An event entitled FP7 eGovernance and Policy Modeling projects: How to make the cutting edge R & D accessible for real use, in a shorter period of time, was held on Friday 27th January 2012, at the Showroom Workstation, Sheffield.
Aims of the event were:
· To close the gap between the availability of cutting edge R & D in eGovernance and Policy Modeling and its take-up in local and central government. It will bring the new governance projects and those about to exploit their results into a collaborative environment.
· To link the projects currently creating the best practice of the future with initiatives seeking to share current best practice, this assisting with "exploitation" of the new initiatives.
· To briefly assess how these initiatives may be of global benefit by examining how China may be encouraged to take a short cut to sustainable development and look at joint approaches to China.
The attendees were:
Those involved in the EU Framework Programme initiatives, those charged with spreading best practice and the policy makers and practitioners who would value advance knowledge of what will be available for them to use in the coming years.
The introduction was chaired by Boudouin de Sonis, Chief Executive of the EU e-Forum Brussels, with presentations from some of the current EU FP7 projects in the field of eGovernance and Policy Modeling. These included:
· The IMPACT Project - new tools using copyright laws as an exemplar, presented by Professor Ann Macintosh, Professor of Digital Governance, and Co-director of the Centre for Digital Citizenship (The University of Leeds). www.policy-impact.eu
· The CATCH Project - new tools in a carbon-reduction context, presented by Dr Steve Cassidy, MRCMH, Edinburgh. www.carbonaware.eu
· The FUPOL Project - new tools in a sustainable development context, presented by Gary Simpson, Programme Manager, e@SY Connects, South Yorkshire. www.fupol.eu
· The PADGETS Project - novel toolset that will allow citizens and public administration decision makers to engage interactively in group planning, simulation and assessment of governmental policy, presented by Professor Paul Foley, Tech4i2, Loughborough/Brussels. www.padgets.eu
· The CROSSOVER Project - reinforcing links between different global communities of policymakers, researchers, experts and citizens through a combination of content production and ad hoc and online/offline animation, presented by Professor Paul Foley, Tech4i2. www.crossover-project.eu
· The ePOLICY Project - supporting the decision making process through opinion-mining and visualisation tools, presented by Tina Balke, University of Surrey. www.epolicy-project.eu
· The "THE SLICKER CITIES: DOING THE RIGHT THING" Project - policies which are required to enable Sheffield to become an exemplar in tackling climate change, presented by Edward Murphy, Technical Director, Mott MacDonald.
· The RE-GREEN Project - in context of Sheffield sustainable development policy, presented by Adrian Hacket, Building for the Future, Sheffield.
· The RENERGY Project, presented by Ian Bloomfield, Durham County Council.
Also a presentation was given on the planned event to take place in China in July 2012 to share best practice in governance and establish strong future collaborations conducted by Dr Shaun Topham, President of the EU e-Forum and EU-China e-Forum. The session was concluded by workshops coordinated and managed by Dr Bridgette Wessels, ICOSS, University of Sheffield, with regards to opportunities for realising any synergies emerging between the various initiatives represented or for new initiatives.