“Talavera de la Reina was the scene of the official birth of the Gaia-X Spain Association”
The Technology Director of the DIGITAL unit, Jesus Maria Santamaria, will be on the board of directors of Gaia-X Spain.
Last Friday, Talavera de la Reina was the scene of the official birth of the Gaia-X Spain Association, which will operate as the Spanish HUB of the Gaia-X European initiative. It will bring together public and private entities committed to the development of the data economy in the European Union, creating a proposal for the next generation of data infrastructure: an open, transparent, and secure digital ecosystem where data and services are available, collated, and shared in a trusted environment.
During the constituent act, TECNALIA has been chosen to be part of its board of directors, holding the responsibility of leading the initiative that, according to Carmen Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, "must move toward a digital economy where data is one of the highest value-added assets". More than 150 entities in the data sharing ecosystem have participated in the event, including companies such as Correos (Spanish post service), Repsol, Philips, Airbus, Microsoft, Telefónica, Orange, Vodafone, and IBM.
Jesus Maria Santamaria will take on the representation of our centre in Gaia-X, a role that will strengthen our presence at Gaia-X at European level, and our positioning in other European initiatives related to data; such as participation in the ADRA Steering Committee (AI, Data & Robotics Association), the accreditation as an International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) Competence Centre, or our connection with associations related to artificial intelligence and data economics (BDVA/DAIRO, CLAIRE, ELLIS, EuRAI, and AI Alliance).
In addition, TECNALIA works on different initiatives such as AI4ES, the Excellence Network of Enabling Technologies around data. It coordinates several European projects where the technology to be applied in Gaia-X is being developed (such as MEDINA on the continuous certification schemes of cloud services, and PIACERE for the management of the complete life cycle of infrastructure as code). Finally, it also participates in initiatives for the deployment of data spaces (such as THE OMEGA-X and ENERSHARE projects in the field of energy).
Data sovereignty and management
Data is the 'new petrol'; it is a valuable new asset for emerging products and services in the coming years. Those who master its intelligent processing will exert enormous control over the market, and will shape the future, in an increasingly interconnected, automated and complex setting.
The centre wants to contribute by devising and designing innovative and technological solutions for reliable, interoperable and sovereign data spaces. The aim is to develop the full potential of the data economy to foster social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Together with TECNALIA , the following have also been designated as members of the board of Gaia-X Spain: RECI (Spanish Smart Cities Network), AMETIC (Multisectoral Association of Spanish Electronics and Communication Companies), INDESIA (Industrial Association for the Impulse of Data Economics and Artificial Intelligence), CTIC (Information and Communication Technology Centre Foundation), Technological Institute of Information Technology, Aire Networks, Telefónica, Amadeus IT Group, Inetum, Polytechnic University of Madrid, General CSIC Foundation, Red Cross, Big Data Madrid Cluster, EIT Urban Mobility, Gigas Hosting, AnySolution, Tinamica, Eccocar Sharing, Cloudglobal, CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations), and the Castilla-La Mancha Regional Government.
