Over the past few years, data spaces have emerged as a key pillar of the European Data Strategy, enabling secure, sovereign data sharing across sectors, such as manufacturing, mobility, health, energy, and beyond. The launch of the next phase of the European Commission-funded Data Spaces Support Centre (DSSC) marks a new era in this journey.

With this launch, Capgemini, as a core member of the DSSC consortium, is proud to continue its central role at the heart of Europe’s data space ecosystem, moving from the design and assessment focus to hands-on consultancy, value creation, and acceleration services.

What is DSSC Phase 2?

In essence, the foundations for sovereign data sharing in the EU were laid with the creation of the Data Spaces Support Centre in October 2022. Now, with DSSC Phase 2, the Support Centre’s focus has turned to operationalizing, scaling, and creating tangible value from data across sectors.

In other words, what began as strategic guidance and assessments at the outset has now evolved into practical support that helps operationalize data spaces and achieve real impact at scale. The goal of DSSC Phase 2 is to help data space initiatives move from pilot projects toward operational, sustainable, and value-generating ecosystems.

How will DSSC Phase 2 take Europe’s data spaces from vision to value?

Built on the foundations of the DSSC’s first term, the new phase is designed to accelerate adoption and scaling of European data spaces.

At its core, the DSSC provides guidance to the European data ecosystem on several fronts. This includes the development, functioning, and interconnection of common European data spaces; and the creation of value and viable business models for data sharing.

That’s not all. The DSSC also promotes the adoption of shared standards, tools, and practices (including technical building blocks and common governance frameworks); and the integration of data spaces into the broader data and AI economy.

In short – as we described in our previous article Are data spaces the future? – the DSSC helps translate Europe’s data space vision into concrete value and real-world results in line with the European Data Strategy.

How will the DSSC build on the foundations already in place?

The Data Spaces Support Centre is not starting from scratch. It builds directly on the experience and assets developed by the ancestor project.

Capgemini has been deeply involved in the DSSC since its inception, particularly in developing the Maturity Assessment Model that has since been standardized via CEN/CENELEC Joint Technical Committee 25. These foundational outputs from the first phase helped map and evaluate Europe’s data space landscape and established common frameworks for data space development.

By building on these foundations, DSSC Phase 2 represents a clear shift in focus: from assessment to action, from frameworks to real-world implementation, and from potential value to measurable impact. This reflects the growing maturity of data spaces across Europe and the need to convert momentum into scalable outcomes and tangible business value.

How is Capgemini accelerating value in the DSSC?

Within the DSSC, Capgemini has a central, hands-on role in delivering consulting and support services to data spaces across Europe. Capgemini ensures the delivery of key support services and drives the initiative’s more practical, results-oriented activities.

To this end, Capgemini is spearheading several critical efforts: leading value coaching for data spaces, driving ecosystem acceleration projects, and shaping real-world showcases that demonstrate tangible impact. These activities all emphasize moving data space initiatives faster toward sustainable operations and measurable data space value creation.

Value coaching is one of Capgemini’s signature contributions in DSSC Phase 2 – see FAQs, below. It is an approach that brings management consulting best practices directly into the data space ecosystem, ensuring that promising ideas and frameworks translate into real-world impact and viable services across industries.

Beyond individual coaching, Capgemini also leads the ecosystem accelerator program, which provides deeper, project-based support for data spaces facing complex, shared challenges. In these accelerator projects, we work side-by-side with data space experts from the DSSC consortium and data space initiatives (often involving multiple organizations) to solve concrete problems, help with co-creation across diverse stakeholders and sectors, and deliver practical solutions to business, legal, or technical issues.

How does the DSSC Phase 2 accelerator program help the data space community?

The outcomes and lessons from each project are captured and transformed into reusable best practices and showcases that benefit not just one initiative, but the wider European data space community. This way, every engagement under the DSSC banner not only supports an individual data space but also strengthens the broader ecosystem by sharing knowledge and solutions more widely.

Several initiatives across Europe have successfully navigated the tricky gap (known as the “valley of tears”) that often occurs after the initial funding for a project runs out and the harsh realities of financial sustainability and continued innovation of the data space hit hard – see FAQs, below, for examples.

Best practices from these and many more references combined with deep insights into markets and data-driven business models allows the DSSC to provide tangible support for the blooming European data economy.

What is the people-driven consulting model used in DSSC Phase 2?

The Data Spaces Support Centre’s approach in this second phase is highly people-driven. It employs a unique model that combines specialized roles: sector orchestrators (who provide domain-specific expertise), value coaches (like those from Capgemini, offering tailored business and strategy consulting), and data space experts (with deep technical and legal knowledge).

Capgemini’s involvement ensures a robust and proven consulting dimension in this model. This means that data space initiatives are supported not only with technical advice, but also with strategic and value-driven guidance critical for their success.

The collaboration of these roles enables targeted, high-impact interventions, faster progress from concept to operational reality, and greater cross-sector learning and reuse of best practices across different data spaces.

Why does the DSSC matter for Europe and for data innovators?

Data spaces are no longer just a theoretical vision of the future – they are rapidly becoming core infrastructure for Europe’s digital economy and AI ecosystem.

By enabling trusted, interoperable data sharing among organizations, data spaces will unlock new business models and revenue streams, drive innovation across industries, support AI development with high-quality data, and strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty and competitiveness.

In other words, success in building functional data spaces translates to new opportunities and tangible value for both the European economy and individual organizations.

Through the DSSC, Capgemini is helping organizations navigate the complexity of building and joining data spaces. Our consulting teams are supporting companies and public bodies to accelerate their journey from initial exploration to real value creation, and to position themselves in emerging data-driven ecosystems.

For businesses and government stakeholders, this means practical assistance in making data spaces work – from strategy and design to actual implementation and scaling – so they can realize the benefits of data collaboration sooner.

How will DSSC Phase 2 and Capgemini continue to scale Europe’s data economy?

This new iteration of the DSSC represents a decisive step forward in Europe’s data strategy – a shift from earlier experimentation to execution at scale. For Capgemini, it also marks a natural evolution of our role in this journey: from being an insight provider to serving as a trusted advisor and accelerator.

We are excited to support this new DSSC Phase 2 by continuing to bring our expertise in consulting and technology delivery to the table, helping Europe’s data spaces turn vision into value. By doing so, we aim to help these shared data ecosystems unlock their full potential and deliver real, sustainable impact for industries, governments, and society at large.

Taking data spaces from concept to real-world outcomes

Are you building or joining a European data space? Now is the time for businesses and government stakeholders alike to actively engage in taking their data ecosystems from exploration to execution.

The launch of the new phase of the DSSC is making that happen by moving from vision to value in Europe’s data economy. With Capgemini’s hands-on support – from value coaching to ecosystem acceleration – data spaces across Europe will be better equipped to scale up, overcome hurdles, and create tangible outcomes.

It’s an exciting progression that promises not just to advance individual data-sharing initiatives, but to strengthen Europe’s digital future as a whole. We look forward to the journey ahead, continuing to act as a catalyst and trusted partner in this next chapter of Europe’s data space evolution.