Simpl

Simpl open source middleware for all data spaces

Simpl is the European Commission’s open source middleware stack that provides reusable building blocks to securely access and exchange data across Common European Data Spaces and cloud-to-edge federations.

In short: it’s the EU’s vendor-neutral backbone for connecting data spaces in a trusted, standards-aligned way.

Find out more about Simpl

What’s inside?

Simpl-Open:

the open-source software stack that powers data space interoperability.

Simpl-Live:

sector deployments that integrate Simpl-Open in real data spaces.

Simpl-Labs:

a sandbox to test components and end-to-end interoperability.

Status & governance

The European Commission selected two consortia — Sovereign-X andInfrateX — under a multi-year contract to deliver Simpl (tender estimate ~€150M). Simpl is run as a transparent open source programme with public documentation and community engagement.

Why Simpl matters for data spaces

Simpl provides a common, interoperable foundation—identity & trust, catalogues, policy/usage enforcement, connector integration, and monitoring—so participants can share data under shared rules while retaining sovereignty. It supports both intra data space and inter data space federation, enabling interlinking layers across initiatives.

The InfrateX consortium

Sopra Steria press release - Nov 7, 2023

Sopra Steria has been awarded a major 4-year framework contract for Simpl by the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology of the European Commission, as leader of InfrateX Consortium, with NTT Data as partner.

The aim of the Simpl framework is to simplify cloud-to-edge federations and data spaces and generate interoperability between heterogeneous data services. The InfrateX Consortium is proud to be one of the only two contractors selected for this multiple framework contract.

The objective of the contract is to develop a large-scale modular, interoperable and open-source smart European middleware platform to enable and facilitate the integration of data infrastructures and services. It aims to address the needs of the different data spaces and enable the realisation of the European Cloud Federation.

InfrateX Consortium, which is endorsed by Gaia-X, FIWARE, i-Share and BAIDATA, is built around a pan-European ecosystem of carefully selected diverse companies. Each of them with an important added value to ensure the success of Simpl’s implementation.

This unprecedented collaboration brings together 26 partners from 14 European countries, including data space technology providers, ESN, Editors, Cloud Providers, Academics, Associations, Certification Service Providers and startups/SMEs to cover a broad operational spectrum:

Countries: France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Luxembourg, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Austria.

Built on the principles of a European trustworthy, integrated, and sovereign infrastructure InfrateX is committed to supporting DG CONNECT in its ambition for Simpl and to build a better future for the European digital economy. Aligned with the European motto “United in Diversity”, our consortium purposefully intends to adopt an open, pragmatic, and collective approach, finding a perfect echo in the open-source philosophy of the European Commission.

"Sopra Steria’s involvement in SIMPL is at the core of our values and positioning around transparency, sustainability, and data security. Through this participation, we take pride in bringing together a European ecosystem in collaboration with other public and private stakeholders, in order to create cutting-edge data management solutions and support our continent’s innovation and competitiveness," says Laurent GIOVACHINI Sopra Steria Deputy CEO

“The European Commission’s decision to award Infratex Consortium and Sopra Steria such an important and significant contract is a strong endorsement of our capability and expertise in the areas of Data and Cloud. By our active participation in Simpl, we are supporting the Commission’s key objective to create common European Dataspaces. We are proud to be a part of this journey.” says Michel LORGERE, Sopra Steria Benelux CEO.

Onecub’s role in Simpl & InfrateX

Onecub co-initiated InfrateX with Sopra Steria and the Digital New Deal Think Tank. We coordinated the technical aspects of the Sopra Steria Simpl proposal. Onecub provides architecture and feasibility studies, governance patterns, and component integration to make Simpl deployable in operational data spaces.

How Onecub helps the Legal Data SpacesX

We help your organisation, or data space initiative, adopt and implement Simpl building blocks, for both intra data space and inter data space federation and sharing.

Readiness & fit assessment:
Map Simpl to your current stack and assess integration feasibility.

Reference architecture:
Select components to integrate (connectors, identity/trust, policy engine, catalogues).

Hands-on integration:
Plug Simpl into your infrastructure and collaboration tools.

Pilot → production:
Launch a first use case, measure SLIs/SLOs, harden security & compliance, and scale.

Operate & evolve:
Runbooks, monitoring, audits, and continuous upgrades aligned with Simpl releases.