"The Industrial Data Space enables secure data exchange with common rules for all companies - based on an open architecture model," said Prof. Dr. Reimund Neugebauer, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, on the occasion of the association's founding at the Fraunhofer Forum in Berlin. There is great interest from industry: "We have already received around 70 proposals as candidates for pilot use cases. We now need to select and drive forward those projects that will help us successfully shape the digitalization of industry."

The 'Industrial Data Space e.V.' association aims to bundle the requirements for the Industrial Data Space, organize the exchange of experience between science and industry and develop guidelines for the certification, standardization and utilization of the results of the 'Industrial Data Space' research project. "The digital transformation and Industry 4.0 are key success factors for companies in Germany," emphasized the association's new Chairman of the Board, Dr. Reinhold Achatz, CTO and Head of Corporate Function Technology, Innovation & Sustainability at ThyssenKrupp. "With the association, we want to ensure that the specific interests of industry are incorporated into the research work in a targeted manner. At the same time, companies should be able to access and implement the results of the project more quickly."

The strategic Industrial Data Space initiative launched by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in 2015 aims to create a secure data space that enables companies from different industries and of different sizes to network their data with confidence. The 'Industrial Data Space' research project, which is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for a period of three years, was launched on October 1, 2015. A total of twelve Fraunhofer Institutes are involved in the work. The research project is being coordinated by Prof. Boris Otto from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund. The aim is to design a reference architecture model for the Industrial Data Space and to pilot it in selected use cases.

The association's tasks include comparing the requirements of companies with those of the BMBF research project and setting up a topic portal for the use cases. At the same time, the association is setting up specialist committees, working groups and initiatives to deal with scientific and technical standardization issues and certification processes. It will participate in the development of guidelines and legislative processes at both national and international level, particularly in the European Research Area. In addition, it will support information and training activities on the secure data space, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The founding members of 'Industrial Data Space e.V.' include a total of 18 companies and organizations. The association is based in Berlin. The office at the Fraunhofer Institute for Logistics and Material Flow IML in Dortmund will commence operations in February 2016.