On 9 September 2025, the UNDERPIN project hosted its third Road Show event in Vienna, Austria, gathering key stakeholders from across the manufacturing sector to explore the value and potential of data spaces. Organised in line with the project’s mission to foster capacity building and industry engagement, the UNDERPIN Road Show creates a space for meaningful exchanges, new ideas, and future collaborations.

Held in a welcoming and professional setting of the Expat Center of the Vienna Business Agency, the event followed the planned agenda of expert presentations, interactive sessions, and networking opportunities.

The session opened with a warm welcome from the organisers and a brief introduction to the purpose of the event brought by Martin Kaltenboeck. The audience was then guided through the core concepts of Data Spaces, including their benefits, technical challenges, and relevance for European industry.

Next, the spotlight turned to the UNDERPIN project. Co-funded under the Digital Europe Programme, UNDERPIN aims to build a secure, interoperable and scalable Data Space for the manufacturing sector – with use cases focused on refineries and renewable energy.

The presentations covered Data Spaces for Manufacturing – the European vision and real-world examples, core value of the UNDERPIN project, predictive maintenance use case using data from wind farms, opportunities for SMEs and other actors to join the Data Space community, and digital product passport in manufacturing.

We are always happy to get a feed-back from the audience and this time we also got their active participation. The Q&A session featured a range of insightful questions and reflections from attendees.

After the formal agenda, the event continued in a more informal setting where participants had a chance to connect, exchange ideas, and discuss potential collaboration opportunities. For many, the Road Show provided a first look at how the UNDERPIN Data Space could help streamline operations, increase asset efficiency, and support digital transformation strategies.

Looking Ahead

With this third Road Show, the UNDERPIN project continues to expand its community of stakeholders and raise awareness of the critical role that data spaces will play in the green, circular, and digital transformation of manufacturing in Europe.

What we have seen from the start of the project is that data spaces are still a new concept – not only in terms of technical deployment but also in how they are perceived by the broader industrial community. For many SMEs, the true value of data spaces is yet to be fully understood. That’s why initiatives like UNDERPIN play a critical role: helping to demystify data sharing, show that it can be secure, sovereign, and beneficial, and demonstrate how participation in a data space can directly support innovation, operational efficiency, and long-term growth. Like other pioneering projects in this field, UNDERPIN is actively working to translate technical potential into practical value for manufacturers of all sizes.

We thank all participants for their contributions, questions, and enthusiasm, as well as Vienna Business Agency, Plattform Industry 4.0, champi4.0ns project, DataBri-X project, GAIA-X Hub Austria for supporting the event. Stay tuned for more events and updates in the coming months.