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Call for Proposals: Data Spaces Support Centre Program 2025

Deadline: 2-Sep-25

The European Commission (EC) is accepting proposals for the Data Spaces Support Centre Program.

Objectives
  • The objective is to maintain the Data Spaces Support Centre (DSSC), ensuring it continues to coordinate all relevant actions on Common European Data Spaces, while placing a stronger focus on deployment. This involves transitioning from the initial design phase to full implementation and ensure that data spaces deploy in a coherent way, are interoperable and benefit from economies of scale through the adoption of common practices, standardised components (referred to as ‘building blocks’), protocols and tools (e.g., software implementations or services that effectively support these building blocks).
  • The aim is to build upon the existing efforts and actively engage and fully support the deployment, proper functioning, and interconnection of Common European Data Spaces, as well as of other data-sharing initiatives organised outside the Digital Europe Programme. This will boost secure and trusted data sharing and reuse within and across sectors, benefiting both the public sector and European businesses, particularly SMEs.
  • Additionally, the DSSC will continue supporting the work of the European Data Innovation Board (EDIB) e.g., by identifying cross-sector standards for data use and sharing, by conducting comparative analyses across sectors, and by highlighting best practices related to security and access to data, all while considering sector-specific standardization efforts. In order to ensure alignment with sectoral initiatives, the DSSC will work in close cooperation with the key stakeholders in the data spaces.
Strands
  • The Support Centre will include three main work strands:
    • Community Building
      • The first work strand aims to maintain and enlarge the network of stakeholders.
      • Fostering a community of practice focused on data sharing, including activities aimed at European businesses and organisations to understand and seize the opportunities arising from data sharing.
      • Engaging participants from projects supported by the EU, especially those funded by the EU, including AI factories, as well as participants involved in initiatives organised outside the Digital Europe programme.
      • Collaborating with providers of data space services and technology, with a particular emphasis on open-source solutions, such as the European Commission’s Simpl programme.
      • Maintaining an overview of commercial market developments, mainstream and emerging apps, services, and AI platforms.
      • Maintaining a live observatory on data-sharing initiatives and data spaces in Europe, enabling qualitative and quantitative analysis to inform policymaking and research. It will combine crowdsourced data with curated quality control and support ad hoc or topical research.
      • Connecting with data sharing activist organisations and individuals and the open data community.
    • Governance and Infrastructure Requirements
      • In collaboration with the stakeholder network, the second work strand focuses on:
        • Promoting the use of common solutions for data infrastructure across sectoral data spaces, covering technical design, functionality, operation, governance and legal aspects.
        • Identifying standards, including semantic standards and interoperability protocols (both domain-specific and crosscutting).
        • Engaging in standards development initiatives, where needed, to ensure data space requirements are supported.
        • Identifying and documenting methods and tools to assess the utility of data spaces, the business value for its participants, and to model the economic dynamics of data and AI ecosystems.
        • Document best practices for effectively engaging SMEs in data-sharing initiatives and data spaces.
        • Exploring potential synergies between data spaces and coordinate cross-cutting exchanges among them.
        • Promoting data governance models, business strategies, and operational approaches for running data spaces. Reach out to industry associations and industry standards organisations.
        • Addressing legal issues and other market-relevant barriers.
        • Identifying opportunities for value added services.
        • Actively monitor and advance the maturity of Common European Data Spaces, based on standardised metrics, KPIs, and a well-defined growth path.
        • Continue advancing the DSSC maturity model, ensuring its alignment with preferred solutions, standards, and European legislative requirements, and support its transition into a formal European technical specification (European standardisation organisations).
    • Platform for knowledge sharing and support  
      • The third work strand will focus on the maintenance and development of the DSSC.EU platform which will act as a central hub for knowledge sharing, stakeholder support and the development of data spaces. It will provide resources, promote best practices, and allow to connect stakeholders across various initiatives. The platform will also include a customer support centre function, allowing stakeholders to easily get into contact with the DSSC for specific support requests.
      • The Data Spaces Support Centre addresses a wide range of stakeholders involved in the creation, maintenance and governance of Common European Data Spaces. It aims to create a collaborative environment where these diverse stakeholders can work together to establish Common European Data Spaces that are secure, interoperable, and trustworthy. These stakeholders include European organisations from different sectors:
        • Private: Businesses and industries that can benefit from data sharing and interoperability.
        • Public: Government agencies and public administrations that manage and use data for public services.
        • Academia: Research institutions and universities that contribute to the development of data space technologies and standards.
        • Civil Society: Non-governmental organisations and community groups that advocate the use of data in a secure and trusted manner.
Funding Information
  • EUR 10 000 000
Outcomes and Deliverables
  • The outcome of this action will be the transformation of the Data Spaces Support Centre into an organisation that actively promotes, monitors and supports the full-scale deployment of data sharing initiatives, to the benefit of the European data economy.
  • Building on existing deliverables, the Centre will shift focus from foundational technology discussions to practical applications and real-world use cases, accelerating implementation and bringing data spaces to life. Additionally, it will consolidate previous achievements through a standardisation process, ensuring the interconnection, seamless integration, and interoperability of data spaces across various sectors. The Centre will also ensure active involvement from key stakeholders to foster broad participation and alignment.
  • KPIs to measure outcomes and deliverables –
    • Number of stakeholders engaged in the network
    • Number of supported data sharing initiatives
    • Number of data sharing initiatives that participate in the DSSC maturity model
Targeted Stakeholders
  • Public and private organisations, including SMEs, interested in the participation in Common European Data Spaces and related data sharing initiatives; research institutions and universities that contribute to the development of data space technologies and standards; standardisation bodies; the open data community; the civil society – non-governmental organisations and community groups that advocate the use of data in a secure and trusted manner.
Eligibility Criteria
  • In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
    • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
    • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
      • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
      • non-EU countries (except for topics with restrictions)
      • listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme
    • Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation).
  • Please note however that following topic is subject to restrictions due to security reasons:
  • DIGITAL-2025-AI-SUPPLY-08-Apply AI: GenAI for the public administrations
    • Only the following countries are eligible: EU Member States, EEA countries (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Switzerland.
    • Entities must not be directly or indirectly controlled from a country that is not an eligible country unless the granting authority agrees to allow for exceptional participation on the basis of a guarantee.

For more information, visit EC.