Introduction
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) has launched the Data Space Accelerator, a study designed to help particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) join the Catena-X data space in 2026. Depending on the selected use case, participating companies will receive financial support of €15,000 or €30,000 net. The International Data Spaces Association (IDSA), the Catena-X Automotive Network e.V., and Cofinity-X GmbH are responsible for implementing the study.
Learn how to get started with the Quality use case (Special Characteristics feature) as part of the Data Space Accelerator. The Quality use case provides a broad range of features. The Data Space Accelerator only demands participants to demonstrate the Special Characteristics feature to receive financial compensation. However, participants are actively encouraged to dive deeper in the use case and also get started with further features.
What you need to do?
Get informed: The Special Characteristics use case in Catena-X enables the standardized exchange of critical product characteristics across the supply chain. These characteristics are used to identify features that have a significant impact on product quality, safety, compliance, or functionality. .
Apply for the Data Space Accelerator: Please fill the interest form here. You will receive an email notification once your application has been accepted. Please save your Program ID for future reference.
Register with Cofinity-X: Once accepted, please continue by registering your company to Cofinity-X here to receive access to the dataspace and have a wallet with the corresponding credentials.
Get connected: Choose a suitable Quality solution from the Marketplace. Explore our Marketplace to find a suitable solution.
Share PCF data: For the Special Characteristics use case, the DSA participant must provide Special Characteristics data in accordance with Catena-X standards. This includes creating Digital Twins for both the SerialPart and the related Special Characteristics information and exposing these data and Digital Twins through the Eclipse Dataspace Connector (EDC). The DSA participant must supply two core data sets: (1) part-related information using the SerialPart data model, and (2) Special Characteristics information associated with the part. Follow the detailed steps below to learn how. The participant must then send a notification to Cofinity-X’s EDC asset and inform Cofinity-X about the availability of the data.
Receive your certification: Cofinity-X will consume the shared data, verify data correctness, and finalize the Dataspace readiness verification.Upon successful validation, the participant is officially recognized as Dataspace Ready and receives the Data Readiness Certificate in the DSA portal.
Below are the detailed steps outlining what you need to do to complete the Quality use case.
Below are the steps outlining what you need to do to complete this use case:
Create Serial Part and Special Characteristics Digital Twin
Query Catalog using assetID: DigitalTwinEventAPI-SC
Send Notification
Step 1:
To create Serial Part and Special Characteristics a Digital Twins, please refer to the example given in the Traceability user guide.
The JSON schema for the SerialPart data model is available here.
The JSON schema for the Special Characteristics data model is available here.
Step 2:
Query our catalog to send notification once the data is ready. You can push notification to the EDC Asset. (AssetID: DigitalTwinEventAPI-SC )
To query our catalog:
BPNL: BPNLCOFINITYEZFA
Step 3:
Follow the steps given in this link to send us a notification.
Once the notification is sent, send us an email to [email protected] with your EDC endpoint, BPNL.