What is a data space?

What is a data space and how does it work?

Gijón, October 2025

A data space is an “agreement + infrastructure” to share and use data securely, fairly, and interoperably across many organisations. It’s not a giant hard drive; it’s an ecosystem with rules, connectors, and shared trust.

Imagine an airport:

• There are common rules (security, documentation) → in a data space, these are standards and governance.
• Different airlines share the same infrastructure (runways, terminals) → here, APIs, catalogues, and access policies.
• People and luggage get from A to B without getting lost → in data terms, that’s interoperability.

Because data usually lives in silos. Data spaces enable you to:

• Find and access it in a controlled way.
• Combine it across organisations/countries.
• Reuse it to create public policy, science, and services.
  In Europe, this vision powers the Common European Data Spaces (health, energy, tourism, public administrations, etc.).

1. Rules: who shares what, with which permissions and for what purposes (governance).
2. Metadata and standards: so everything “speaks the same language.”
3. Infrastructure: catalogues, connectors, APIs, identities. EGI
4. Services on top of the data: dashboards, analytics, AI, and traceability.

The marine world already coordinates through ODIS (Ocean Data and Information System), a federation where organisations share (meta)data under common conventions to understand and protect the ocean. It’s not a centralised portal; it’s a distributed network that connects independent systems.

Our Plastic Monitoring Data Space turns local actions into decision-ready intelligence for governments:

1) Captura multifuente

• Cleanup app (waste, photos, geolocation), buoys, drones, and institutional records.
• Standardised data ready for exchange.

2) Quality and traceability

• Automatic validations, metadata, versioning, and permissions.
• FAIR approach: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable.

3) Interoperability with ODIS

• Connectors and conventions aligned with IOC-UNESCO for international comparability.

4) decision-making value

• Dashboards for SDG 14: waste reduction, hotspots, campaign effectiveness.
• Evidence for coastal policy, tourism, fisheries, and sanitation.
• Benchmarking against other regions within a recognised framework. Universal Plastic

• Clearer decisions: operational and strategic indicators in near real time.
• Global comparability: measure your performance against peers with common standards
• Ocean and economic resilience: less plastic = higher productivity in the Blue Economy (tourism, fisheries, coastal well-being).
• Intergovernmental alignment: working with ODIS eases cooperation and access to programmes/funding.

• We collect data (app, buoys, drones, institutions).
• We normalise and tag (compatible metadata, quality control).
• We publish with clear rules (access, licences, privacy).
• We interoperate with ODIS so your data “speaks” to the global ecosystem.
• We activate use: dashboards, SDG 14 reporting, analytics, and impact evaluation.

Would you like to activate your data space with us and connect it to ODIS to measure, compare, and decide better? Write to us