NIKH-DS: A Network Provisioning Platform for Data Exchange in the Health Data Space

Secure and trustworthy data exchange across distributed data sources remains a major challenge in the health domain, where strict legal, regulatory, and privacy requirements must be satisfied. Data space technologies provide a promising approach to enabling interoperable and sovereign data sharing among diverse stakeholders while preserving data ownership and regulatory compliance. The NextGEM Innovation and Knowledge Hub (NIKH) was developed as a collaborative ecosystem for FAIR data access and evidence-based health risk assessment. This paper describes the NIKH Data Space (NIKH-DS), the underlying network provisioning platform within NIKH that enables secure data exchange in a health data space environment. The work outlines the key requirements, intended uses, and core implemented functionalities necessary for enabling secure network-provisioned data sharing among distributed data locations. Based on these requirements, a prototype architectural framework is proposed that integrates secure networking and interoperable services. The implementation of the individual components is described, including the data space controller, access control mechanisms, and a user-oriented dashboard that enables data visualization and interaction with distributed data sources. The NIKH-DS platform is validated through a set of case studies that demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the platform in supporting secure, interoperable, and Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR)-compliant health data sharing and risk assessment for the investigation of potential health effects of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF).