Imagine every connected car, smart city sensor, and insurance database is producing valuable data — but nobody can easily share it because the legal consent rules are a nightmare to manage. smashHit built a kind of "smart traffic controller" for data: it automatically checks who owns the data, what they've agreed to share, creates digital contracts on the fly, and tracks where every piece of data ends up. Think of it like a postal service that not only delivers your packages but also makes sure each one has the right permissions slip attached and keeps a receipt of who opened it.
Companies that operate connected products — cars, sensors, smart devices — generate massive data streams that could power valuable cross-sector services. But sharing this data legally is a compliance minefield: every data source has different ownership rules, consent requirements, and contractual terms. Managing this manually is slow, expensive, and error-prone, locking up billions in potential data economy value.
The project built a Smart Data Dispatcher with automatic consent checking, digital contract generation, data fingerprinting, and usage traceability. It delivered 2 industrial demonstrators: one combining connected vehicle and insurance data (VW + LN), another integrating traffic, smart city, and connected product data (VW + FVH + INFT), plus 9 total deliverables including the core tools and validation reports.
If you are a car manufacturer or fleet operator dealing with the headache of sharing connected vehicle data across partners while staying GDPR-compliant — this project developed a Smart Data Dispatcher that automatically handles consent, creates digital contracts, and traces how your data gets used. It was demonstrated in a real operational environment with Volkswagen across 3 sectors.
If you are an insurance company trying to use data from connected cars or smart devices to build new services but struggling with consent management across 12 or more data partners — smashHit built tools for automatic contracting and data fingerprinting that were tested in a real insurance demonstrator. The system handles consent rules across different platforms and operators automatically.
If you are a city administration or smart city vendor trying to combine traffic data, sensor data, and citizen data into useful services without violating privacy rules — smashHit delivered a demonstrator integrating traffic, smart city, and connected product data with built-in consent tracking. It was validated with real operational partners across 6 countries.
The project does not publish licensing fees or implementation costs. As an Innovation Action with 12 consortium partners, the tools were developed for industrial deployment. Contact the coordinator to discuss licensing or integration pricing for your specific use case.
The system was specifically designed for 'enormous volumes of data streaming from the usage of mass products with cyber physical features' such as vehicles. The Volkswagen demonstrators validated it in real operational environments, suggesting it handles enterprise-scale data flows.
The project was an Innovation Action (IA), which is closer to market than basic research. With 7 industry partners including major automotive and insurance players, IP arrangements were likely structured for commercial exploitation. Contact the consortium coordinator at Institut für Angewandte Systemtechnik Bremen to discuss licensing.
Consent management and legal compliance are the core purpose of smashHit. The system uses semantic models of consent and legal rules to ensure data sharing follows regulations automatically. It was designed to handle inconsistent consent rules across different platforms and jurisdictions in 6 countries.
Based on available project data, the system was integrated with existing industrial and personal data platforms owned by leading data providers across 3 sectors. The 2 demonstrators show real-world integration was achieved, but timeline for new deployments would depend on your platform architecture.
The project delivered 3 demonstrators: one integrating connected product and insurance data in VW and LN operational environments, and another combining traffic, smart city, and connected product data with FVH, INFT, and VW. These ran in real operational settings, not just lab conditions.
The project closed in December 2022. However, the consortium included 7 industry partners who may continue developing or offering these tools commercially. The project built on previous work from AutoMat, Cross-CPP, CAMPANEO, and DALICC projects, suggesting an active ecosystem.
The smashHit consortium is heavily industry-driven with 7 out of 12 partners from industry (58% ratio), supported by 3 universities and 1 research organization across 6 countries (AT, DE, ES, FI, IE, UK). This is a strong signal for business relevance — the project was led by applied research institute ATB Bremen (Germany) and included major players like Volkswagen. With only 2 SMEs, the consortium skews toward large enterprise use cases, which aligns with the data volumes and compliance complexity the tools address. The geographic spread across Central, Southern, and Northern Europe plus the UK suggests the consent and contracting tools were designed to handle cross-border regulatory differences.
Institut für Angewandte Systemtechnik Bremen GmbH (ATB), Germany — applied research institute specializing in systems engineering
Want to explore how smashHit's consent management and data-sharing tools could work for your business? SciTransfer can connect you directly with the project team and help evaluate fit for your use case.
