D5.1 METHODS FOR CLOUD USE BY PUBLIC AUTHORITIES

This document is the third of the series of deliverables under WP5, which aims to realize the overall goal of policy modelling, making and implementation, enabling the analysis of data to be directly exploited in different phases of the policy lifecycle.

This deliverable has been submitted in August 2021 (M20 of the project), and its main goal is to provide a methodology and a set of adaptable techniques for the creation of policies exploiting Cloud infrastructures and big data technologies on top of these infrastructures. To this end, the proposed methodology will specify how to exploit the value of different mechanisms (e.g., data modelling, semantic representation and interoperability, analytics, etc.) during the policy lifecycle (from modelling to implementation) in the scope of Cloud environments.

The document aims at Policycloud participants and stakeholders, involved in the topics of data, big data and Cloud computing, and the wider community of public administrations (PAs), decision-makers and citizens interested in taking advantage of the capabilities and benefits of Cloud technologies and big data in their policy-making. Thus, apart from the Methodology for policy-making in Cloud environments (Section 4), this deliverable includes an overview of the main characteristics and benefits of the Cloud and big data – in general and the benefits of the project itself (Section 2.1), the data lifecycle of public policies (Section 3), as well as concrete examples of good practices and success stories related to the use and utilisation of the Cloud and big data in the public sector in different countries (Section 2.2), starting with the four PolicyCLOUD pilot use cases: Italy (Lombardy Region), Spain (Autonomous Community of Aragon), Bulgaria (Sofia), and the UK (Camden Town, London). The objective is to bring more context to the PolicyCLOUD project, raise awareness and serve as an inspiration regarding the capabilities and the value of the Cloud and big data in the public sector, as well as a basis for the development of adaptable approaches for the examination of public authorities’ policy-making structures and their systems maturity to absorb and analyse data in common Cloud infrastructures.

This initial report will be further expanded and refined during the project duration. There will be an updated version of this deliverable in August 2022 that will include additional information and further advancements and contributions from other tasks. The number of good practices and countries in Section 2.2 will be further expanded. As part of the suggested methodology presented in Section 4, a set of adaptable approaches for the examination of public authorities’ policy-making structures and their systems maturity to absorb and analyse data in common Cloud infrastructures will be further developed (Section 4.1). Methodology Validation (Section 4.3) will also be expanded in August 2022 to include concrete examples from the four PolicyCLOUD pilot use cases and their implementation during the project.