The Catena-X Competence Centre strengthens its leadership in data spaces at the 5th BAIDATA Forum

The Catena-X Competence Centre Spain had a prominent participation in the 5th BAIDATA Forum, held in Bilbao as part of Data Economy Week, consolidating its role as a key player in the promotion of industrial data spaces and the digital transformation of the automotive sector.

The event, which brought together more than 300 professionals, companies and national and international institutions under the slogan “Data Spaces in Action”, served as a meeting point to discuss the present and future of the data economy, as well as the impact of data spaces on the competitiveness of strategic sectors.

Catena-X as a lever for automotive competitiveness

As part of the forum, Silvia Rodríguez, Director of the Catena-X Competence Centre Spain, moderated the discussion “Driving the competitiveness of the automotive sector through Catena-X”, a session featuring Christoph Mertens, Head of Adoption at the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA), and Shanawaz Sheik, Sustainability Director at Flex Automotive and Director of the Catena-X Internationalisation Committee.

During the discussion, the speakers analysed how Catena-X is transforming collaboration within the automotive value chain through a secure, sovereign and interoperable data exchange model.

The session highlighted the potential of data spaces to improve supply chain resilience, promote traceability, accelerate decarbonisation processes and foster greater operational efficiency among manufacturers, suppliers and other ecosystem players.

The experts agreed that the future competitiveness of the sector will depend, to a large extent, on the ability of organisations to collaborate securely and generate value from shared data, while always maintaining control over their information.

Presentation of the Data Space Accelerator programme

One of the highlights of the session was the presentation of the Data Space Accelerator programme, an initiative promoted by IDSA in collaboration with Catena-X and Cofinity-X to accelerate the adoption of data spaces by European companies.

The initiative is particularly aimed at facilitating the onboarding of small and medium-sized enterprises into the Catena-X ecosystem, helping to extend the benefits of digitalisation and data-based collaboration across the entire automotive value chain. To achieve this, CatenaUp has been created, a programme in which the Competence Centre will act as one of the reference agents for industrial companies applying to participate.

During his speech, Christoph Mertens explained how this programme seeks to reduce entry barriers to data spaces through specialised support, training, technical guidance and access to real use cases that enable companies to start exchanging data securely and in line with European standards.

Recognition for leadership in ecosystem generation

The participation of the Catena-X Competence Centre Spain in BAIDATA was also marked by an important institutional recognition. During the forum, the initiative was distinguished with the BAIDATA 2026 Award for Excellence in the Data Economy, in the category of Leadership in Ecosystem Generation.

The award recognises the work carried out by the Catena-X Competence Centre in Spain, an initiative jointly promoted and implemented by the Innovalia Association and the Automotive Intelligence Center (AIC), whose aim is to facilitate the adoption of Catena-X by Spanish companies and promote the participation of the national industry in the leading European data exchange ecosystem for the automotive sector.

This recognition highlights the work carried out to bring data spaces closer to the business community, foster collaboration between organisations and create a trusted environment that enables companies to advance in their digital transformation and strengthen their international competitiveness.

Bringing Catena-X closer to Spanish industry

For the Catena-X Competence Centre Spain, its presence at the 5th BAIDATA Forum represented an opportunity to share the latest developments in the Catena-X ecosystem with companies, institutions and experts, as well as to reinforce the importance of data spaces as a strategic tool for European industry.

Participation in this event and the recognition received reinforce the Competence Centre’s commitment to disseminating the principles of data sovereignty, interoperability and secure collaboration, helping an increasing number of Spanish organisations benefit from the opportunities offered by industrial data spaces and become part of the digital transformation of the European automotive sector.