L 45/1412
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
24.2.2022
COMMISSION PILOT PROJECTS
CHAPTER PP 02 — EUROPEAN STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS (cont'd) PP 02 21
(cont'd)
PP 02 21 03
(cont'd) At the same time providers, in particular European SMEs and start-ups offering environmentally friendly, cutting-edge technologies or innovative solutions, would gain recognition as trusted partners in the delivery of modern digital solutions for public services.
The project should be developed making use of the latest standards of service design available and in dialogue with a wide array of stakeholders, including public bodies and SMEs from across the Union.
This would support the modernisation of public administrations across the Union, by reinforcing efforts to achieve Europe’s green transition through a more efficient adoption of innovative solutions.
It is also an important tool to engage Union citizens.
This initiative also aims at supporting the Commission’s objective to stimulate a digital transformation that will benefit everyone, including citizens and businesses.
If fully implemented, the project will positively contribute to attaining the following objectives of the Union: (a) Digital Strategy, (b) New SMEs Strategy, (c) Industrial Strategy and (d) European Green Deal.
This initiative also provides an important input into the new e-Government Action Plan, for which preparatory works are already underway, and as a response to the increasing digital needs.
The innovative GovTech platform and solutions provided by cost-efficient and environmentally friendly enterprises will further contribute to the economic recovery of the Union, which is of critical importance in the post-COVID-19 reality.
The pilot project will achieve its objectives by combining top-down activities, bottom-up activities and direct research of citizens’ views.
Top-down activities:
This action aims to engage with public administration in a foresight exercise to promote the alignment of their strategies and implementation roadmaps of digital solutions.
By doing so, the project will support the streamlining of public services and contribute towards Europe’s sustainable transition.
The scenario building approach, combined with the sharing of success stories, will be used to reveal the dynamics of a fast-evolving ecosystem.
It should also identify where the use and joint sourcing of the digital solutions by public administrations may create new opportunities for SMEs and start-ups.
This analysis will support efforts to use digital solutions in public administration to attain the Union's strategic objectives, including the fight against climate change and promoting the digital transition.
Bottom-up activities:
This action aims to engage with the fast growing GovTech ecosystem to harvest ideas that help public administrations in adopting digital solutions.
It will support the development or use of one common platform to gather challenges and allow other public administrations to contribute or form part of a consortium involved in a particular challenge and source solutions from providers.
In the pilot phase, the action should concentrate on ideas to support one or more of the Union's objectives as mentioned in the strategic documents presented by the Commission in 2020.
For example: the Digital Innovation Challenge, launched by the pilot project ‘Reuse of digital standards to support the SME sector’, and approved under the 2019 budget, can be used as a source of inspiration given that this format has proven to be successful by engaging a wide ecosystem of players and crowdsource innovative ideas (*).