Abstract
Governance, i.e. the coordination of the relevant actors, is a crucial part of setting up data
spaces. Because data spaces are federated, they allow many actors to participate and operate.
On the one hand, federated data spaces improve data sovereignty, competition and
innovation, compared to centralised infrastructures. On the other hand, they require
adequate governance arrangements to ensure efficient, effective, and fair interaction
between stakeholders. This White Paper aims to introduce the main questions of data space
governance, and to stimulate discussion on both theoretical solutions and their practical
application. To this end, the paper briefly discusses basic questions such as actors, structures,
phases and tasks. Each topic will be illustrated through two examples of advanced data space
projects. These are the Mobility Data Space (MDS), a data space for mobility data, and Catena-
X, a data space for the entire automotive supply chain.
After the introduction, the second section begins by establishing the definitions of “data
space” and “governance”, which underpin this White Paper. Data space governance will be
defined as coordinating stakeholders in an integrated data infrastructure. Section 3 describes
the actors involved in data space governance. It shows that a variety of organisations may be
involved – both as participants and as operators of a dataspace – provided that the
requirements at the level of the dataspace initiative and at the level of the individual data
space are met. Section 4 discusses governance structures. The examples of Gaia-X, MDS and
Catena-X illustrate the complexity of governance arrangements and the breadth of
participation possibilities. Section 5 presents specific legal requirements to consider, such as
the Data Governance Act.
Section 6 describes the tasks of data space governance involved in the different phases of
establishing a data space. It shows how the stakeholder networks and their interaction forms
are expected to evolve during the design, establishment, and operation of data spaces. Section
7 deals with the tasks of data space governance. It highlights the importance of designing the
participants group and interaction structures between them, with a special attention to
network effects. The paper concludes that new data space projects can draw important
lessons from projects already in development. However, advantages and disadvantages of
specific governance solutions must be weighed.