TNO expert opinion on iSHARE

Upon request of the Topsector Logistics and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Waterways TNO has provided an independent TNO expert opinion on iSHARE as generic trust framework capability, encompassing: 

• the potential role for (further developing) iSHARE as generic trust framework capability for the logistics sector to support both B2B and B2G data sharing,

• the possibilities for iSHARE to enable data sharing in (and across) other sectors and application areas, for instance the mobility sector and the energy sector, and  

• the broader perspective of iSHARE in the context of the European Data Strategy and data sharing initiatives.

The report can be downloaded via this link.  

The summary of the conclusions are as follows

With iSHAREs prominent position in the Netherlands and its high visibility in the various European initiatives that lead the international development for federative data sharing and data spaces, iSHARE is in a good position for becoming a leading international generic trust framework capability. As such, it is advised to support the development and deployment of iSHARE as trust framework and adequately enable it to continue its alignment with these European initiatives.  

A major benefit of iSHARE is in its capabilities to support trusted data sharing between multiple data spaces. As such, it is of major benefit to align the adoption of iSHARE across sectors, starting with the logistics and mobility sector.  

The (inter-)national environment of federative data sharing and data spaces is still in development. This also holds for trust framework capabilities. These developments still have to prove their technical and market viability and are not yet sufficiently mature to be deployed at a large scale on the short term. Over time and for specific application areas these may provide a co-existing alternative to iSHARE .  

In view of these developments it is advised that iSHARE adoption is accompanied by (1) a vision and roadmap on whether and how develop and align its trust framework capabilities with the developments on alternative, fully distributed, trust  framework capabilities, and (2) migration scenario’s providing data space participants a smooth and seamless (service and technical) evolution trajectory for these developments.