DS4MM took part in Global Mobility Call in a round table focused on one of today’s major mobility challenges: how to move from data to models and how to prepare the path towards the future Integrated Mobility Data Space (EDIM).
The session, entitled “The path towards EDIM: from data to mobility models with DS4MM”, brought together three key voices: Miguel Carpio (Eysa and DS4MM coordinator), Arturo Corbí (NTT Data and technology lead) and Soledad Pérez Galdós (CRTM and ITS Spain).
The discussion explained the project’s current stage, its progress and the role DS4MM can play as a link between existing data spaces and the future European mobility ecosystem.
Key takeaways from the session
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A project designed to turn data into real value
One of the main messages from the round table was that the value of DS4MM does not lie only in gathering information, but in transforming it into models capable of generating useful knowledge.
The project involves a consortium of 22 partners, including public administrations, private companies, technology centres and leading organisations. This diversity makes it possible to approach mobility from local, metropolitan, regional, national and cross-border scales.
During the session, participants recalled that DS4MM is working on 15 use cases across several levels:
- European pilots with France and Portugal.
- National pilots linked to specific mobility needs.
- Regional and local administrations facing concrete planning challenges.
- Areas such as congestion prediction, intermodality, low-emission zones, mobility corridors and new intermodal areas.
Together, these cases show that the project aims to respond to concrete mobility challenges rather than remain in a purely theoretical approach to data.
From data to models: the next step
As Miguel Carpio explained, DS4MM has already progressed through a first essential phase: identifying, gathering and working with data available for the different use cases.
The project is now entering a particularly relevant stage: developing models that can create value from that data. The challenge is no longer just to know what information exists, but to use it to predict behaviours, anticipate needs, improve planning or create new services.
Data therefore stops being an isolated resource and becomes the basis for models capable of answering specific questions:
- Where should new intermodal areas be located?
- How could congestion evolve along a corridor?
- What information does an administration need to plan its network more effectively?
- How can data from different actors be connected to obtain a fuller view of the system?
This is where DS4MM makes a clear contribution: it does not treat data as an end in itself, but as the starting point for building applicable solutions.
Technology is not the main barrier
Another key conclusion was that, in data spaces, technology is not necessarily the biggest challenge.
Arturo Corbí pointed out that many technological solutions already exist or are sufficiently advanced. The real challenge lies in coordinating actors, defining common rules, establishing governance mechanisms and creating trust so that data can be shared in a useful and secure way.
In mobility, this coordination is especially complex because it involves administrations, operators, technology companies, public bodies and private organisations with different needs, systems and priorities.
For this reason, DS4MM is not only technological: it also has an organisational, strategic and governance dimension.
The project works precisely in this intermediate space: making data interoperable, usable by models and meaningful for the whole ecosystem.
DS4MM as a connection point towards EDIM
One of the most relevant messages was the opportunity DS4MM represents to give continuity to other data space projects, many of them funded through Next Generation funds and soon coming to an end.
The shared view during the session was that DS4MM can act as a space for continuity, integration and connection so that these advances are not lost. Because it runs for longer than other projects, it can become a kind of “wrapper” or meeting point for different data spaces linked to mobility.
This idea positions DS4MM as a transition piece towards a broader ecosystem. Instead of starting from scratch when EDIM becomes a reality, the project can help consolidate lessons learned, models, services and use cases that have already been developed.
This continuity can help prevent validated lessons, services and developments from being lost when other funding frameworks come to an end.
The Madrid metropolitan pilot: applied value for the territory
During the round table, Soledad Pérez Galdó explained the value that DS4MM is bringing to the Regional Transport Consortium of Madrid.
One of the main outcomes has been the Madrid metropolitan pilot, focused on analysing intermodality in three of the region’s seven major corridors. The pilot combines demand, supply and territorial variables to obtain a more precise view of metropolitan mobility.
It also makes it possible to study potential locations for new intermodal areas, especially outside the city of Madrid. When data is integrated correctly, it helps to understand how citizens move, how the transport network works and where improvement opportunities may exist.
Intermodality therefore becomes a practical tool to plan the territory more effectively and anticipate future needs.
Sharing data requires trust
One of the most repeated points during the session was the importance of trust. For a data space to work, having a platform is not enough: actors need to know who provides the data, who models it, who can access it, under what conditions and with what level of quality.
This clarity reduces uncertainty, speeds up processes and facilitates collaboration. Soledad Pérez Galdó summed it up from a practical perspective: for collaboration between administrations, companies and institutions to succeed, there must be a clear idea, a concrete project and a shared direction.
From there, it becomes easier to align actors around a common objective, identify available data and launch a realistic operational process.
This is one of DS4MM’s key principles: building trust through practice, based on real use cases, available data and engaged actors.
Interoperability: the key word
The debate also addressed the cost of not moving towards common models. If each data space, administration or operator develops its own models, semantics and sharing mechanisms, the result may be a fragmented ecosystem that is difficult to connect and inefficient to scale.
Not advancing towards interoperability means continuing to work with isolated systems, duplications, tailor-made solutions and difficulties in scaling services. By contrast, building a common framework would reduce barriers and improve access to information.
In simple terms, interoperability means that different systems, organisations and models can understand one another. In mobility, this is essential: data may be held by administrations, operators, private companies or technology providers, but it must be possible to connect and use it coherently.
That is why participants highlighted the importance of common standards, shared semantics and models that make data findable, accessible and reusable.
This point is essential for the future EDIM, but also for DS4MM today, as it already works with diverse actors and territorial levels.
EDIM: a regular working tool for the future
The round table also looked ahead. Participants agreed that EDIM should not be understood as a simple data repository, but as an ecosystem that connects data providers and consumers under clear rules.
Data will be able to remain within its organisations of origin, while the space will make it possible to locate it, access it and establish conditions of use. In this sense, EDIM could become a regular working tool for administrations, operators, consultants and companies that need mobility data and models to deliver better services.
The key will be for EDIM to be born with an active community, real use cases and services that respond to concrete needs.
Spain, facing an opportunity for European leadership
One of the most ambitious messages was the possibility for Spain to lead the European market for mobility data spaces.
If the ecosystem succeeds in consolidating current projects, connecting actors, defining standards and building an active community, the country can position itself as a reference. Spanish mobility has already demonstrated technological capability in public transport, ticketing and service management; the challenge now is to transfer that capability to data spaces.
Moreover, EDIM is not intended to remain purely national, but to become part of the future European mobility data space.
A round table to look beyond data
DS4MM’s participation in Global Mobility Call reinforced a fundamental idea: data is important, but what is truly transformative is what can be built with it.
Models, services, planning tools, new forms of collaboration and better public and private decisions. DS4MM is moving precisely along that path: from data to models, from models to services and from services to real value for mobility.
The round table served to share progress, answer questions, open new discussions and place the project within a broader conversation about the future EDIM and Spain’s role in mobility data spaces.
It was a session that confirmed that the challenge is no longer only to talk about data, but to make that data work to improve mobility.
You can watch the full roundtable discussion here.
