2017•06•30     Funchal

UNU-EGOV attended the 23rd International Conference on Engineering, Technology, and Innovation (ICE-Conference 2017), which took place in Funchal, in the island of Madeira (Portugal), between 27-29 June, through the presence of its Postdoctoral Fellow Dimitrios Sarantis. Dimitrios represented the Operating Unit in the workshop entitled “Emerging ICT technologies for the public sector – how innovating the public sector helps meeting societal needs”. During the workshop it was discussed the innovative methodological framework to accelerate the transformation of the public sector through the identification and assessment of emerging ICT technologies that hold the potential to transform the public sector into a technology leader and innovation carrier. Possible ways of framework’s enhancement and future application have been explored and discussed.

The framework’s methodology, developed from EU project SONNETS, comprises the following activities:

1. Identification of societal and public sector needs on the basis of interviews and focus groups in four different EU countries;
2. Identification  and  assessment  of  emerging  ICT  technologies  and  trends  regarding  their potential to meet societal and public sector needs;
3. Evaluation of the innovation potential of these  ICT  services  and  solutions  in  terms  of  both  their  impact  and  feasibility;
4. Reverse engineering  approach to  identify  the  (research)  activities  needed  to  implement promising  ICT technologies in the public sector.

Dimitrios (centre) during the workshop.