AbstractWithin the European Big Data Ecosystem, cross-organisational and cross-sectorial experimentation and innovation environments play a central role. European Innovation Spaces (or i-Spaces for short) are the main elements to ensure that research on big data value technologies and novel applications can be quickly tested, piloted and exploited for the benefit of all stakeholders. In particular, i-Spaces enable stakeholders to develop new businesses facilitated by advanced Big Data Value (BDV) technologies, applications and business models, bringing together all blocks, actors and functionalities expected to provide IT infrastructure, support and assistance, data protection, privacy and governance, community building and linkages with other innovation spaces, as well as incubation and accelerator services. Thereby, i-Spaces contribute to building a community, providing a catalyst for engagement and acting as incubators and accelerators of data-driven innovation, with cross-border collaborations as a key aspect to fully unleash the potential of data to support the uptake of European AI and related technologies.