Gaia-X Hub Austria

Gaia-X Hub Austria Vision

What

The European Gaia-X initiative stipulates a model that is fair and open to everyone, and on the basis of which organizations of all types can exchange data and establish data-based business models.

Why

The ever-increasing pace of digitalization in all areas of life means that the prosperity of the current and future generations will be affected significantly by success (or lack thereof) in the area of data-based business models. For this reason, organizations of all types are developing new and innovative digital business models. Organizations employing the Gaia-X ruleset will be able to trust that they can maintain control over their data, reduce the dependency on individual cloud providers, and significantly decrease their individual costs and technical implementation risks relating to the establishment of data exchange systems.

For whom

Austria’s innovative businesses that are successful today thanks to their outstanding technological capabilities can maintain their existing market positions as well as achieve new value creation by way of data-based business models. Public administration organizations in various areas including security, education, transport, health, and citizen services can develop effective and modern services using innovative models for data exchange and processing. The purpose of Gaia-X is to significantly accelerate these undertakings and support them comprehensively.

Bild mit Link zum Video: Die GAIA-X Association und warum Unternehmen dort mitwirken sollten

This is why it pays off for a company to become part of Gaia-X

Why companies should participate in Gaia-X – briefly explained in a video by the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering ISST:

Gaia-X Hub Austria MISSION

The Gaia-X Hub Austria will ensure that no time is wasted for Austria as a business location during this essential phase of the digital transformation – rather, that politics, science and education, industry, administration, and civil society organizations participate in the European Gaia-X initiative actively and at the cutting edge wherever possible.

To support the Gaia-X vision effectively, visibly, and sustainably, the Gaia-X Hub Austria will pursue the following four strategic areas of activity for all involved or interested

The Gaia-X Hub Austria will establish itself as the first point of contact for Gaia-X in Austria. It will ensure all work results, guidelines, documentation, and open-source codes are made accessible to all interested stakeholders in Austria in a timely, uncomplicated, and comprehensible fashion.

The Gaia-X Hub Austria will support Austrian organizations in their adoption of data-based business models and enable Austrian businesses of all sizes to initiate or participate in innovative implementation projects. This will allow them to obtain experience, acquire know-how, and increase their competitiveness on the European market.

The Gaia-X Hub Austria will help organizations to network efficiently and establish independent work groups and concrete alliances for implementation. The Hub will facilitate access to national and international funding programmes and showcase successful Austrian implementation projects in other EU countries. The Gaia-X Hub Austria will also ensure the greatest possible synergy with relevant Austrian initiatives and programmes.

The Gaia-X Hub Austria will establish a strong network with other national Hubs – especially with those in neighbouring countries and Eastern European states. The purpose of this powerful concerted voice is to ensure that topics and questions particularly relevant to Austria are heard at the European level, that Austrian projects are appropriately presented, and that the Austrian influence on decisions pertaining to the data economy at the EU level is increased.

Gaia-X Hub Austria OBJECTIVES

Based on the four strategic areas of action defined in the Mission Statement of the Gaia-X Hub Austria, the Hub aims to achieve the following operative objectives by the end of 2025

  1. The hub provides consulting services to political decision-makers with the goal of integrating Gaia-X into the digital agenda and shaping the national data strategy.
  2. The hub operates an interoperability lab based on a reference infrastructure in cooperation with the planned national Gaia-X Clearing House.
  3. The hub supports the development of an Austrian trust framework.
  4. The hub establishes partnerships with the Austrian representatives of the DSBA (Data Space Business Alliance) as well as the DSBC (Data Spaces Support Center) and coordinates the establishment of a “DSBA Hub Austria.”
  5. The hub advocates for the active involvement of the Austrian public administration in the Gaia-X ecosystem.
  6. The hub offers regularly updated communication and information formats.
  7. The hub supports the establishment and coordination of domain working groups, reference projects, and reference architectures.
  8. The hub develops specific recommendations for interested organizations to facilitate entry for potential participants into data spaces.
  9. The hub provides, in collaboration with funding agencies, a periodic overview of Austrian and European funding programs.
  10. The hub contributes to shaping the national data strategy by coordinating and aligning key stakeholders.

Gaia-X Hub Austria NON-OBJECTIVES

Non-objectives of the Gaia-X Hub Austria are:

  1. The Hub will not develop any business cases of its own. It is conceived strictly as a non-profit organization.
  2. The Hub will not participate in Federations or operate Federation Services.
  3. The Hub will not offer any form of commercial consultancy services (e.g. for the development of company-internal data strategies).
  4. The Hub will not disburse any subsidies or funding.
  5. The Hub will not perform any certifications.