SAGE (the Data Space for a Sustainable Green Europe) is a project co-funded by Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) under grant agreement Nº 101195471, that will develop a federated, secure, and interoperable data space to support key pillars of the European Green Deal — biodiversity, climate adaptation, circular economy, and zero pollution.
Key pillars in SAGE
SAGE targets the following strategic pillars of the European Green Deal by implementing a rich portfolio of use cases in each of them:
Zero Pollution Action Plan
The European Union aims that by 2050, pollution in the air, water and soil pollution will be reduced to levels no longer considered harmful to human or to the balance of natural ecosystems.
Use Cases:
Climate mitigation and adaptation
Through the European Climate Law, the EU commits to legally binding actions that put the continent on a clear path toward climate neutrality by 2050. At the same time, it boosts Europe’s ability to adapt to a changing climate.
Use Cases:
The Biodiversity Strategy
The EU has established roadmap that lays out concrete actions to protect nature, safeguard species and restore habitats to reverse the ongoing degradation of ecosystems by 2030.
Use Cases:
Circular Economy Action Plan
This initiative promotes the sustainable use of resources across key sectors, such as electronics, batteries and vehicles, plastics, textiles, and construction. Its aim is to design products that last longer, reduce waste throughout their lifecycle, and accelerate Europe’s transition toward a fully circular, resource-efficient economy.
Use Cases:
SAGE will establish a fully operational Green Deal Data Space (GDDS) aimed at enhancing the accessibility, integration, and utilization of green and environmental data across the EU.
SAGE will initially build a proof-of-concept platform that will be validated by the ten (10) pilot use cases represented in the project, followed by an improved platform capable of supporting production implementation of the pilot use cases, as well as new use cases interested in using the SAGE platform. SAGE will integrate a proven architecture and technology stack, establish governance and trust frameworks, link with 100s of high priority data sets supporting SAGE’s pilots as well as broader applications relevant to the European Green Deal (EGD) pillars prioritized by SAGE. The SAGE platform and related operating and governance entities will be established on a sustainable basis and continue to operate after the SAGE project finishes in early 2028.
SAGE will give data providers “data sovereignty”: a reliable way to share restricted data with other SAGE participants while retaining full control over how that data is used. SAGE will enable sensitive or restricted data to be combined with open and public data, supported by semantic interoperability mechanisms and tools to help use cases create new data products that will help them meet their objectives. SAGE will also make it easier to find and use data from a large number of sources (earth observation, research infrastructures, ESFRI facilities, digital twins). SAGE will also work toward interoperability with many other common European data spaces, e.g. in agriculture, energy, smart cities, etc.
Building directly upon the GDDS GREAT-project community and results, and aligning with the Digital Europe Programme’s strategic focus on AI, cybersecurity, advanced computing, and data infrastructure, SAGE leverages outcomes from the European Strategy for Data and research facilitated by Horizon Europe.
SAGE’s outcomes include seamlessly integrating fragmented environmental data through federation, enriching data with consistent quality, validation, and interoperable metadata, and enhancing capabilities for data transformation, processing, analysis, forecasting, target setting, and performance monitoring. Targeting businesses seeking compliance with EGD regulations, government bodies optimizing environmental impact, citizens and citizen scientists engaging in environmental stewardship, and researchers aiming to deepen our environmental understanding, SAGE aspires to foster informed decision-making and policy formulation based on robust data and evidence.
SAGE’s sustainability will be guaranteed by setting up a standalone legal entity to
operate the data space and scale operations during the project lifetime and beyond.
Structure of the project
The SAGE project is organized into nine Work Packages (WPs), each designed to address specific tasks and activities throughout the project’s lifecycle.
The diagram below illustrates this organizational structure. Further details on each Work Package—with objectives and the leading entities—are provided here.
