On February 4–5, 2025, the Industry Innovation Cluster (IIC) participated in the Data Sharing Festival 2025, held in The Hague, Netherlands. This two-day event focused on the theme “Next Level Data Spaces: Adopt, Scale and Roll-out,” and brought together an enthusiastic international community of data space experts and stakeholders.
🌐 About the Festival
The festival aimed to deepen collaboration and accelerate the implementation of data sharing solutions, with a strong emphasis on real-world applications and global use cases of data spaces. It attracted more than 400 participants, including EU representatives, private sector actors, and leading technology providers.
The event was organized by the Centre of Excellence for Data Sharing & Cloud (CoE-DSC), TNO, IDSA, Topsector ICT, BDI, and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. One of the official partners of the event was Gaia-X, who played a significant role in shaping the discussions.
🎤 Gaia-X as an Event Partner
As a key partner of the festival, Gaia‑X contributed its expertise in federated cloud infrastructures and data space frameworks. Their involvement included a dedicated booth, a keynote speech by CEO Ulrich Ahle, and four technical workshops focusing on trust, compliance, identity, and rule enforcement in data spaces.
🔍 Our Participation – Presenting ENERGY MASTER
The Industry Innovation Cluster took the opportunity to present several of its ongoing projects, with a special focus on ENERGY MASTER – a flagship initiative supported by EIT Manufacturing.
ENERGY MASTER demonstrates how data-driven energy management systems can be deployed in industrial environments to optimize energy consumption, reduce costs, and support sustainability goals. Using AI-based predictions, real-time monitoring, and intelligent control, the system helps manufacturers maximize the use of solar energy and reduce grid dependency.
The project was particularly well aligned with the festival’s core themes of data sharing and interoperability, showing how industrial energy systems can benefit from cross-domain data integration and collaborative innovation.
🧩 Highlighting Other IIC Activities
In addition to ENERGY MASTER, we presented other initiatives such as DevelopDataExchange, and discussed our broader efforts to support digital transformation in the Danube Region. We emphasized the importance of building data ecosystems that help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) become more competitive and future-ready.
🤝 Looking Ahead
The Data Sharing Festival 2025 provided an ideal platform to raise awareness about our work, explore synergies with the Gaia-X ecosystem, and gather fresh ideas for future projects. The event confirmed that data spaces are key to building an energy-efficient and data-driven industrial future.
We are grateful to the organizers and partners for this inspiring event, and we look forward to continuing our contribution to the evolving European data landscape.
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