GAIA-X entering its operational phase Almost €190 m in funding for GAIA-X flagship projects

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is launching a funding competition (in German) for “innovative and practical applications and data spaces in the digital GAIA-X ecosystem”, which will be used to support applications based on the digital GAIA-X infrastructure. In other words, GAIA-X is entering its operational phase. The funding competition is now open to consortiums composed of users and suppliers working in business, science, and the public sector. Submissions of project abstracts can be made until 7 May 2021.

Said Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier: “In autumn 2019, we began this journey towards a sovereign and secure European data infrastructure. Now it is time for GAIA-X to come to life and to be experienced through innovative applications. We are providing almost €190 million for flagship projects from all sectors, all based on the GAIA-X infrastructure. This is how we are bringing GAIA-X to practical application. As we do so, we will be especially focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises to ensure their competitiveness in an economy that is increasingly being driven by data.”

Flagship projects selected in the GAIA-X funding competition will receive €10 million to €15 million each. Suppliers and users are being encouraged to develop use cases and implement the technology for them. Parallel to this, the construction of data rooted in the GAIA-X infrastructure is also being supported. These data spaces will form the basis of a digital ecosystem that encourages data sharing.

The outcomes of the funding competition are to facilitate other innovative business models and applications beyond the flagship projects themselves. The objective is to generate additional demand for GAIA-X-based data-driven applications and data spaces.

Over the duration of the competition, from now until the end of 2024, a total of €186.8 million in funding will be available. This funding belongs to the category of No. 43 of the Federal Government’s stimulus package “addressing the impact of coronavirus, safeguarding prosperity, making Germany fit for the future”. At the same time, the funding competition also marks an important step in the implementation of the Federal Government’s Data Strategy.

A notice about the GAIA-X funding competition will today be published in the Federal Gazette.