Bechtle consortium wins GAIA-X funding competition

• Project POSSIBLE to realise innovative and practical use cases and data spaces in the digital GAIA-X ecosystem
• Bechtle will head the programme and market the solution
• The project will run for a maximum of 36 months until the end of 2024

Neckarsulm, 6 July 2021 – The Federal Network Agency last week announced the winners of the GAIA-X funding competition run by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with a Bechtle consortium among them. The winning submissions are intended to serve as flagship projects to highlight the technological and economic benefits of GAIA-X. A European initiative, GAIA-X aims to achieve a secure and connected data infrastructure that meets the highest standards of data sovereignty and fosters innovation. Within the framework of Project POSSIBLE, Bechtle is collaborating with the August-Wilhelm Scheer Institute, Dataport, the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS, imc information multimedia communication, 1&1 IONOS and Univention with the goal of developing an innovative and user-friendly cloud solution. Of the 130 projects submitted, eleven ideas were selected to be funded with a total of around 122 million euros for a maximum of 36 months.

The aim of Project POSSIBLE is to dramatically simplify communication between government, commercial and private users. Initially, select employees at public-sector organisations, SMEs and educational institutions will have access to all the information associated with their digital identities in a data room in order to be able to share it in a secure and controlled manner.

“The GAIA-X funding competition supports flagship projects that illustrate the technological and economic benefits of a European cloud. The aim of our strong consortium is to develop a secure and networked cloud solution that meets the highest data sovereignty and availability requirements and also promotes innovation. With Project POSSIBLE, we are pleased to be able to support the creation of a networked, open data infrastructure based on European values,” says Steven Handgrätinger, Head of Public Sector, Bechtle AG. 

GAIA-X – A sovereign European data infrastructure.
Critical factors in deciding the winners of the funding competition were the innovation and application potential, technical feasibility and composition of consortia that should cover the entire value chain. “All selected projects are characterised by their quality and innovation. There are numerous companies and research institutions with the will and capability to quickly get the GAIA-X project off the ground across the board,” says Jochen Homann, President of the Federal Network Agency.

At the end of the competition, participants will publish the results of their research and exemplary use case scenarios in order to create greater impetus for GAIA-X and take a step closer to a sovereign European data cloud.