Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DECIDO (eviDEnce and Cloud for more InformeD and effective pOlicies)
Période du rapport: 2021-03-01 au 2022-02-28
Policy making is the process of creating and monitoring policies to solve societal challenges. In this respect, it is often conceptualised as a policy cycle, consisting of several different phases, such as: Agenda setting; Design; Implementation; and Monitor & Evaluation. DECIDO supports and enables effective involvement of actors in all 4 phases of the policy cycle; proven through the identification, integration and application of appropriate tools and services in the project’s pilot cases. Specifically, DECIDO develops new ways and methods for making cloud infrastructures, data and models available to public administrations, targeting to support the policy cycle. Towards this direction, DECIDO collaborates with the European Open Science Cloud initiative (EOSC) and puts together multidisciplinary expertise on big data, cloud infrastructures and services, analytical technologies, simulation and in general the inclusion of evidence in policy processes. DECIDO provides a mixed framework including instruments, guidelines and approaches fostering both co-creation and citizen science approaches enabling an effective involvement of actors (political actors, social actors, intervention actors, information, advice, knowledge and expertise providers) in the policy cycle
In doing this, DECIDO on the one hand supports the Public Authorities (in particular the policy makers) in the adoption of Big Data and Cloud services to create better policies, leveraging on the data-driven evidence facts. On the other hand, DECIDO brings the citizens/businesses (and all the other actors involved in the Policy Life Cycle) into the decision process, exploiting their experience to help the policy decision makers to know their needs.
DECIDO has the following main objectives:
1) a methodology to guide the policy actors in the four phases of the Policy Life Cycle, in particular in the creation/improvement of the policy, in the selection of the activities to be performed and in the adoption of the DECIDO digital services offered
2) an easy-to-use web portal to define, manage and evaluate Public Administration policies in a collaborative manner leveraging services offered by EOSC, external services/tools to EOSC, data made available by EOSC and by other data providers (e.g. European Data Portal), including Public Administrations themselves
3) the involvement of local actors from a methodological (e.g. co-creation of indicators), from the identification of needs and challenges, and from the data generation (e.g. through citizen science experiments where applicable) points of view
4) a DECIDO Data Catalogue to draw data-driven evidence-based policies with a particular focus in the disaster risk management application domain. The Data Catalogue will be made available through the national and European data portals.
In doing this, DECIDO on the one hand supports the Public Authorities (in particular the policy makers) in the adoption of Big Data and Cloud services to create better policies, leveraging on the data-driven evidence facts. On the other hand, DECIDO brings the citizens/businesses (and all the other actors involved in the Policy Life Cycle) into the decision process, exploiting their experience to help the policy decision makers to know their needs.
DECIDO has the following main objectives:
1) a methodology to guide the policy actors in the four phases of the Policy Life Cycle, in particular in the creation/improvement of the policy, in the selection of the activities to be performed and in the adoption of the DECIDO digital services offered
2) an easy-to-use web portal to define, manage and evaluate Public Administration policies in a collaborative manner leveraging services offered by EOSC, external services/tools to EOSC, data made available by EOSC and by other data providers (e.g. European Data Portal), including Public Administrations themselves
3) the involvement of local actors from a methodological (e.g. co-creation of indicators), from the identification of needs and challenges, and from the data generation (e.g. through citizen science experiments where applicable) points of view
4) a DECIDO Data Catalogue to draw data-driven evidence-based policies with a particular focus in the disaster risk management application domain. The Data Catalogue will be made available through the national and European data portals.
DECIDO activities are structured in 5 phases along the 36 months of the project: Phase 1 (1st year) focused on the definition of use case requirements and technical specifications; Phase 2 (next 6 months), focused on system development and continuous integration; Phase 3 (M18-M27) and Phase 4 (M28-M34) the first and second experimentation with the real users and collection of their feedback; Phase 5 (M35-M36) the transition toward the exploitation of DECIDO results.
Therefore, the first year of the project completed the activities under Phase 1.
The initial research was focused on the conceptualisation of the DECIDO Toolbox, gathering practices on the deployment of big data and cloud technologies and the application of evidence-based approaches in policy making. A mapping and analysis of which services, offered by EOSC and other sources, are relevant for policy makers and what could be their potential impact in DECIDO was carried out. Adopting a mixed-methods approach (desktop research and interviews) the needs and challenges encountered by public administrations in their everyday activities, as well as towards reengineering their policy making approach were identified and discussed. More than 100 documents analysed and 22 interviews conducted allowed the identification of a final list of 34 needs and 7 challenges for PA. In order to design the methodology proposed by DECIDO and measure its impact, an impact assessment framework was defined to evaluate the results of the pilot experimentation. It specifies the DECIDO intervention logic, evaluation questions and criteria, indicators, metrics and tools for data collection and data analysis at both the general level and that of the individual pilots. Also, the rationale and methodology for the development of the DECIDO co-creation sessions and the involvement of the relevant stakeholders were identified.
In this first year, DECIDO started the definition of the technical architecture, starting from the storytelling of the use case scenarios. The needs of the pilots were extracted as well as the technical requirements of the architecture. The DECIDO Platform will integrate a set of tools and services that are useful for Public Authorities to take advantage of big data and cloud technologies, and to bring the citizen to the centre of the policy cycle. Both EOSC digital services and complementary services (e.g. the digital assets of the partners to be brought into the project, legacy services belonged to PA involved in the project, etc.) will be part of the DECIDO architecture. A first initial set of open data, useful during the piloting activities, was identified in each pilot as well as the mapping of the actors that will be involved in the co-creation sessions in the four pilots that will be tested in DECIDO.
Moreover, DECIDO produced: the Ethical analysis; project brand and identity, website, social media channels and dissemination plan and activities; the innovation strategy and exploitation plan as well as the business plan and sustainability model; the data management plan and the project management methodology.
Therefore, the first year of the project completed the activities under Phase 1.
The initial research was focused on the conceptualisation of the DECIDO Toolbox, gathering practices on the deployment of big data and cloud technologies and the application of evidence-based approaches in policy making. A mapping and analysis of which services, offered by EOSC and other sources, are relevant for policy makers and what could be their potential impact in DECIDO was carried out. Adopting a mixed-methods approach (desktop research and interviews) the needs and challenges encountered by public administrations in their everyday activities, as well as towards reengineering their policy making approach were identified and discussed. More than 100 documents analysed and 22 interviews conducted allowed the identification of a final list of 34 needs and 7 challenges for PA. In order to design the methodology proposed by DECIDO and measure its impact, an impact assessment framework was defined to evaluate the results of the pilot experimentation. It specifies the DECIDO intervention logic, evaluation questions and criteria, indicators, metrics and tools for data collection and data analysis at both the general level and that of the individual pilots. Also, the rationale and methodology for the development of the DECIDO co-creation sessions and the involvement of the relevant stakeholders were identified.
In this first year, DECIDO started the definition of the technical architecture, starting from the storytelling of the use case scenarios. The needs of the pilots were extracted as well as the technical requirements of the architecture. The DECIDO Platform will integrate a set of tools and services that are useful for Public Authorities to take advantage of big data and cloud technologies, and to bring the citizen to the centre of the policy cycle. Both EOSC digital services and complementary services (e.g. the digital assets of the partners to be brought into the project, legacy services belonged to PA involved in the project, etc.) will be part of the DECIDO architecture. A first initial set of open data, useful during the piloting activities, was identified in each pilot as well as the mapping of the actors that will be involved in the co-creation sessions in the four pilots that will be tested in DECIDO.
Moreover, DECIDO produced: the Ethical analysis; project brand and identity, website, social media channels and dissemination plan and activities; the innovation strategy and exploitation plan as well as the business plan and sustainability model; the data management plan and the project management methodology.
DECIDO will exploit the capability of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) allowing the use of secure compute and data intensive services. This will impact on the use of the cloud and disruptive technologies in Public Sector, since the several EOSC services will be integrated in the DECIDO Portal offering a great wealth of innovative services and resources (cloud infrastructure, data platforms and models, big and open data) to enable/support all actors involved in the policy making in the domain of disaster risk management in all the phases of the Policy Life Cycle.
Moreover, DECIDO will improve the way the activities of the various Policy Cycle steps are realised, taking advantage of and putting at the epicentre the feedback of policy making actors. This approach will be validated by the DECIDO experimentation phase during the pilot running.
According to DECIDO’s innovative technologies tools (cloud infrastructure, data platforms and models, big and open data) it is possible to raise awareness of environmental disasters among citizens. With the opportunity to receive quick and direct information anytime, citizens will be able to adopt a rightful behavior to countering risks of possible future environmental disasters. Processing a large amount of data permit to predict the future of the events, and so, it guarantees a solution to the principal economic and social global challenges.
Moreover, DECIDO will improve the way the activities of the various Policy Cycle steps are realised, taking advantage of and putting at the epicentre the feedback of policy making actors. This approach will be validated by the DECIDO experimentation phase during the pilot running.
According to DECIDO’s innovative technologies tools (cloud infrastructure, data platforms and models, big and open data) it is possible to raise awareness of environmental disasters among citizens. With the opportunity to receive quick and direct information anytime, citizens will be able to adopt a rightful behavior to countering risks of possible future environmental disasters. Processing a large amount of data permit to predict the future of the events, and so, it guarantees a solution to the principal economic and social global challenges.