Gaia-X was announced in October 2019 as a collaborative effort led by Germany and France to create a secure, federated data infrastructure for Europe. Its goal is to facilitate decentralized data exchange across businesses and research institutions, ensuring interoperability and data sovereignty. Gaia-X is designed to support a wide range of industries, enabling participants to share data and access services on a large scale while retaining control over their data.
Name in original language
GAIA-X
Initiative overview
The organisational structure of Gaia-X is built on three pillars: the Gaia-X Association, the national Gaia-X Hubs, and the Gaia-X Community. Within these, there are various working groups and committees. The exchange within, between and beyond these pillars towards other stakeholders (e.g. EU Commission, international initiatives) is ensured.Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL, an international non-profit association under Belgian law, represents the core of the organisational structure of Gaia-X. It has been founded in January 2021 by 22 companies and organisations with the goal to develop the technical framework and operate the Gaia-X Federation services. Until today, more than 300 members from all over the world have since joined.Gaia-X Hubs are the central contact points for companies, stakeholders, initiatives, associations, and public sector bodies in each country contributing to the Gaia-X project. The aim is to set up one national Gaia-X Hub in each participating country to act as the voice of user ecosystems and to provide a central point of contact to interested parties on a national level.The open-source Gaia-X Community comprises the entire, global Gaia-X network. Users and providers collaborate on work packages. Everyone is welcome to join the Community and contribute to the establishment of a federated data infrastructure.To reach the digital sovereignty goals the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs launched the additional projects Gaia-X: Federation Services and Sovereign Cloud Stack to support the development of the architecture and the deployment of the open Gaia-X infrastructure. In March 2021 the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy launched a funding competition for pre-competitive projects to develop innovative and practice-oriented use cases in the GAIA-X digital ecosystem. More than 180 million euros will be available for lighthouse projects until the end of 2024. The results should generate impulses for further demand for GAIA-X-based data-driven applications and data spaces, both in Germany and internationally, and at the same time ensure connectivity for other interested parties.
Name of responsible organisation (in English)
Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL; Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi; Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie); Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung); Fe
