On Thursday, March 30, 2023, the event entitled "Impulse from Gaia-X to the construction of shared data spaces for the Spanish agri-food sector" was organized by the Agri-food Working Group of the Gaia-X Spanish Hub of Gaia-X. The meeting was held in Toledo (Spain) in the Region of Castilla-La Mancha, one of the most relevant regions in the Country in terms of contribution to agri-food sector.
The event was a face-to-face informative session with the objective of transmitting to the Spanish agri-food ecosystem the opportunity that the European initiatives for data sharing and data spaces mean for the sector.Both the speakers and the audience had the opportunity to discuss and exchange experiences during the 2 hours of the session, as well as in the networking before and after the event.
The day was structured in two parts. The first part was a welcome and introduction to the topic of data sharing and the construction of a agri-food data space in Spain, from the perspectives of four speakers. On the one hand, the vision of the Government the Region of Castilla-La Mancha which coordinates the Agri-Food Platform (PAN), funded by Next Generation EU funds through the RETECH instrument of the Spanish Digital Agenda 2026. On the other hand, the vision of CTIC Centro Tecnológico, as coordinator of the Gaia-X Spain Working Group.
Also, representatives from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) , Fisheries and Food, as well as from the Data Office of the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation shared their vision.The first roundtable, composed by Diego Braojos (MAPA), Manuel Gutiérrez (Data Office - SEDIA) and Pablo Coca (CTIC / GAIA-X Spain), presented the European political and economic context around data and the identification of the agri-food sector as one of the priority areas both at European and Spanish level in terms of its ability to contribute to the GDP of the new Data Economy.
The role of Gaia-X was highlighted as a public-private collaboration instrument that is working on building a framework of consensus and trust, both in terms of technology and governance, for data sharing in Europe. Gaia-X is an Association structured around national hubs in which we develop specific use cases in the agri-food field (among others) and ensure the capillarity of data sharing by developing data spaces jointly with the agri-food ecosystem.The second roundtable was formed by Mario Mahr (Ametic), Manuel Torrero (Asaja), Juan Sagarna (Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de España), Chus García (CTIC Centro Tecnológico), Fabián Calvo (Teldat) and Cecilio Angulo (UPC).
The representative of Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de España and ASAJA shared the vision of farmers and livestock owners in relation to initiatives such as the Agricultural Farming System (Sistema de Explotaciones Agrarias, SIEX). This challeging opportunity will position Spain as the first European country to implement the digital notebook in all farms, providing from its entry into force on September 1 this year, billions of data that will enable the sector to meet the important challenges set out in the Strategy "from farm to fork".
Their presentations also emphasized the importance of data sharing to provide transparency and traceability throughout the agri-food chain, with accurate information on the value contribution of each of the links in the chain.
About Gaia-X
Gaia-X is a European private sector association whose main purpose is to create a federated and secure data infrastructure and achieve digital sovereignty in the European Union. The Spanish hub was established on March 18, 2022 and its headquarters are located at the Regional Center for Digital Innovation, in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo). Gaia-X Spain Members are currently entities from the private and public sectors and representing different types of stakeholders involved in the construction of the Data Economy in Spain. The Association is industry-led, with 66% of Members being private Companies.
At present, its Board of Directors has 22 members: Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, the Spanish Network of Smart Cities, AMETIC, INDESIA-Industrial Association for the Promotion of the Data Economy and Artificial Intelligence, Instituto Tecnológico de Informática, Tecnalia, CTIC Centro Tecnológico, Aire Networks, Telefónica, Amadeus IT Group, Inetum, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Fundación General CSIC, Red Cross, Clúster Big Data Madrid, EIT Urban Mobility, Gigas Hosting, AnySolution, Tinamica, Eccocar Sharing, Cloudglobal and the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations.
About Gaia-X Spanish Agri-Food Working Group
This Working Group brings together public and private data producers and users from the Spanish agri-food ecosystem working on the identification and development of use cases for data sharing in the agri-food sector, building the foundations of what will be the Data Space for the sector in Spain.
The Group also collaborates closely with the Subdirectorate General for Innovation and Digitalization of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and with the Data Office of the State Secretariat for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence for the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.
