Aligned with the European data strategy and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, deployEMDS will support policymaking by enabling data sharing and reuse for efficient multimodal mobility and traffic management, as well as for measuring progress of sustainable urban mobility across Europe. “The common European mobility data space (EMDS) aims to facilitate data access, pooling and sharing for more efficient, safe, sustainable and resilient transport. It builds on initiatives and applications related to transport data and will be supported by initiatives to boost interoperability, security, and the availability and provision of data and services.”[1]

To support the initiative, a communication by the European Commission is planned for this year: it will announce the objectives and the proposed way forward for the EMDS. Specifically, it will describe the main features, objectives, governance, milestones and supporting measures for the EMDS.

deployEMDS is a project that aims to support the European Union’s digital sovereignty, notably by reinforcing EU critical digital capacities involving the preparation of a data infrastructure, governance, and processing. Building upon the groundwork laid by the preparatory action PrepDSpace4Mobility, the deployEMDS project’s primary objective is to deploy an operational data space and common governance mechanisms.

This data space will facilitate decentralised, trusted and secure data sharing. The project will actively support real-life implementation projects in nine cities and regions, including Barcelona (ES), Île-de-France (FR), Milan (IT), Lisbon (PT), Flanders (VLO), Sofia (BG), Stockholm (SE), Tampere (FI), and Budapest (HU). These initiatives will focus on developing innovative services and applications while assisting in policymaking through the sharing and reuse of data.

The launch event in Barcelona will officially kick off the collaborative work for the project consortium and set the course for the initial months of the project.

Lucie Kirstein, Project Coordinator at acatech, has expressed enthusiasm for the start of the project. “We are excited that we will now be able to demonstrate the data space concept in practice with so many important cities and regions across Europe. This will be an important basis for understanding the benefits of a currently very abstract concept and support local stakeholders in taking a step further in their thinking and urban data practices and governance”, says Ms Kirstein.

[1] EC, https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13566-Transport-data-creating-a-common-European-mobility-data-space-communication-_en

deployEMDS will contribute to the further development of the common European mobility data space announced in the Data Strategy and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, built and operated in full compliance with existing EU legislation in the mobility and transport sectors.

It contributes specifically to the long-term policy objective to build “a genuine single market for data”.

The project consortium comprises 38 members and 7 associated partners from 11 EU countries and is coordinated by acatech. The three-year project will run from 1 November 2023 until 31 October 2026.