Gaia-X Advances Practical Interoperability at Tech-X Athens

The Tech-X & Hackathon #9 event in collaboration with Gaia-X Hub Greece and Tech-X Athens underscored Gaia-X’s transition from a broad architectural concept to the delivery of practical interoperability across digital ecosystems.

A key announcement during the event was the introduction of the Gaia-X Loire Participant Credential Wizard by the Gaia-X Lab Team. The new tool is designed to simplify onboarding within the Gaia-X ecosystem by enabling users to create and sign verifiable credentials that comply with the Gaia-X Trust Framework.

The event also highlighted the practical deployment of Gaia-X 3.0 “Danube” across several important areas.

At the ecosystem level, attendees heard directly from established data spaces and ecosystems, which outlined their requirements and technologies while demonstrating why Danube’s capabilities are essential. One example was the International Manufacturing-X Council (IMXC) federated trust use case, which establishes trust relationships between separate ecosystems through the Danube Gaia-X Core Engine and the Gaia-X Meta-Registry. MYRTUS, a project dedicated to the secure and sustainable orchestration of the cloud, fog and edge computing continuum, presented its MYRTUS-Gaia-X Danube compliance framework. The live demonstration showed how Gaia-X Danube is used to verify whether organisations meet the criteria to join a MYRTUS cluster through the use of Gaia-X Verifiable Presentations and Verifiable Credentials.

At the technical level, participants explored the Bring Your Own Rules (BYOR) approach, learning how Open Policy Agent (OPA) and Rego can be integrated with Gaia-X Danube. Sessions also examined the architectural decisions and ongoing challenges involved in connecting a multi-ecosystem federation to the Gaia-X Meta-Registry.

At connector level, the focus was on trust. Several data space connector technologies that incorporate principles from the latest Danube architecture were demonstrated. These included Eclipse Data Space Components (EDC) with OID4VC through a minimum viable product demonstration. Another presentation explored how trusted data transactions can be implemented using the Gaia-X framework and a data transfer agent, supported by an open-source implementation example.

The Compliance DIY Workshop provided a hands-on opportunity for participants to bring their own BYOR requirements and receive direct guidance from the Gaia-X Lab Team on implementing them within the Gaia-X 3.0 Danube platform.

“From a technology perspective, Tech-X and our fully subscribed Hackathon #9 demonstrated that Gaia-X is moving into a more mature phase of implementation,” said Christoph Strnadl, chief technology officer of Gaia-X.

“Danube is significant because it makes compliance execution more modular and adaptable. BYOR is equally essential because real-world ecosystems must combine rules from multiple domains and governing authorities. This is the distinction between a framework that exists on paper and one that can be automated and put into operation.”

Hackathon #9 further reinforced this practical focus. Projects addressed areas such as reusable compliance rules, policy and credential-aware invocation on Gaia-X Danube, automated trust exchange through intelligent agents, and AI-driven approaches to sustainable cloud architectures.

The winners were announced on 29 May, with prizes of €5,000 for first place, €3,000 for second place and €1,500 for third place.

First Place: Agentic Automation of Trust Exchange in the Gaia-X Framework

This project developed a prototype demonstrating end-to-end automated trust orchestration for Gaia-X service federations. The aim was to show how the Gaia-X trust framework can provide the trust and policy foundation for AI-mediated, multi-agent service interactions.

Second Place: Selective Disclosure Cross-Jurisdiction Identity Credentials for Gaia-X

The project addressed limitations within Gaia-X’s current notary framework, which primarily supports EU-based identifiers such as EORI, EUID, VAT ID, LEI and tax identifiers. The existing credential pipeline also relies on plain JWS, where claims are either fully disclosed or not disclosed at all. These constraints can either exclude non-EU participants or require unnecessary disclosure of information.

Third Place: Policy and Credential-Aware A2A Skill Invocation on Gaia-X Danube

This project delivered an end-to-end demonstration on Gaia-X 3.0 Danube, covering agent-to-agent interactions, verifiable credential-based authentication of requesting agents and data usage agreement-based authorisation of provider skills. The demonstration illustrated how Gaia-X Danube can support interoperable agents capable of managing conditional data usage across organisational boundaries.

Ulrich Ahle, Chief Executive Officer of Gaia-X, commented: “One of the most important outcomes from Athens is the development of practical tools that support organisations at different stages of maturity. Not every participant has the same technical capabilities, which is why reusable rules, shared components and interoperable building blocks are so valuable. Through these developments, trust becomes automated, sovereignty becomes practical, and Europe’s digital future can be built upon strong and shared foundations.”

Kosmas Alexopoulos, professor at the Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation (LMS), added: “The combination of generative AI and Gaia-X Data Spaces provides a new basis for industrial intelligence. Data sovereignty is preserved, collaboration becomes more trusted, and AI services can deliver actionable insights across companies, factories and value chains.”

Tech-X Athens marked an important milestone in Gaia-X’s 2026 programme by demonstrating how governance, compliance and interoperability can be embedded into operational technologies and tested through real-world use cases.

The event also helped build momentum ahead of the Gaia-X Summit 2026 in Vienna, where the association will continue to advance its focus on the next phase of sovereign and trusted AI and data ecosystems.