Antonio Jesus Jara Valera 2026 candidate
Nominee for Contributing Member representative
I work at the intersection of IoT, edge computing, and data spaces where “data sovereignty” becomes tangible only when real devices, real infrastructure, and real organisations can exchange data securely and interoperably. This allows me to support a full sovereignty stack into the Eclipse Foundation, covering Data Spaces + IoT/edge + standards + real life experiences.
Libelium joined the Eclipse ecosystem to help accelerate implementation-ready data sharing using Eclipse Dataspace Components (EDC) and to connect with mature industrial ecosystems through Tractus‑X.
Eclipse affiliation: CRA, EDWG (Steering Committee member), Tractus‑X, Data Spaces
email: jara at libelium.com
Vision
My vision for the Eclipse Foundation is to make Eclipse the most trusted home for deployable, interoperable, and sovereign data exchange, bridging open specifications, open-source implementations, and real-world adoption across industries and the public sector.
1) Make data spaces “implementation-ready” for organisations of all sizes
Data spaces are progressing fast, but many adopters still face high integration effort, unclear reference architectures, and fragmented interoperability choices. I want Eclipse to double down on practical accelerators: reference implementations, tested interoperability profiles, and clear onboarding paths so that SMEs, cities, and industrial consortia can adopt data spaces with confidence, and support the convergence and synergies with key activities in Europe and globally such as SIMPL, GAIA-X, among others.
2) Connect the physical world to data sovereignty
The next growth wave in data spaces will come from the physical layer: sensors, edge devices, and digital twins that produce data continuously and require strong guarantees on provenance, quality, and policy enforcement. I want Eclipse to strengthen the bridge between IoT/edge and data spaces, so that data sovereignty is not only a cloud-level promise but an end-to-end property from device to dataspace. For that reason, cooperation to promote the evolution of the IoT groups to data opportunities.
3) Trust and compliance by design (security, supply chain, and CRA)
European regulation is raising the bar on cybersecurity and software supply chain responsibilities. Eclipse can lead by providing community-driven guidance, reusable tooling, and best practices that help projects and adopters meet these expectations without compromising open source values. My goal is to reinforce Eclipse’s role as a pragmatic steward for secure and compliant open-source infrastructure.
About the candidate
Dr. Antonio J. Jara is Chief Technology Officer at Libelium, where he leads the company’s technology and innovation strategy across IoT, edge computing, digital twins, and data space initiatives. He holds a PhD in Computer Engineering and brings more than a decade of experience in building and scaling open, interoperable digital infrastructures.
Prior to joining Libelium, he founded and led HOPU, a smart environments startup focused on urban sensing and data-driven decision support, which was later successfully integrated into Libelium through an M&A process. Since then, he has played a key role in Libelium’s transformation from a hardware-centric company into an open-platform and data-driven technology provider.
Antonio has been deeply committed to open source and open standards for almost a decade, actively contributing to and holding leadership roles in major international ecosystems. He has been involved in FIWARE Foundation for nearly ten years, supporting the evolution and adoption of open APIs, semantic interoperability, and data governance for smart cities and industry. In parallel, he has held responsibilities within IEEE, including leadership roles in data quality and IoT-related standardisation activities, contributing to the alignment between research, standards, and real-world deployments.
He is also a recognized contributor to the European data sovereignty landscape, serving as a GAIA-X Evangelist, where he helps bridge policy, architecture, and implementation perspectives for trusted data sharing. Within the Eclipse Foundation, he is active in the Dataspace ecosystem (including EDWG and Tractus-X), supporting the maturation of vendor-neutral, interoperable, and implementation-ready data space technologies.
At European level, Antonio is the Technical Director of the EU Local Digital Twin Toolbox (EU LDT Toolbox), a flagship initiative of the European Commission aimed at enabling cities and regions to deploy interoperable, standards-based digital twins connected to data spaces. This role reflects his strong focus on adoption, scalability, and reuse, ensuring that open-source solutions translate into tangible value for public administrations, SMEs, and industrial stakeholders.
At Libelium, he leads the evolution of iris360, an open and modular platform for digital twins, data spaces, and data governance, designed to integrate open-source components, European standards, and real operational use cases. Through iris360 and his broader ecosystem work, Antonio consistently advocates for open collaboration, community-driven innovation, and trust-by-design architectures.
Across all these roles, his work is driven by a clear objective: to turn open source, standards, and data sovereignty principles into deployable, trusted, and scalable digital infrastructures for Europe and beyond.