The European Big Data Value Forum (EBDVF), organised by the Big Data Value Association in Copenhagen, gathered experts, projects, and organisations working at the forefront of Europe’s data-driven transformation. This year’s discussions once again underscored the importance of interoperability across data spaces as a prerequisite for building a resilient, innovative European Data Economy.

Cross-data space interoperability: Insights from the panel

deployEMDS’ coordinator, Christopher Newman, joined one of the key sessions focused on a central challenge for the data space community: ensuring seamless data exchange across domains, sectors, and geographies. The workshop “Cross-data space interoperability – the essential key to unlocking the potential of the European Data Economy” presented findings from a pilot coordinated by the Data Spaces Support Centre and carried out together with several data space initiatives.

The session highlighted that:

  • Innovation and economic growth rely on the seamless flow of data across different data spaces.
  • Interoperability remains a complex challenge, requiring technical, organisational, and governance alignment.
  • Cross-data space interoperability (enabling participants to securely access or exchange data across multiple data spaces) is essential yet still difficult to achieve in practice.
  • The community is actively working on frameworks, methodologies, and shared approaches to address these gaps.

A panel discussion involving contributors to the study provided deeper perspectives on the report’s findings and explored potential pathways toward a more connected European Data Economy.

Within this broader conversation, the mobility sector emerged as a concrete example illustrating why interoperability matters so much. Modern mobility systems rely on data from a wide and varied ecosystem, including tourism, energy, logistics, and smart communities, as well as from national and regional mobility data spaces such as Eona-X and the German Mobility Data Space.

Value creation in data ecosystems

Jim Ahtes from i2CAT lead another key contribution during the session “Value Creation in Data Ecosystems”. This discussion examined how real value emerges when data ecosystems translate concepts into practical, operational results.

The session showcased:

  • Concrete products and services developed within data ecosystems
  • Use cases demonstrating measurable impact
  • Practical lessons that other initiatives can adopt when building or scaling their own data spaces

These examples illustrated that the value of data spaces becomes tangible when interoperable data flows support clearly defined use cases, highlighting interoperability as an enabler rather than a goal in itself.

Reflections from EBDVF 2025

EBDVF 2025 provided a strong platform for exchange, enabling meaningful dialogue on the challenges and opportunities ahead for European data spaces. Discussions across the event reaffirmed that:

  • Interoperability remains central to Europe’s data infrastructure ambitions
  • Cross-sector collaboration is essential to achieve operational data sharing
  • Value creation depends on practical, domain-relevant use cases supported by trusted data flows

For projects like deployEMDS, these insights reinforce the importance of ongoing cooperation with adjacent sectors and data space initiatives to build an interoperable and trusted European mobility data ecosystem.

Europe takes a big step toward a connected mobility data space 

Imagine a Europe where mobility data flows securely and seamlessly between cities, regions, and countries, helping us plan better transport, reduce emissions, and build smarter services for all. That’s the vision behind the common European mobility data space (EMDS), and the deployEMDS project is supporting the deployment of that idea. 

A major milestone has been achieved in defining the technical foundation of the future data space, led by the project’s technology and architecture team. You can access the full technical specifications report here, which details the selected technical architecture. 

Mobility data is everywhere, from public transport schedules to traffic conditions, vehicle-sharing platforms, logistics systems, and beyond. But today, much of this data is fragmented, hard to find, and even harder to combine across different systems and sectors. The EMDS aims to change that by creating a shared digital infrastructure that makes data discoverable, accessible, and reusable, all while ensuring trust, control, and sovereignty for those who provide it. 

To make this happen, the deployEMDS technical partners have been designing a comprehensive architecture and selecting the technologies that can support mobility data sharing across Europe’s diverse digital ecosystems. This architectural work is conceptually grounded in the Data Space Blueprint developed by the Data Spaces Support Centre (DSSC). 

The proposed deployEMDS architecture is designed to achieve key goals for its implementation sites and stakeholders: 

  • Provide entry points into the deployEMDS data space, allowing local sites and their stakeholders to promote offers, negotiate digital contracts, and exchange data securely within the defined use cases. 
  • Ensure harmonised discoverability capabilities so that local and regional data offers can be easily found on a European level. 
  • Support a harmonised interlinking of existing data space identity schemas on a European level, which helps foster interoperability across different data spaces. 

In this context, the architecture considers and complements the wider European efforts toward an Interlinking Layer, which acts as a conceptual bridge to connect different data systems and facilitate finding and accessing mobility and transport data across different sources. 

Building on the architectural foundation, the deployEMDS technical partners performed a rigorous evaluation of various existing data space technology stacks. This work was crucial in identifying the most suitable tools to meet the specific requirements of the project’s implementation sites. 

This thorough testing process focused on stacks built around major European data space initiatives, specifically including: 

The resulting architecture and the detailed learnings from this evaluation are highly valuable, providing a key resource for other organisations and projects operating in the mobility data space. This technical work greatly enhances the potential for reuse and replicability across Europe. To ensure the architecture fits real use cases, the team worked closely with the project’s local implementation sites across Europe. These partners shared their plans, data sources, infrastructure, and challenges, allowing the project to identify common needs and future-proof solutions. These insights not only validate the technical direction of deployEMDS, but also help guide the next steps in building and testing the system. 

What comes next? 

With the architectural blueprint in place, the focus now shifts to building a functional testbed: a sandbox where selected technologies can be trialed with real data and real use cases. From there, this will grow into a full technical infrastructure, ready to be deployed at demonstration sites across Europe. This process is intentionally iterative. As more use cases are tested and new needs emerge, the system will evolve to remain scalable, interoperable, and compliant with both EU-level and local regulations. 

Looking ahead 

The common European mobility data space is more than just a technical project, it’s a vision for a smarter, more connected, and more sustainable Europe. By combining cutting-edge technology with real-world input, deployEMDS is supporting the foundation of a future where mobility data is a shared asset, driving innovation, supporting public services, and empowering local ecosystems. Moving forward, the project’s focus shifts entirely to building and testing. The next steps (creating a functional testbed and scaling up to full deployment at demonstration sites) will turn this plan into a reality.