DSA Signs Collaboration Agreement with Gaia-X (European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL)

The Data Society Alliance (DSA) and the Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL (Gaia-X), a leader in data collaboration in Europe, signed a collaboration agreement on April 7, 2022.
In this way, the two organizations will promote cooperation in the areas of sovereign and trusted data and cloud technologies based on mutual understanding.

Specifically, DSA and Gaia-X will mutually promote cooperation in the following activities
 

• The creation of a federation community in Europe and Japan supporting the aim and the ambitions of Gaia-X and DSA,
• The support for the establishment and the central point of contact of a Japanese Gaia-X Hub,
• The support for the enhancement of DSA activities in Europe,
• The knowledge transfer by mutual introductions of members and member organizations to both initiatives,
• The consent of the Parties to consolidate and align Data Spaces and use cases,
• The support of other activities in which both parties agree to cooperate, like delegation visits or specific international events
• The future support of each other in the further developments of the respective global standards such as IEEE, ISO, IEC, etc.

For this partnership, the two organizations held a signing ceremony via web conference on April 7, 2022. The signing ceremony was attended by representatives from DSA, Gaia-X, French Ministère de lʼéconomie et des finances, German ministry BMWK, European Committee and the Japanese Digital Agency, who welcomed the signing.

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“Japan is one of the largest economies internationally ‒ deeply involved in all sectors and supply chains. Our collaboration will onset, further enable, and will successfully leverage the data-driven economy in Japan and Europe, together with providers and user communities, underlining a great partnership which shows the importance of an international cloud framework that will fully enable a secure, open, and sovereign use of data globally.”

Dr. Maximilian Ahrens, Chairman of the Gaia-X Association

“Gaia-X dives into the next generation of digitalization that extends beyond European borders.
Today’s collaboration sign-off marks a step forward to improve and strengthen our digital sovereignty and show our commitment to meeting rising challenges and opportunities of the digital strategy at a cross-border level. This cannot happen without international cooperation.
We are excited to have Japan in our Gaia-X territories and proud to become an antenna for the DSA in Europe”.

Francesco Bonfiglio, CEO of Gaia-X Association

We are pleased and proud to announce that a collaboration agreement has been reached between Gaia-X and DSA.
In a digital society, the utilization, sharing, and mutual use of data is a major driving force.
Our goal is to enable everyone, regardless of country, region, or business category, to enjoy a rich social life and development using data. Interconnectivity and collaboration across countries and regions are key to achieving this.
We expect that the alliance between the two organizations, both of which are leaders in data collaboration in Japan and Europe, will accelerate data collaboration between Japan and Europe.

Noriaki Okui, President, Data Society Alliance

Gaia-X, established in June 2021, is a digital ecosystem self-regulated by its members.
The initiative works to create an environment in which data can be shared and stored under the control of data owners and users with respected rules that create unprecedented opportunities for innovative, data-driven business models and scalable growth. To learn more, click here.
To join Gaia-X as a member, check here

The Data Society Alliance (DSA) aims to contribute to the realization of an affluent society through fair and free data distribution and utilization across fields (the “data society”) in cooperation with industry, government, and academia and partnership with not only Japan but also the rest of the world.
As one of these activities, we will promote DATA-EX, a platform aiming at federal-type crossdisciplinary data collaboration, in which existing efforts related to data collaboration are coordinated.