Spotlight on the Luxembourg GAIA-X regional hub

31 March 2021

By joining the European federated data infrastructure’s project, Luxembourg will facilitate the participation of all relevant players in the country: companies, public sector bodies and research organisations.

If data from multiple sources can be made available and combined in a secure and trusted environment, companies, research organisations and public bodies can gain new knowledge, create innovative and sustainable products and offer better services to citizens. The objective of GAIA-X is to develop the foundations of a European federated, open data infrastructure based on European values by gathering the requirements from business, research and the public sector.

GAIA-X aims at connecting centralised and decentralised infrastructures in order to turn them into a homogeneous, user-friendly system where data can be accessed and shared securely and confidently. Regional hubs in participating countries will coordinate the initiative on the national level and facilitate the participation of local players that want to be part of formulating the requirements for making data accessible and interoperable. Luxinnovation will act as coordinator of the Luxembourg GAIA-X Regional Hub.

“Our objective is to include all relevant players in the Luxembourg GAIA-X hub: businesses, ministries and research organisations,” states Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot.

GAIA-X comprises two main layers: connecting and harmonising necessary infrastructure – cloud systems, connectivity, computing power and so on – and setting up thematic data spaces where use cases in areas such as energy, mobility, finance, health, etc. can be explored taking into account the user and demand perspective.

A European secure and federated data infrastructure

“Joining GAIA-X offers Luxembourg’s cloud services providers, network providers and data infrastructure entities the opportunity to provide input to defining data infrastructure requirements,” explains Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation.

“It is a way to ensure that their services and infrastructures will be interconnected and interoperable within a future European secure and federated data infrastructure. Participating in the data domain working groups is relevant to any company, research organisation or public sector body that sees the opportunities and benefits that secure access to, as well as sharing and combining of, data across many sectors can offer. They will be able to identify and prioritise use cases, align on common data standards required, possibly build consortia to benefit from future opportunities as well as leverage national and European funding.”   

A special advisor for digitalisation and data economy at Luxinnovation, Peter Sodermans, has been entrusted with the coordination of the Luxembourg GAIA-X regional hub. He will act as a central contact point for all partners involved and any interested parties.

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