Federal Minister Anja Karliczek: „IDS is the engine of the European data airbus“

“My colleague Peter Altmaier often talks about the data airbus. The airbus is the infrastructure, and the IDS is the engine driving it along”, says Federal Minister Anja Karliczek during the IDSA High Level Stakeholder Event on 22nd February.

To establish data security and sovereignty amongst international data market places and to develop international standards: International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) pursues these objectives with the International Data Space, a key architecture for innovative applications for Artificial Intelligence (AI). During the “IDSA High Level Stakeholder Event” in Berlin on 22nd February, this initiative, its current results and the future developments were introduced to experts and decision makers from federal ministries, large corporations, SMEs, associations and research institutions.

Fostering a competitive economy

“We intend to create the de-facto market standard for sovereign data exchange worldwide”, Dr. Reinhold Achatz, CTO thyssenkrupp and Chairman of the Board of IDSA, summarised the vision of the initiative. As a key element of a secure data infrastructure the IDS contributes to the competitiveness of the economy and creates fair digital eco systems while taking European values for data exchange into consideration. In times of digital networking and smart services, these values are essential for companies which want to develop new business models and to survive on the market.

IDS: Key element of AI 

This development is required and promoted by politics. Federal Minister of Education and Research Anja Karliczek emphasised in her speech that International Data Space is an important component for a European data infrastructure and is the driving force behind the European “data airbus” planned by Federal Minister of Finance Peter Altmaier. An assessment shared by Dr. Alexander Tettenborn, head of the “Development of Digital Technologies” department at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy: “Artificial intelligence – that is data at turbo speed: short latency times, growing responsibility for autonomous systems and many stakeholders. This is crying out for the integration of IDS as a key element.”

Triad of business, politics and research

IDSA pursues this objective in a successful and committed way. However, it can only be achieved together with the member companies and institutions. “We have a chance to see the current German industrial champions becoming the next digital champions worldwide. This can be successful, if we closely coordinate digitisation and AI expertise in the pre-competitive area”, said Karl-Heinz Streibich, President of ACATECH (National Academy of Science and Engineering). All the participants in the stakeholder event agreed that another important requirement for this was the close cooperation between business, research and politics. “We need the broad solidarity of industry as well as the support of politics and a neutral mediator like Fraunhofer”, emphasised Prof. Dr. Boris Otto, Managing Director of Fraunhofer ISST and Deputy Chairman of the Board of IDSA. “With the International Data Space Initiative, we have succeeded in achieving this triad.”

The full-length speech by Federal Minister Anja Karliczek:www.bmbf.de/…

For citations, stakeholder statements, and agenda for the High Level Stakeholder Events:www.internationaldataspaces.org/…

For questions regarding IDSA membership, get in contact with Dr. Ralf-Peter Simon:rp.simon@internationaldataspaces.org