XFSC (formerly Gaia-X Federation Services)

As part of the Gaia-X initiative, the eco Association also made an important contribution in 2024 to the development of a secure, trustworthy and competitive data ecosystem – particularly through project management and coordination of the Gaia-X Federation Services project (GXFS-DE). Following a successful call for tenders and awarding of contracts, the GXFS toolbox was expanded in 2024 to include additional open-source components in the areas of sovereign identities, trust services and federated catalogue services. In addition, the eco Association promoted knowledge transfer and networking by implementing a wide range of workshops and transfer measures to bring the project results to the community and the public in a targeted manner. Since the project’s completion at the end of 2024, the GXFS components have been continued under the Eclipse XFSC project.

More information is available here.

FACIS

Since November 2024, eco has been managing the newly launched FACIS project as part of the European infrastructure initiative IPCEI-CIS/8ra. FACIS stands for Federation Architecture for Composed Infrastructure Services and is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) with approximately €6.8 million over the next two years.

FACIS addresses the growing requirements for customised, scalable and consumer-oriented infrastructures, which traditional cloud solutions cannot fulfill. The goal is to create a federated infrastructure for cross-border cloud-edge environments that takes into account both technical and governance requirements and lays the foundation for interoperable, secure and efficient systems – for example, in autonomous driving, healthcare, industry or smart city development.

Through the use of innovative technologies such as Federation Architecture Patterns (FAPs), machine-readable Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and low-code orchestration platforms, it is ensured that multi-provider infrastructures can be operated as a unified, scalable and secure ecosystem. Open-source innovations and transparent governance structures support these approaches.

More information is available here.

FAME

Since 2023, the eco Association has also been actively involved in the EU Horizon project FAME (“Federated Decentralised Trusted Data Marketplace for Embedded Finance”). The project aims to develop a secure and trustworthy federated data marketplace for embedded finance and represents an innovative financial solution for the European Union. Together with over 30 leading industry players, future-oriented solutions are being developed here.

In 2024, eco continued to actively contribute its expertise to the project, promoted exchange at three FAME general meetings, published project results on internal and external communication channels, and presented the project at industry-relevant events such as DIGISUSTAIN 2024. The project will run until the end of 2025.

More information is available here.

Car Repair 4.0

Launched in January 2022, the Car Repair 4.0 (CR 4.0) project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), came to a successful conclusion after three years under the leadership of the eco Association. Key outcomes included a secure platform for the exchange of vehicle data and a process for AI-supported error diagnosis, including innovative oscilloscopes and AI models.

Following intensive research, the project was able to demonstrate how AI-supported error diagnosis and data spaces can enhance the competitiveness of independent car repair shops, save resources and costs, and thus counteract the shortage of skilled workers. Customers benefit from cost savings through shorter repair times and fewer unnecessary part replacements.

More information under Mobility.