Trust-IT in Madrid as H2020 project PolicyCloud kicks off

PolicyCloud is a new 36-month Horizon2020 project, funded by the European Commission as the pilot on using the European cloud infrastructure for public administrations (DT-GOVERNANCE-12-2019-2020). Project coordinator ATOS Spain welcomed the other 14 partners on the 21st and 22nd of January for the official kick-off of the initiative.

PolicyCloud’s key outcomes

PolicyCloud’s main objective is to deliver a unique integrated environment addressing the full lifecycle of policy management, utilising the capabilities offered by the European Cloud Initiative especially concerning data analysis, in order to facilitate evidence-based policy making.

One of the key technical outcomes of the project will be the Policy Development Toolkit, a system developed so as to allow policy makers to test different models and analytical tools on their datasets. This will be coupled to a Data Marketplace, where datasets relevant to policy making can be uploaded and indexed.

Trust-IT’s role in PolicyCloud

Trust-IT will be in charge of Work Package 7 “Communication, Exploitation, Standardisation, Roadmapping & Business Development”, cooperating with all the other WPs for the implementation of the dissemination strategy of the project’s results.

Task leader Nicholas Ferguson highlighted Trust-IT’s work on the project’s visual branding, communications kit, and website design, concluding with precious insights about the roadmap highlighting the next actions for the first six months of the project.

Four innovative use cases

The added-value of all project outcomes will be demonstrated through four use cases that cover different societal challenges. The results will be evaluated in heterogeneous environments and settings, demonstrating the applicability and re-usability of the developed models and tools in different countries, contexts and sectors.

The first use case “Participatory policies against radicalisation”, managed by the Italian IT provider Maggioli, will focus on collecting and analysing data from social media and message boards, in order to provide policy makers with effective data-driven tools for addressing the issue of radicalisation. In the second use case “Intelligent policies for the development of denomination of origin”, SARGA will exploit the PolicyCLOUD platform as a support tool facilitating collaborative decision making in all the different actors of the agrifood value chain in Aragon, Spain.

The Sofia Municipality, in charge of the third use case, will work on urban environment improvement and monitoring through crowdsourcing data analysis, specifically via an interactive map of the city on which citizens can signal issues to the administration in real time. Use case four will build upon the work initiated in London on predictive analysis towards unemployment risks identification and policy making.

PolicyCloud and the EOSC

The final solutions and tools developed by PolicyCloud will eventually become available as public cloud services, contributing to the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), a core element in the European Commission's plan of making Europe a global leader in data management. 

“We are thrilled to be a part of PolicyCloud” expressed Silvana Muscella, CEO at Trust-IT, “a significant project which will encourage citizens to play a key role in its implementation phase.” Over the years, she added, “our company has gathered an extensive network in the world of data infrastructures and cloud providers, so we are looking forward to tapping into these communities as well for showcasing results and stimulating activities.”

Trust-IT will guide the consortium throughout the evolution of PolicyCloud, disseminating its outcomes through the official website, as well as social media (Twitter and LinkedIn), newsletters, and other channels.

Follow this journey towards the realisation of the European cloud for data-driven policy management.