Iceland attends NIIS meeting in Tallin

The NIIS board meets regularly, and one such meeting took place in Tallinn, Estonia, earlier this month. Digital Iceland had three representatives at the meeting and also holds two seats on the board. Birna Íris Jónsdóttir, CEO; Ólafur Ingþórsson, Security and Cloud Officer; and Hlynur Bjarki Karlsson, Chief Data Officer, attended the NIIS meeting on behalf of Iceland.

In addition to the representatives from Iceland, there were participants from Finland and Estonia, as those countries are also involved in the development of X-Road. There were also representatives from the Åland Islands and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. The Åland Islands are already using X-Road, and Schleswig-Holstein is currently exploring implementation and participation in the NIIS collaboration.

The development of version 8 of X-Road is currently underway, with its release expected in 2026. This version will focus on supporting data spaces, as defined by the European Union.

NIIS was established in 2017 by the Estonian and Finnish governments, and Iceland became a formal partner in 2021. NIIS is a non-profit organization that, among other things, works on the development of X-Road—a data transfer system that enables institutions to provide secure digital services. Straumurinn (Icelandic product) uses X-Road for data transfers, and one of the goals of the government’s digital strategy is to move data instead of people between locations.

The collaboration allows Iceland to influence data transfer and digital development among European countries.