In the research projects on International Data Spaces, Fraunhofer IESE is working together with other Fraunhofer Institutes to develop solutions for the sovereign and thus self-determined exchange of data across company boundaries.
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The digitalization of companies and their processes is a driver for innovative business models. The basic prerequisite for this is to make data usage secure, trustworthy, and simple. The associated exchange of data between companies gives rise to value-creating networks and increases the potential of data as an economic asset. The implementation of data sovereignty, i.e., the greatest possible control, influence, and insight by the data provider regarding the usage of data, is a key success factor for the establishment of such Digital Ecosystems.
In the research projects on International Data Spaces, Fraunhofer IESE is developing technologies and solution components for the implementation of data sovereignty in order to achieve informational self-determination and transparency in data usage.
The research project “Industrial Data Space” (October 2015 to April 2018), which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), laid the foundation for a sovereign data space. For this purpose, the twelve Fraunhofer Institutes involved developed a reference architecture model for a sovereign data space. The resulting reference architecture model has been continuously updated and extended since then.
In a second and third phase funded by BMBF, a prototypical implementation of the reference architecture model is being pursued in the research project “Industrial Data Space Plus” (October 2017 to September 2020 resp. March 2022) with the participation of nine Fraunhofer Institutes.
The work being done in these research projects is being incorporated into the Fraunhofer-funded Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence “Cognitive Internet Technologies” (CCIT) (phase 1: January 2018 to December 2020, phase 2: January 2021 to December 2022). With this Cluster, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is working on central key technologies for the cognitive Industrial Internet with the aim of establishing an infrastructure for an agile, flexible, and competitive industry. To achieve this purpose, the Cluster bundles the competencies of 13 Fraunhofer Institutes from the fields of microelectronics, information and communications technology, and production.
Fraunhofer IESE is part of the research center “Data Spaces”, which strives to create trustworthy data spaces for controllable cross-company collaboration.
In all research projects, Fraunhofer IESE contributes its competencies from more than ten years of research and development in the area of data usage control. The work of Fraunhofer IESE ranges from the formal specification of data sovereignty requirements (e.g., usage restrictions for data) and the conceptual design of solutions for ensuring data sovereignty to the implementation of these concepts in corresponding target systems. In the projects, the key technology “MY DATA Control Technologies” developed at Fraunhofer IESE is used for data usage control, which creates the basis for data sovereignty.
Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE