On March 12^th, Luis Sánchez, Technical Coordinator of the SEDIMARK project, had the privilege of presenting at the Water Projects Europe Workshop on From Inland Water to Digital Connectivity: Shaping the Future of Water Management. The presentation was part of the session on Understanding Digital Water Management and Interoperability, focused on the SEDIMARK Project and its innovative approach that could fit into the needs and challenges of transforming water management through digital technologies.

The SEDIMARK Project is developing a Distributed, Intelligent and Trustworthy Data Marketplace based on the Data Spaces paradigm. This platform enables seamless data sharing between stakeholders, such as governments, utilities, and researchers, by focusing on data interoperability, quality, and trustworthiness. By ensuring that data is accurate, transparent, and secure, SEDIMARK empowers informed decision-making, improving water resource management and fostering collaboration across sectors.

The SEDIMARK Project is pioneering the development of a Distributed and Intelligent Data Marketplace, a cutting-edge platform aimed at facilitating the seamless exchange of water-related data across various stakeholders, including governments, water utilities, researchers, and private companies. At the heart of SEDIMARK lies the Data Spaces paradigm—a new approach that enables data to be shared and exchanged across a range of sectors and industries while ensuring data privacy and security.

A primary goal of the project is to enhance data interoperability—ensuring that data from various sources can work together seamlessly to support decision-making. By leveraging data interoperability, SEDIMARK enables the integration of disparate datasets such as environmental data, water consumption data, and climate-related data, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions based on a complete picture of water systems.

But, as we all know, data is only valuable if it’s trustworthy. That’s why the SEDIMARK Project places a significant focus on data quality and trustworthiness. Trust is a key enabler for the success of digital water management systems, and ensuring data quality, provenance, and transparency is essential to building that trust. The project employs mechanisms that ensure that data shared within the marketplace is accurate, verifiable, and useful for the end-users. One of the most exciting aspects of the SEDIMARK platform is its ability to support data exchange scenarios. Whether it's about sharing water quality data from rivers, monitoring urban water usage, or assessing the impact of climate change on freshwater availability, SEDIMARK offers a mechanism for exchanging this critical data across borders and sectors, thereby enabling better decision-making and more efficient water management practices.

Overcoming Barriers to Digital Water Management

Following the presentation, a dynamic closing round-table with other experts in the field of digital water management was organized. The significant barriers and challenges that organizations and stakeholders face when trying to implement digital and smart water management solutions were explored.

One of the major challenges that were discussed was the lack of standardized data formats and protocols, which often hinders data interoperability. Despite advancements in technology, different water management systems often use incompatible data formats, making it difficult for stakeholders to share and use the data effectively. Standardizing data formats and establishing common protocols for data exchange could go a long way in overcoming this issue.

Another challenge raised was the resistance to adopting new technologies. Many organizations, especially in more traditional sectors like water management, are hesitant to embrace digital transformation due to concerns about cost, complexity, and the learning curve associated with new systems. Overcoming this resistance requires demonstrating the tangible benefits of digital water management solutions, such as improved resource efficiency, cost savings, and better environmental outcomes.

Lastly, the issue of data privacy and security was discussed. As water management systems become more interconnected, the amount of data being exchanged increases exponentially. This raises concerns about the protection of sensitive data, such as personal information or proprietary business data. Ensuring robust security protocols and establishing clear guidelines around data ownership and access are critical for fostering trust among stakeholders.

Moving forward

In conclusion, the workshop provided a valuable opportunity to discuss how digital connectivity is shaping the future of water management. The SEDIMARK Project and similar initiatives are laying the groundwork for a more interconnected, efficient, and sustainable approach to managing water resources. However, the road to fully digitalized water management systems is not without its challenges. Overcoming barriers like data interoperability, technology adoption, and data security will require collaborative efforts from governments, industry leaders, and technology developers.

Quoting our Technical Coordinator: “As I left the workshop, I felt optimistic about the progress being made in digital water management and excited about the role that the technological enablers that projects like SEDIMARK are developing will play in the future of sustainable water use and management.”

We are thrilled to share our recent presentation of SEDIMARK at the CONFORTage General Assembly Open Day!

SEDIMARK: Redefining Health Data Management

SEDIMARK represents a significant step forward in securely integrating marketplace datasets with clinical environments, aligning closely with the European Health Data Space (EHDS) vision.

Our presentation highlighted how SEDIMARK ensures that health records remain securely within clinical domains, while offering anonymized access for external analysis. By leveraging advanced pipeline orchestration and cutting-edge integration technologies, SEDIMARK provides a secure, efficient, and interoperable platform for health data flow. This innovation is set to revolutionize decision-making and research in healthcare, enabling stakeholders to tap into new insights while maintaining stringent data security standards.

Engaging Discussions and Future Collaborations

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all attendees for their enthusiastic engagement and thought-provoking questions. Your interest fuels our commitment to pioneering secure, decentralized data solutions in healthcare.

This presentation also stands as a testament to the dedication of our amazing team and collaborators. Their expertise and relentless support are the backbone of SEDIMARK's success and ongoing development.

The Journey Ahead

SEDIMARK is more than a technology—it's a vision for a future where health data is managed securely, efficiently, and collaboratively. We’re eager to continue this journey, explore new partnerships, and contribute to a more innovative and secure healthcare ecosystem.

Let’s shape the future of health data management together!

SEDIMARK participated in one of the meetings organized by the ETSI cross cutting Context Information Management (CIM), providing two contributions on relevant topics regarding Context Information standardization. The following presentations were carried out by the Universidad de Cantabria team:

• Modelling and handling of Data Quality for trustworthy data sharing: The SEDIMARK's approach - Laura Martin - Universidad de Cantabria
• STF676 Results: Handling of data catalogues and data services with NGSI-LD - Luis Sanchez - Universidad de Cantabria, ETSI STF Expert

The meeting took place last October 9th, and all the contents and outcomes can be found in the following link.

After the thrilling session that was held at the EBDVF 2024 in Budapest on October 4th, titled "Leveraging Technologies for Data Management to Implement Data Spaces," where around 30 attendees gathered to hear representatives from six key projects—SEDIMARK, Waterverse, EnRichMyData, GREEN.DAT.AI, DATABRI-X, and STELAR—present their latest developments, we come to summarize the main aspects covered in the session and the outcomes coming out from it.

Dr. Luis Sánchez, Technical Coordinator of the SEDIMARK project, was there to present SEDIMARK’s latest developments on its presentation: “SEDIMARK: A Decentralised Marketplace for Trustworthy and Enriched Data and Services Exchange”.

Discussion topics and insights

The aforementioned projects are working to foster greater interoperability, standardization, and the seamless sharing of high-quality data across various sectors and domains. During the session, the presenters provided insights into how their respective projects are supporting the creation of Data Spaces. They highlighted a mapping between their advancements and the different Building Blocks outlined in the DSSC (Data Spaces Support Centre) Blueprint, showing how these technologies fit into the larger framework of interconnected Data Spaces. By aligning their work with the DSSC Blueprint, the projects are contributing to a more cohesive and interoperable ecosystem for data sharing.

The discussion that followed between the project experts and the audience underscored the critical need for interoperable data, which is vital for facilitating collaboration and innovation across industries. Participants emphasized the importance of establishing clear mechanisms that enable data providers and consumers to know precisely what data and services they are accessing, while also ensuring pathways for improving the quality of this data. The session also highlighted the importance of ensuring that data can flow smoothly between different systems and platforms, fostering trust and transparency in the process.

Moreover, the complementarity of the different projects' developments emerged as a key point, opening up opportunities for future collaboration. By leveraging the unique strengths of each project, the panellists and attendees recognized that a unified approach to implementing Data Spaces could accelerate progress toward a more interoperable and standardized data-sharing infrastructure across sectors.

Take-aways In conclusion, the session served as a pivotal forum for discussing the next steps toward realizing fully operational Data Spaces, emphasizing both the technological advancements being made and the ongoing need for collaboration to ensure the success of this ambitious vision.

Last week, we had the privilege of meeting with our partners at LINKS Foundation in Torino for a productive General Assembly meeting.

Over the course of two days, we engaged in in-depth discussions and collaborative efforts to define the next steps as we approach the final year of SEDIMARK project.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the entire team, we’ve made significant progress and are excited about what’s to come! 💡 Stay tuned for more updates as we continue working towards a decentralized AI-enabled marketplace!

WINGS ICT Solutions participated in the conference “Energy Efficiency in Manufacturing”, Hands-on Innovation and Technologies for a Net Zero Future, on Thursday, 13th of June 2024.

At WINGS ICT Solutions, we are committed to pioneering innovative solutions that drive energy efficiency and sustainability in the manufacturing sector. Our team showcased our latest advancements in smart manufacturing technologies that not only enhance productivity but also significantly reduce energy consumption.

ARTEMIS over WINGSChariot is the product of WINGS that is oriented to the proactive management of water, energy, gas infrastructures.

Based on the WINGS approach, it combines advanced technologies (IoT, AI, advanced networks and visualizations) with domain knowledge, to address diverse use cases. As a management system it delivers the following functionalities:

• Efficient metering: optimized information flow and cost with 24/7 capability, prediction of demand and of capabilities;
• Fault management: faulty meters, predictive maintenance, outage handling (energy), leakage or flood avoidance (water), outage handling.
• Performance optimizations: optimization of water quality, maximization of revenue water, optimization of the deployment of renewables and of storage components, optimization for residences / businesses factories.
• Configuration and security aspects.

Commercial traction has been achieved, while further interest is stimulated in various areas and with various tentative partners.

In that respect, WINGS participates and exploits its developments in SEDIMARK. SEDIMARK enables to create a secure decentralized data marketplace for the energy sector with high quality data on edge based on blockchain and AI.

SEDIMARK will be in Budapest from 2nd to 4th October at the European Big Data Value Forum (EBDVF). We will be presenting the project and participating in a thrilling session together with other 5 projects from the 2021-Data-01-03 "Technologies for Data Management" Call.

The most recent results for the project will be presented and the discussions that will be held in the session aims at providing insights and recommendations for further developing and integrating building blocks into vertical Data Spaces. The discussion will delve into highlighting the complementarities or variations between the different projects involved, to let domain/sector specific (i.e. water, energy, green deal, mobility, agrifood, etc.) data space building blocks emerge, and specifically considering Data Interoperability, Data Sovereignty, Data Value Creation and Data Governance.

Join us at Crowne Plaza Budapest (Room Gold) on October 4th, from 10:15 to 11:45 for “Leveraging Technologies for Data Management to Implement Data Spaces”.

Last Thursday, we had the pleasure of hosting Javier Valiño, Program Manager of the Data Space Working Group (Data Space WG) from the Eclipse Foundation, at Universidad de Cantabria.

During the meeting, Javier presented the latest advancements made by the Data Space WG. Their mission is to promote the global use of dataspace technologies, supporting the development and maintenance of secure data-sharing ecosystems. We also discussed SEDIMARK's initiatives in creating technologies for decentralized and secure data exchange.

Data Space WG goals are closely aligned with the SEDIMARK's innovative proposals for a decentralized marketplace, thus we will keep exploring future collaborations in the Data Space world.

On Wednesday, June 5th, the SEDIMARK Midterm review with the European Commission took place. The meeting highlighted the project's achievements so far, including a presentation of the architecture supporting the decentralized SEDIMARK Marketplace. Additionally, the progress of the four use cases was presented, along with plans for the upcoming period.

We received an initial positive feedback and are now awaiting the final remarks and feedback from the project reviewers. In the meantime, we continue to work on the future of data exchange through the decentralized and secure SEDIMARK Marketplace.