The preparatory action for the common European mobility data space, PrepDSpace4Mobility, has created an inventory of mobility and transport data ecosystems in Europe.
PrepDSpace4Mobility has made a major step towards achieving one of its main tasks: mapping existing mobility data-related ecosystems and initiatives. The project has developed an inventory of almost 400 data sharing initiatives in Europe in the mobility and logistics sector – at EU, national, and local level, or driven by private actors. 229 of those are available to be explored on an interactive map on the project’s website.
The common European mobility data space will provide technical infrastructure and a governance framework to make it easier to access and share data in a controlled and secure way for both passengers and freight.
This will benefit citizens, businesses, and public authorities. For example, increased access to data could help authorities to better monitor and plan transport systems. Exchanging data with partners across the logistics chain could allow transport companies to operate more efficiently. Improved data interoperability across mobility providers would facilitate seamless multimodal trips for users. And, leveraging the energy data space, the mobility data space could help optimise locally energy consumption by households and electric vehicles and production of renewable energy using batteries as temporary energy storage.
The common European mobility data space will not replace existing initiatives. Rather, it will support the interoperability between these ecosystems, making it easier to identify, access and exchange data across them. This is why mapping existing initiatives is essential.
An in-depth analysis of the identified initiatives will be the basis to complete the second main task of the project: proposing possible common building blocks and a common framework. The consortium has reached out to mobility data ecosystems with a survey to collect information on their characteristics and expectations from a European mobility data space.
First results show that data ecosystems use a variety of reference architectures and often combine elements from more than one model. Yet, there is consensus that common data models and application programming interfaces (APIs) for syntactic and semantic interoperability of data are a core requirement. The implementation of data access and usage policies is of high importance. The analysis will continue over the coming months.
On 10 May, the project will organise a workshop to allow mobility and logistics stakeholders to share their needs and requirements.
A Public Stakeholder Forum will also be held in June to present preliminary results of the analysis. Stakeholders and initiatives that would like to contribute to the work of the project are strongly encouraged to reach out to PrepDSpace4Mobility.
About PrepDSpace4Mobility
Launched in October 2022, PrepDSpace4Mobility is a 12-months coordination and support action is funded under the Digital Europe Programme, with a budget of €1 million. The consortium includes 17 partners from 7 Member States (Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Netherlands, and Spain). It is coordinated by acatech, the German Academy of Science and Engineering.
PrepDSpace4Mobility contributes to the European strategy for data. It directly supports the objective of deploying interoperable data spaces in key sectors. It also contributes to the European sustainable and smart mobility strategy.
The action is working under the oversight of and in close collaboration with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology and Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport.
Learn more and stay informed
For more information and to consult the interactive map, visit www.mobilitydataspace-csa.eu
Source: European Commission I Digital (https://bit.ly/3V8ETNi)