How has the project contributed to the concept of urban data spaces ecosystem?

Generic frameworks for the data spaces provide general guidance that helps leverage the potential of digital assets. With their flexibility, we recognized that interoperability between implementations is not granted, which will fully exploit the potential. Thus, it is critical to work on multiple levels, encountering data space character, actual and possible named actors, existing governance, and stakeholder frameworks.

The USAGE project is strategically aligned with the Green Deal agenda, bridging municipalities' practical use cases with its strategic directions and local policies. It showcases practical implementations of urban data spaces where localism is embedded in the design, making establishments reusable for future exploitation.

What have we learned about the use of standards in modern infrastructures?

In the rapidly developing ICT environment, it is not always easy to navigate between fast adoption and scalability through standardization. Data Spaces, however, as governed endeavors shall build in the approach to the process integrating conformance of own and inherited suites.

USGE project is implementing four urban data spaces relying on the standards, which was critical to enabling both the interoperability of some tools and leveraging the potential of portability and scalability of services. There is an excellent legacy of the past interoperability initiatives and communities used in the national and subnational infrastructures and successfully integrated into the USAGE pilots'. At the same time, the framework must evolve, using the recent advancements in the cloud and AI technologies. Also, advanced interoperability between systems, like the definition of the 'Decision Ready Information,' trust environment, and own services development, is still an area of alignment.

What is critical from the data perspective to leverage the potential of similar initiatives?

The key aspect of the project is its unwavering focus on responding to real needs, both aware and hidden, for the common good. Close cooperation is critical in the co-design process to fully exploit the potential of technologies. Secondly, building and sustaining the capacity of skills, data, and infrastructures that are easily achievable for the wide community and awareness of the impact it can create is essential.