Data spaces for a sustainable aerospace industry

Position Paper of the domain Aerospace

Summary

Aerospace is facing major challenges for the future and is linked to digitalisation and the data economy like no other sector: technology and digitalisation promote aerospace, which in turn enables the data economy. As a key sector, aerospace plays a central role in digitalisation. It develops solutions and security standards for critical technologies and sensitive data that are also used in other sectors and secure the sovereignty of Germany and Europe. Aerospace shares synergetic scientific specialisms such as flight dynamics, structural airframe design, satellite data acquisition, propulsion technologies, callipers, and fluid systems. Together, they master new challenges in the individual design, production and manufacture of internationally leading products and offer innovative solutions: In this way, they are driving digitalisation and climate protection and ensuring economic and technological sovereignty. These commonalities are also reflected in international norms and standards (ISO, 2024).

The concept of sovereignty also plays a central role in the utilisation of the data obtained: one opportunity for the aerospace industry lies in the creation of data spaces. With the Data Governance Act (DGA), the Data Act (DA) and the GDPR, among others, guidelines have been developed as part of the European data strategy to improve the sharing and management of data within the EU and strengthen the European market. In view of the increasing importance of data, these regulations will affect millions of companies in Europe and also the aerospace sector.

Gaia-X, a pan-European project that supports the creation of a trustworthy, federated, and sovereign data infrastructure, helps to implement the requirements and strengthen the development of data spaces, by enabling both the necessary governance mechanisms and the interconnection of decentralised infrastructures for data sharing. Gaia-X relies on open and transparent standards that enable interoperability between different services and data spaces and promote market transparency. These services help companies to fulfil legal requirements by enabling not only technical interoperability, but also legally compliant and trustworthy collaboration. This promotes the development of European data spaces that fulfil the principles of data interoperability, sovereignty, and innovation.

The aerospace ecosystem of Gaia-X has jointly developed a position paper in which it identifies the strengths and opportunities of a common data space for aerospace and advocates its establishment. The joint vision and an outlook with recommendations for action are explained in the paper.

Recommendations of the domain

As part of the domain work and the workshop of the Gaia-X Hub Germany domain aerospace, on November 18th, 2024, the members of the domain outlined the following recommendations for setting up a common data space:

Gaia-X as a key to promoting data-driven innovation

The aerospace industry should use Gaia-X as a strategic platform to create interoperable and secure data spaces. These enable data exchange, promote data-driven innovation and ensure the highest standards of data protection, security and interoperability. In this way, the industry increases its competitiveness and drives digital transformation.

Using Gaia-X as a guarantee for data protection and legal compliance

Gaia-X helps to implement requirements and legal specifications, especially those related to export control which are prevalent in our industry: It promotes open and transparent standards that make services and data spaces interoperable and increase market transparency. Data spaces do not pool data centrally but aim to interconnect decentralised infrastructures in a trustworthy environment thus, such standards are essential. In this way, it drives the development of European data spaces.

Building an active community

The domain should specifically build an active user community, promote partnerships and establish a shared information platform. In this way, it facilitates the exchange of knowledge and data and strengthens the common understanding of the use of Gaia-X.

Partnerships and strategic alliances

The aerospace domain should actively utilise partnerships and alliances such as the Data Spaces Business Alliance (DSBA)1. In this way, it promotes collaboration with other data infrastructures, creates interoperable data spaces and strengthens the digital transformation through a secure and sovereign exchange of data.

International cooperation

Strategic alliances and long-term partnerships between companies, research institutes, and governments ensure the continued existence and promote the further development of the aerospace industry as a driver of the global economy. It is important to think European and to intensify cooperation beyond Europe.

Increase accessibility

In order to improve the user-friendliness and accessibility of data spaces, simple onboarding processes and intuitive service provisioning should be developed. Trust can best be fostered through commercial solutions based on opensource software, as they combine transparency with reliable support and long-term sustainability.

Guarantee of the highest safety standards

In the aerospace industry, it is crucial to guarantee data protection and sovereignty. In the further development of technologies, the focus should be on data sovereignty, the implementation of automated and enforceable data usage agreements and the strict accreditation and identity verification of participants.

Development of operator models

To ensure the long-term success of data spaces, it is crucial to develop operator and business models with a clear governance structure. This structure regulates the responsibilities and interactions between the players and includes a comprehensive set of rules with technical specifications and internal guidelines.

Identification, refinement and implementation of use cases

The domain should actively develop and integrate specific use cases. This includes a structured process: from identification to refinement and implementation. It should promote cross-industry cooperation in order to maximise the economic, technological, and social benefits of data spaces and strengthen the industry’s competitiveness.