IDSA Hub Finland
Bringing Finnish stakeholders to the future of the global data economy
The International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) and its Finnish hub – IDSA Hub Finland – are on a mission to create the future of the global, digital economy with International Data Spaces (IDS) – a secure, sovereign system of data sharing in which all participants can realize the full value of their data.

Data Spaces
Data spaces enable the integration of data across sectoral, organizational and geographical boundaries. They are key to the future global digital economy with innovative data enabled processes, products, and services. Data spaces are federated data ecosystems where trusted partners apply the same high standards and rules to the storage and sharing of data. The data are not stored centrally but distributed at source and only shared as needed. Organizations and individuals have self-determined control of the use of their data (data sovereignty) as they grant the access and usage rights to the data they generate. Creation of data spaces requires high level of coordination as the standards and policies and rules need to be accepted by all participants and as the adoption of common data spaces needs to be scaled up.
IDSA Hub Finland
IDSA Hub Finland facilitated by VTT fosters knowledge transfer and promotes data spaces, data sovereignty and IDS technology adoption in Finland. It works with IDSA on a variety of initiatives, builds cooperation with international stakeholders and supports Finnish companies’ participation in the global data economy. It fosters and coordinates research and development projects to further develop data economy and the IDS standard. VTT also has implemented an IDS testbed and made it available for use cases as an experimentation platform. VTT offers customized IDS component development as well as compatibility tests for IDS components.


The International Data Spaces Association (IDSA)
The International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) is a not-for-profit coalition that brings together companies, scientists, lawmakers and all relevant stakeholders to realize a joint vision of the future data economy and create a global standard for international data spaces (IDS) technology that will enable it. The vision is a world where data providers enjoy true data sovereignty and realize the full value of their data in secure, trusted, and equal partnerships. IDSA supports and governs the development of the IDS Reference Architecture Model (IDS-RAM) and the participant certification process. IDSA also fosters the business models that drive the vision of the data economy. Currently, the 130+ IDSA members represent dozens of industry sectors based in 20+ countries across the European Union and around the world.
Gaia-X
Gaia-X is an initiative promoting data economy and common standards and infrastructure for reliable sharing of decentralized data. Gaia-X and IDSA can be seen as complimentary and strengthening each other. They collaborate closely and IDSA is one of the founding members of the Gaia-X Association. The Gaia-X in combination with IDSA supports and enables data spaces and builds advanced smart services in industry verticals: Gaia-X focuses on sovereign cloud services and cloud infrastructure, while IDSA focuses on data and data sovereignty. The IDS standard is considered as a candidate to be the backbone of Gaia-X data infrastructure and the two initiatives seem to grow intertwined. IDSA Hub Finland is collaborating closely with the Gaia-X community.


Data Spaces Business Alliance
Data Spaces Business Alliance (DSBA) is an initiative launched together by IDSA, the Big Data Value Association (BDVA), Fiware, and Gaia-X in order to join forces and accelerate business transformation in the data economy. DSBA turns the skills, assets and experience in the founding organizations and their more than 1000 members into a single view to drive the adoption of data spaces across Europe and beyond. DSBA brings the parties together in three major areas: technology and architecture, support, as well as identification and characterisation of new potential data spaces.