The European Mobility Data Space: pushing the boundaries of mobility data exchange

Today, all countries are islands. Millions of people cross international borders every day, but when it comes to data, all countries are islands. In the mobility domain, the reality of this digital isolation becomes painfully clear, as people can travel thousands of kilometres and cross multiple borders, while their data remains confined within national silos. This is because mobility data cannot be efficiently exchanged across borders today, caused by a lack of trust, a lack of data interoperability, and a lack of transparency. Data spaces can solve these issues, by introducing a paradigm shift, from centralized to decentralized infrastructure, from data vulnerability to data sovereignty, and from isolation to interoperability. Imec is one of the frontrunners in data space technology today, and one of our largest data space projects is deployEMDS, where we work together with 40 partners across 9 regions to build the European Mobility Data Space (EMDS). The EMDS will unite a diverse consortium of stakeholders including public transport operators, city and regional administrations, National Access Points, shared mobility services, the sensor industry, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) providers, IT firms, and more. Flanders is one of the regions participating, so will finally be able to answer pressing questions such as the origins of Antwerp's truck traffic, the comparability of our bicycle highways to those in the Netherlands, and the reliability of our train services. EMDS will build bridges between regions, and push the boundaries of mobility data exchange, because our societies are not islands but interconnected communities in a shared digital ecosystem.