BrazilCapgemini Invent leads 'next leap forward' of Data.Europa.EU
The European Union has renewed its collaboration with Capgemini Invent in the field of open data services.
Capgemini Invent has been a trusted partner of the European Commission for over a decade, and in the open data space since 2015. In that year, the European Commission asked the consulting firm to examine the potential benefits of a European data portal – a platform which would collect data from all European Union member states and consolidate this in an overarching database to the benefit of public bodies, businesses and people.
The researchers (at the time operating under the Capgemini Consulting banner) found that Europe’s market for open data could unlock billions in Euro’s in economic benefit through more transparency, data sharing and collaboration, among others.
Not much later, the European Commission embarked on its biggest open data project to date – bringing together its huge data sets from across its footprint to a new platform. This data was for long made accessible through two platforms: European Data Portal and European Union Open Data Portal.
To further enhance the platform’s effectiveness and scope, the European Union earlier this year awarded a six-year framework contract to a consortium of companies led by Capgemini Invent. The group of external firms were handed three tasks: migrating all data to one single platform, further growing and enriching the database, and professionalising the use of data in government decision-making.
Step one of the tasks has meanwhile been completed, following the launch of Data.Europa.EU – a platform offering over 1 million datasets across 36 countries, 6 EU institutions and 79 other EU bodies and agencies. The platform also provides a variety of learning resources and use cases.
According to a release by the EU, Data.Europa.EU will provide bodies and agencies with “a single point of contact” that can help them with “generating valuable insights” and “improving and sustaining national open data practices through various stimuli to foster and showcase uptake.”
Commenting on the next steps, Volkmar Varnhagen, Managing Director for Capgemini Invent, Northern and Central Europe and North America, said: “The maturity and the expectations around data quality, interoperability and impact creation is evolving. Over the next six years, we will enable a new leap forward, taking down barriers and increasing value creation through open data in Europe.”
Other members of the Capgemini Invent-led consortium are: Intrasoft, Fraunhofer Fokus, Ommax, con terra, 52°North, Agiledrop, Timelex, the Lisbon Council and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
