During the fourth Coffee with Simpl session, held on 1 October 2026, attendees explored key characteristics of Simpl-Open and discussed a selection of topics and questions raised by the community. Combining interactive polls, knowledge-sharing activities and discussions with programme experts, the session provided insights into both the foundations of Simpl and its ongoing evolution.
The opening poll also offered valuable insights into the interests and priorities of attendees. Installation and deployment emerged as the most common challenge (40%), followed by gaining access to real-world implementation experiences (30%). Understanding the technology itself and learning about Simpl's longer-term direction each received 15% of responses. These results suggest that community interest is strongly focused on practical implementation, while also highlighting the value of sharing more user experiences and concrete use cases.
Most attendees (65%) said they had first learned about Simpl through friends and colleagues, and more than half (58%) reported already working directly with Simpl. We can see a community that is increasingly hands-on while still eager for more practical examples, shared experiences, and visibility into what comes next.
The session closed on a short intervention by Data Spaces Support Centre’s (DSSC) Executive Director Tobias Moritz Guggenberger, who was offered a space to provide an introduction to DSSC and its support services to data spaces, recently re-launched, highlighting the alignment between Simpl-Open and the DSSC Blueprint.
Know Your Simpl
Attendees put their Simpl knowledge to the test in Know Your Simpl, an interactive quiz highlighting some of Simpl-Open's defining characteristics. The discussion helped to clarify common misconceptions about Simpl. Participants learned how Simpl-Open aligns with established standards such as Gaia-X specifications, the Eclipse Dataspace Protocol (originally IDSA), ODRL, W3C Verifiable Credentials and DCAT-AP (catalogue) and discussed the distinction between supporting compliance and automatically guaranteeing it. Together, the questions provided an accessible introduction to some of the principles underpinning the programme and the technical choices behind it.
Simpl Programme update
Technical experts from across the programme shared an overview of recent progress across Simpl-Open, including work on application publishing and discovery, monitoring capabilities, security features, application deployment, support services, federation configuration and consent management.
The discussion also covered developments within Simpl-Open Extensions, including access to AI/ML capabilities (including the HPC Federation Platform), catalogue integration with the DOME Cloud Marketplace, and monetisation for the Governance Authority. In addition, the team highlighted ongoing activities within Simpl-Live, including integration of Simpl-Open with the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), one of the Simpl-Live wave 1 data initiativesand efforts to support interoperability across data spaces.
We also announced the recruitment for the Simpl-Labs User Interest Group. Members will be among the first to access and test the platform, trying out features as they are developed and sharing their experiences directly with the team. The group is open to stakeholders with operational, technical and hybrid backgrounds, creating a community of early adopters and pioneers who can influence the future direction of the platform before its wider rollout.
Interested in getting involved? Learn more and express your interest through the survey: EUSurvey - Survey 
From Issues to Solutions
The second part of the session, From Issues to Solutions, combined updates from across the Simpl ecosystem with a discussion of issues raised by the community. This covered, in particular, discussions around the installation guide, where the upcoming version was presented alongside the currently available release, as well as the contribution process and the proposed improvements to community participation and contributions.
Key Takeaways
One clear message emerged throughout the session: community members are looking for more opportunities to put Simpl-Open into practice. From installation and deployment challenges to discussions around Simpl-Labs, participants showed strong interest in testing, implementing and gaining hands-on experience with the middleware.
The session also highlighted growing interest from other data space initiatives looking to adopt Simpl-Open. Attendees asked questions about implementation, support and available resources, while seeking practical advice from community members already working with Simpl-Open. These exchanges reflected growing links between Simpl and the wider data space community.
The session concluded with an invitation to join the Simpl Hackathon 2026. A new community initiative will run over two weeks, culminating on 9 December 2026, and bring together community members to review, validate and improve Simpl-Open documentation, including the installation guide and user documentation.
We also reminded everyone about the 3rd Simpl Annual Community Event, taking place on 10 December in Brussels, where the wider community will come together to exchange experiences and discuss progress across the ecosystem.
Looking Ahead
The conversations started during Coffee with Simpl #4 will continue, with particular attention given to implementation and technical support topics. In the meantime, community members are welcome to contact cnect-simpl@ec.europa.eu to ask questions, share feedback, suggest topics for future sessions or raise challenges to discuss with the programme team.
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