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This tag is for all posts relating to Public sector innovation.

One of the key issues AER is focusing on in 2015 is good governance and innovation. Therefore, public sector innovation will be key focus at AER's joint plenary session taking place in Hampshire County beginning of November.
Read here more about public sector transformation, innovation and governance.

Includ-EU Online Session: “Anti-discrimination: a Transformative Approach for Organisations”

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This online session focused on how we can identify and prevent systemic discrimination in our environments. It was led by Diversity Equity and Inclusion Expert, Author and Podcast Producer Prisca Ratovonasy. She shared the stage with Mame-Fatou Niang, Associate Professor, Author and Artist-in-Residence at Ateliers Médicis.

The slides of the training are available here

The bibliography is available here, it is in one document with the agenda

This session was held in English and simultaneously translated into Italian, Slovenian, Romanian, Greek, Spanish, and Dutch, allowing us to grow our community and involve more and more institutions.

This was a rare opportunity to bring together an international community with 7 European languages around a shared objective to make services and organisations more inclusive.

The session enabled all participants and organisers to:

  • better understand the stakes
  • raise awareness on the transformative dimension of addressing discrimination
  • get actionable knowledge, ready to use

If you missed this, please contact us ([email protected])

This online training session is organised in the context of INCLUD-EU, an EU project funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration fund (AMIF) which contributes to building more inclusive and cohesive European societies by enhancing knowledge, driving innovation, and stimulating cooperation between local and regional authorities in the European Union. To know more about the project, visit the project website.

 

 

 

Lead experience exchange: propose a new working group!

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An AER working group provides a space for experience and knowledge exchange. The ground for mutual learning is the community the AER creates between member regions that have very diverse contexts and shared objectives. The AER community is one of its main added values when joining projects or developing advocacy activities.

As the mandates of current Working Groups have all come to an end, AER is offering the possibility to all members to propose to lead knowledge and experience exchange on a regional policy area that is important for them.

So… how to start a working group?

Contact the AER Secretariat and tell us what you are looking for!

If you’re not yet sure exactly about the activities or the specific focus of the working group you would like to lead, but you know you want to be engaged and lead a working group, contact us!

We’ll schedule a meeting to specify needs. We’ll help you identify the topic and main objective of the working group you’d like to set up and make sure this will indeed create value for you. We’ll help you to develop a draft proposal on the focus of the Working Group and identify a few potential activities, which you will then be able to share with other AER members.

What kind of topics?

At the AER we like to say that everything is possible!

Topics need to be in line with the Mission and Objectives of the AER, as defined in the AER Statutes

They need to be in line with the basic fundamental principles of the Council of Europe.

Who will be in the working group?

You may already know with which regions you would like to specifically cooperate with, in that case let us know and when needed we can facilitate the connection.

Working groups are open to all AER members. In order to propose a new working group, a core group of 1 leading region and at least 3 supporting regions are needed for the creation of a working group.

If you don’t yet know which regions you’d like to work with, let’s discuss! Together with the AER Secretariat you’ll be able identify peers in other regions who could be interested to work with you.

What kind of activities?

As per the AER Statutes, working groups are responsible for

  • Promoting networking and knowledge exchange between AER members on specific issues related to regional development; (8.3a)
  • Identifying and disseminating good practices. (8.3.b)

In this context, and depending on what you would like to achieve, activities can include activities to raise awareness on a topic and share existing practices, experience sharing, workshops to identify how to address shared challenges and societal changes, information sessions on funding opportunities, project development workshops…

The process to create a working group is detailed on this page.

There are many ways in which the AER offer and synergies with other activities can match your expectations. Contact us!

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Knowledge Transfer for Integrated Care – Sharing the Results with the International Healthcare Community

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After almost a year of knowledge exchange and capacity-building support to healthcare authorities willing to adopt or scale-up integrated care, the AER and the project partners were eager to share the experience and the results of the SCIROCCO Exchange Knowledge Transfer Programme with a great variety of international healthcare professionals and practitioners.

The SCIROCCO Exchange is a project co-founded by the third Health Programme of the European Union and lead by the Scottish Government. It provides evidence-based capacity-building support to health and social care authorities across Europe for the adoption or scaling-up of integrated care within their local healthcare systems. In this context, the AER in cooperation with the Scottish Government have worked with nine healthcare authorities for the co-development and implementation of nine personalised knowledge transfer programmes aimed at preparing the ground for the transition towards integrated care and to improve existing system design.

Despite the constraints posed by the pandemic to in-person-activities and to the resources of the healthcare sector, the needs and objectives of the healthcare authorities were still confirmed and the knowledge transfer continued. While knowledge transfer activities were mostly re-shaped in an online setting, this did not limit their impact and rather offered new opportunities for learning, involving a larger number of experts, fostering long-term professional connections in the sector, as well as for relying on an active network of partners also for the exchange of knowledge and practices regarding new needs brought about by the pandemic (as with the organisation of the workshop COVID-19 – Mental Health & Well-being of Healthcare Professionals with Scotland and South Denmark Regions).

Hence, we have been eager to share our experience and results with the broader healthcare community in the context of two major international conferences – the 2021 European Health Management Association (EHMA) Annual Conference, and the 2021 North America Conference on Integrated Care (NACIC).

SCIROCCO Exchange Knowledge Transfer Programme at EHMA 2021 – Health Management: Managing the Present and Shaping the Future

From the 15th to the 17th of September, the AER took part in the EHMA 2021 annual conference organised online but through the lenses of Lisbon. The event gathered more than 400 representatives of the healthcare system to exchange about key challenges in leading and managing the current and future health services.

Through a poster presentation, the AER shared with the healthcare experts the process for the co-definition and the implementation of knowledge transfer in SCIROCCO Exchange, and how this was re-adapted to the circumstances of the pandemic in order to make it both resilient and equally effective in its capacity-building objectives.

Lastly, the paper for the poster was included in the EHMA 2021 Abstract Book published after the Conference.

SCIROCCO Exchange Knowledge Transfer Programme NACIC 2021 – Innovation. Inspiration. Integration: Co-designing for health and wellbeing with individuals and communities.

From the 4th to the 7th of October, the AER together with the Scottish Government, Kronikgune institute in the Basque Country, and the National Health Fund in Poland took part in the first NACIC 2021 Annual conference organised online in  partnership with the University of Toronto, KPMG Canada, HSPN and iCOACH. The event was a great opportunity to debate with over 300 healthcare professionals and patients about the importance of co-designing healthcare services with individuals in order to improve the effectiveness of health and social care system design and achieve more person-centred care.

In this context, the AER organised a workshop presenting how the SCIROCCO Exchange knowledge transfer programme was developed and implemented to provide local-based support for the adoption of integrated care, and especially to support citizens’ empowerment in the design and management of healthcare services. To this aim, the workshop shared first information concerning the overall process developed by the project, the tools employed and available for replication, and the knowledge transfer programme. Additionally, the experiences of the Basque Country and Poland were presented to provide concrete good practices on how knowledge transfer supported the healthcare authorities in preparing the ground for citizens’ empowerment within their systems.

Presentations from the workshop can be accessed here!

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Skills for Effective Innovation Ecosystems

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Article by Sandra Evans, Project Coordinator at Universität Tübingen.

It is not a secret anymore that open innovation ecosystems provide optimal conditions for creating new value. But what makes innovation ecosystems effective, or how are effective innovation ecosystems created? This important question was the topic of a panel discussion organised by the Assembly of European Regions (AER) as part of a set of very topical webinars organised within the Erasmus+ Skillnet project on enabling multi-stakeholder approaches to help build more innovative societies.

As we all have witnessed in the past year, a crisis can be an incredible driver for innovation by honing in on the most pressing issues. With the COVID-19 pandemic the overall mission was to reduce the number of infected persons and reach herd immunity. Accordingly, a diversity of stakeholders were able to very quickly align under a clear common goal and effect respective contributions. What the Coronavirus crisis also revealed was that governments and private companies were able to effectively work together in order to produce and certify vaccines in record time. However, what are the conditions that facilitate and optimize innovation activities?

Arnault Morrison, thematic expert on research and innovation at the Policy Learning Platform (PLP) of Interreg Europe, presented five actionable policy recommendations from a diversity of policy briefs published by the PLP. All are indeed key prerequisites for regions to benefit from sustainable innovation and resulting economic development:

  1. understand regional institutional context (especially the strengths and weaknesses)
  2. promote the diffusion of technology (rather than the invention of new)
  3. promote interregional learning and collaboration (i.a. by sharing good practices)
  4. promote an entrepreneurial mindset and startups (and decrease risk averseness)
  5. form a regional task force for regional skills assessment.

In addition, two regions elucidated their approaches towards building efficacy in two topically different ecosystems. Agneta Kardos from the Timiș County Council in Romania focused on how interregional learning and collaboration was crucial in building the local (informal) health and social care ecosystem. The presentation very nicely demonstrates that the process takes time, requires perseverance as well as a framework for exchange and learning. This framework was provided by different European funding instruments (primarily Interreg programs), which since 2008 have not only evolved with respect to terminology and approaches (e.g., moving from triple towards quadruple helix approaches) on the topic of aging populations, but also have been able to help build trust and a multi-stakeholder dialogue in the Timiș region.

Christiane Egger, deputy manager at the Upper Austrian Regional Energy Agency, shared her experiences from the energy transition in her region. One of the key pillars in the transition was the formal network of energy and environmental businesses, namely the Cleantech Cluster Upper Austria, which engaged in dialogue with policy makers. The mission of the energy transition has a clear message: to reach climate neutrality by 2050. In order to reach this mission, the agency takes on the role as orchestrator of the formal/informal and narrow/broad innovation networks and uses the carrot (financial incentives) – stick (regulatory framework) policy approach, which they have amended to include tambourines (dissemination and awareness raising) and a skateboard (innovation to speed up the process).

Ultimately, all speakers in their presentations and the ensuing discussion highlighted communication and connectedness as central to the innovation process and creating effective open innovation ecosystems.

Identifying and understanding the strengths and weaknesses in the respective regions, as the first recommendation by Arnault Morrison puts forward, provides the necessary base for formulating clear common goals and missions to guide policy priorities. While this seems trivial, it is absolutely crucial and will help to guide innovation activities by better understanding the actual needs and demands and thus, better being able to match demand and supply.

It is not easy to bring different stakeholders to the proverbial table, yet this can be instructive to everyone involved. Within the framework of the Interreg Europe project ACSELL, the SCIROCCO Exchange Tool was identified as a good practice to assess the readiness for demand-driven innovation in regions or ecosystems (https://www.interregeurope.eu/policylearning/good-practices/item/5304/scirocco-exchange-tool-to-assess-readiness-for-demand-driven-innovation/). This tool facilitates and structures the multi-stakeholder dialogue around 12 dimensions and helps to identify strengths and weaknesses. An improved understanding of the local needs and context as well as structured dialogue with all stakeholders is an important first step to creating effective innovation ecosystems.

Available EU funding opportunities and initiatives:

Picture by Romain Tordo from Unslpash.

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COVID-19 – Mental Health & Well-being of Healthcare Professionals

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The Chair of the AER Digital Health Network, Donna Hendersson, Scotland (UK) is pleased to invite AER members and partners on 16 June 2021 from 11:00-12:30 CET for a webinar on supporting the psychological wellbeing of healthcare professionals. The event will highlight the potential of digital solutions and the importance of digital (technological) literacy in providing mental health support.

Knowledge exchange to accelerate change

Capacity-building and knowledge exchange is both the foundation and aspiration of SCIROCCO Exchange EU Health Programme funded project (www.sciroccoexchange.com). The ultimate objective of this project is to support health and social care authorities in their transformation towards sustainable integrated and more efficient health and social care systems through better understanding of local needs, mutual learning, access to tailored evidence and improvement planning.

To achieve this objective, AER developed the SCIROCCO Exchange Knowledge Transfer Programme to facilitate the exchange of experience, good practices and lessons learned in order to speed up the adoption of integrated care in European regions and countries. This Knowledge Transfer Programme builds on the expertise of AER in peer learning for policy innovation.

Enormous psychological pressure for healthcare workers

The COVID-19 pandemics has proven to be a catalyst of change and of greater demand for coordinated and integrated health and social care services, with healthcare professionals and citizens at the centre of this change. As a result, healthcare professionals in particular are under enormous psychological pressure with stress, fatigues and anxiety being present in over 86% of health and social care workers worldwide (Vizeh, M.2020).

The webinar will feature examples of:

  • Assessing the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on nurses and midwives at Odense Universal Hospital (South Denmark) including personal and work concerns of nurses/midwives during the COVID-19 outbreak and level of emotional distress experienced by nurses/midwives during the COVID-19 outbreak.
  • PRoMis National Well-being Hub for those working in Health and Social Care in Scotland.

The outcomes of this webinar will also help to inform the knowledge of other regions and countries in providing mental health and wellbeing support for healthcare professionals.

Draft Agenda

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Colorful Hands 2 of 3 / George Fox students Annabelle Wombacher, Jared Mar, Sierra Ratcliff and Benjamin Cahoon collaborated on the mural. / Article: https://www.orartswatch.org/painting-the-town-in-newberg/

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AER President speaks at the UN climate conference on behalf of the world’s regions and municipalities

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AER was present at this year’s UN climate meeting, which took place in Katowice, Poland. The highlight of AER’s involvement was when AER President Magnus Berntsson spoke at the high-level segment 12 December on behalf of all the regions and municipalities of the world. 

Setting the scene

AER has been building a strong voice on how regional climate action can advance global climate goals, convening the engagement of its member regions with the international development policy processes, notably the climate change agenda and its Conferences held in the frame of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Stretching from the 3 of December to 12 of December, this year’s Conference of Parties (COP) is expected to have gathered around 30 000 participants, among them environment and climate ministers from around 196 countries. COP24 Katowice is viewed as one of the most important COPs since COP21 in Paris, 2015, when the Paris agreement was adopted. On the agenda for this meeting was an attempt to adopt a rulebook for the Paris agreement.

A week of many meetings

During these weeks there are many meetings taking place, both in connection to the negotiations but also as side-events. As one of the largest independent regional networks in Europe AER was invited to speak at many venues.

The highlight of AER’s involvement at COP being AER President, Magnus Berntsson’s, speech at the high-level segment of COP24. In his speech emphasised that regions play an important role in implementing the climate goals, arguing that it is on the local and regional level that the practical work on climate action is taking place. By cooperating with other regions, through networks such as AER, the voice of subnational actors become stronger and national and international levels must listen.

Besides speaking at the high-level segment Magnus Berntsson had week full of meetings and conferences. On 10 December he participated at the ICLEI Local and Regional Leaders meeting, named “Accelerating transitions to delivery of the Paris Agreement through multilevel Climate Action.”

Magnus Berntsson speaking at the UfM-event (left), Magnus Berntsson at COP24 (right)

On 11 December Magnus Berntsson held the key note speech at the Union for Mediterranean on “The involvement of sub-national Euro-Mediterranean governments”. During his key note speech Magnus talked about the importance of creating partnerships with actors from both the public and the private sector as well as the civil society. He exemplified with Region Västra Götaland climate strategy developed in broad cooperation with stakeholders from all over the region.

Followed by participating in a panel on the World Climate Summit- The investment COP ‘Creating the Right Policy Environment for Deployment of Innovations & Business-Driven Solutions’. During this session Magnus Berntsson highlighted that the public sector plays an important role in providing the right policy framework that will enable society’s transition to a low carbon economy.

He also paid a visit to the Austrian pavilion on the 13 of December, where he spoke on mitigation and adaption of climate change as well as the work of R20 – Regions of Climate Action.

The President of AER was not the only representative from AER present at COP24, Eva Hallström from Värmland, Sweden, chairing the AER working group on energy and climate change was also in Katowice, Poland sharing good practices and attending negotiations.

The work goes on

With COP24 concluding last week, the delegates finally reached an agreement on how to implement the Paris Climate accord, walking away from Katowice with a rulebook that will ensure the world’s countries are doing what they claim to be doing when it comes to climate action.

However, this does not mean that we are done working. AER will remain an active partner in climate work and we invite all our member regions to cooperate with us on this important societal challenge. Closing this article with the words of AER president at COP24:

“No country, no region, is immune to effects of climate change and we must cooperate across borders, be it geographical and sectorial, in order to deliver and follow through on the commitments of the Paris agreement.”

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AER Spring Committee Plenaries

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The spring plenaries of the three AER committees took place in Örebro (Sweden) from 26 till 28 March 2019.

Work programmes

During the statutory plenary meetings of the Committee on Economy & Regional Development, the Committee on Social Policy and Public Health and the Committee on Culture, Education and Youth, AER members developped jointly the Committees’ 2019-2020 work programmes. Only one rules apply for this exercise: everything is possible!

Thematic activities

The seminar and on site thematic activities revolved around food, innovation and health.

The seminar ‘Food for thought Action!’ A regional approach to innovating food systems, was an opportunity for regions to share how they innovate food systems to achieve:
-nutrition for healthy and sustainable diets
-climate and environmental sustainability
-circularity and resource efficiency
-innovation and empowering communities.

A Breakfast Debate on youth entrepreneurship was organised

The following workshops took place:

  • Energy and Climate Change: the SDGs as a policy framework
  • Transports & Mobility: Open Data & Blockchain
  • The AMID workshop on multilevel cooperation for migration policies
  • Available opportunities for AER members in current projects

Presentations

Joint plenary 26 March

-Presentation video of Örebro

–The SDGs at regional level, Ida Texell Member of the Swedish delegation Agenda 2030

–Update on the AER strategy on projects: Luca Magri, AER Coordinator for Finance of EU projects

–Update on AER Bureau & advocacy: Vania Freitas, AER Coordinator for Institutional Relations

–Presentation video of the 2019 Summer Academy in Vojvodina

Seminar ‘Food for thought Action!’ A regional approach to innovating food systems

–Sensory research within the field of Gastronomy – a multisensory perspective in order to promote healthy eating, Åsa Öström, Örebro (SE)

–Nutrition & mental health Robert Jan Brummer, Örebro (SE)

–Olimpia Neagoe, County Councillor of Dolj (RO), Chair of the AER Working Group on Rural Development

–Peter Medved, Eastern Slovenia (SI), Secretary of the Development Council of Cohesion

–Circularity in household waste and biogas production, Erik Lagethon, Oppland (NO), Adviser Regional Development production

–Thomas Norrby, European Network for Rural Development (ENRD), Sustainable and circular food value chains, value in rural regions & inclusive territorial development

Committee plenaries

–Committee 1 plenary meeting

–Committee 2 plenary meeting

–Committee 3 plenary meeting

Workshop of the Working group on Energy and climate

–The SDGs – involvement in all political areas, Helena Lindemark, Founder and Vice President of 2022 Initiative Foundation

–The SDGs – the political vision at regional level, Mats Gunnarsson, Regional Opposition Councillor

–Ambitious Climate Goals & the implementation of the SDGs, Therese Hjelseth, Area manager Energy & Climate, Örebro (SE)

Workshop of the Working group Mobility & transports

–Open data in public transport: Carin Carelind, Head of IT, Östgötatrafiken, Sweden

–Blockchain in logistics: Robert Högberg, Project Manager SmartLog, Region Örebro County, Sweden

–Challenges ahead for regional airports: Roger Estefors, AER expert on regional airports

–2018 Report on regional airports, Roger Estefors, AER expert on regional airports

AMID workshop on multilevel cooperation for migration policies

–The Partnership for Social Innovation in Örebro County

Workshop on available opportunities for AER members in current projects

–Scirocco Exchange project on integrated care systems

Topics & Context

Find all articles regarding the background and content of events as well as progress reports and information on elections here:

-Spring Plenaries Background & content

Other information

Detailed Programme

Working documents

FINAL IMPORTANT INFO EMAIL TO PARTICIPANTS

PRACTICAL INFO 
GDPR Compliance
Please note that photography and video recording may take place during this event. If you do not wish your image to be recorded, please contact the AER secretariat.
Please also note that a list of participants will be published on this website in due course. Only the names and organisations of the individuals will be listed. No contact details will be made public. For any queries, please contact e.lee(at)aer.eu.

 

A European Folk Festival

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Food in Focus at Spring Plenaries in Örebro

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Candidates for AER Committees' elections

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Committee 1 Progress Report Spring 2019

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Committee 2 Progress Report Spring 2019

Committee 2 Progress Report Spring 2019

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Committee 3 Progress Report Spring 2019

Committee 3 Progress Report Spring 2019

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Public open data in the spotlight at Vojvodina plenaries

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On the occasion of the Autumn plenaries in Vojvodina, AER members will discuss how opening public data supports the emergence of startups in regions. The panel will bring together speakers from startups, regional policymakers, experts on design and data to discuss why, how and for what regions should open their data and look at challenges and opportunities.

Open Data… why?

Everyday, public institutions collect and generate enormous quantities of data in areas as varied as unemployment, air pollution, hospital consultations, trends in construction, petrol & diesel prices, wood harvesting, production of organic milk or the evolution of criminality. This data can be re-used to create or improve services both private and public.

  • Innovation: access to reusable data inspires innovative services and new business models. For the period 2016-2020, the market size for Open Data is estimated to be 325 billion EUR.
  • Transparency: publishing data about processes, spendings, priorities, use of services, outputs, and making it accessible is an essential part to improve transparency and governance
  • Efficiency: by using Open Data, Member States are forecasted to make 1.7 billion EUR in efficiency savings by 2020.

From pollution tracking to employment

Examples of data re-use include for instance the tracking of hourly pollution levels in sixty cities in the world by Plume Labs. This French startup uses data made public by different agencies engaged in a policy of Open Data, such as Airparif in Paris to feed its air pollution forecast app and help citizens better chose the times and places they cycle, work out or play outside with their children.

Another startup, Sun Energia in Finland uses open meteorological data for an application which calculates the costs and benefits of a potential switch to solar energy, by
assessing the solar energy production for a specific building and estimating savings. Open meteorological data is one of the inputs for this analysis.

Arbeidsmarktkansen in the Netherlands, uses public open data on employment and the economy to help organisations and individuals evaluate their actual value on the market and orient their strategies.

The stakes for regions

Opening public data means changing the way information/ data is approached. It requires quality management at the level of data collection: data need to be accurate, comparable, consistent etc (comparing apples with apples, not apples with strawberries…)

Data also needs to be usable and accessible. Publishing data which is difficult to find and to understand or difficult to link with topics which matter for citizens, is likely to result in failure. This is why, in order to harness the potential of open data, organisations need to have the end-user in mind. To define who is the end-user, what their needs could be and ensure a variety of end-users can access and use public open data, it is essential to work hand in hand with civil society, businesses, academics. While this can seem complex, this is also one of the places where the magic of open data can start operating.

Indeed by engaging with stakeholders, by asking for advice on what matters, what is useful, what helps, organisations accept to be challenged. They accept to transform in order to deliver better services. Publishing data in itself is not an objective, what matters with open data is the whole process with and for society.

This is why open data policies and strategies are essential. By developping policies, organisations aim to stimulate and guide the publication of data but also to gain advantages from its use. In the video below Anneke Zuiderwijk from the Delft University of Technology explains the different stages of an open data policy.

Panel debate at AER autumn plenaries

The high level panel debate on Open Data for Startups in Novi sad on 25 Septembre will be an opportunity to hear from renown experts what are the stakes for regions in Europe in 2018:

  • what is the feedback from initiatives across Europe and beyond?
  • how has open data changed the life of citizens?
  • what are the barriers and enablers?
  • how much does it cost?
  • how to ensure the data will be used?
  • how to increase data litteracy and capabilities?
  • how to make data inclusive and sustainable?
  • …

Useful links

Use cases of Open Data on the European Data Portal

CEF Digital Service Infrastructures: Public Open Data
Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funded sector specific Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) deploy complex trans-European digital services based upon mature technical and organisational solutions in diverse areas

Delft University of Technology online course for professionals on Open Data Governance and Use (overview of videos)

Photo by Edu Lauton on Unsplash

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Open call for projects on Public Open Data

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The European Commission has published a call which can be of interest to regional stakeholders. This call for projects is organised in the context of the Connecting Europe Facility and focuses on public open data.

Why public sector open data?

Public sector information within countries, across borders, and between sectors can be used for all sorts of applications. Real world examples of Open Data re-uses include transportation apps in France, the reorganisation of waste management in Mexico, insights on comorbidity in Spain, or property development in Great Britain. Crossborder and cross-sectorial synergies however are unlikely to be achieved without the deployment of infrastructure at EU level. Improved access to public sector information is therefore an essential component of the EU strategy for stimulating new business opportunities and research and addressing societal challenges.

Objectives of the call for projects

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is a funding instrument for targeted infrastructure investment at European level. It supports the development of high performing, sustainable and efficiently interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services.

In the framework of the EU Digital Single Market, the European Commission aims to encourage access to public data to help drive innovation. The Connecting Europe Facility call CEF-TC-2018-5: Public Open Data will award 18.5 million Euros in the form of grants for generic services. They will help European public administrations and businesses to operate with each other across borders.

This call addresses the need for services providing access to high-performance computing, storage and data management facilities. The goal is to increase the high-performance computing and data capacities of the European data infrastructure, and to promote the use of high-performance computing and data across borders in the public interest.

What’s next at AER?

Twice a year, on the occasion of the AER Committees’ plenaries, regional policy makers meet to share experiences, learn from each other, assess progress of joint initiatives and create collective intelligence.

This Autumn, we will gather in Vojvodina (RS) from 25-27 September for the plenaries, which will be organised together with a European Regions Business Summit (Chambers of Commerce of all over Europe).

The two audiences will come together for a panel debate on Open Data & regions, with a particular focus on Open Data for innovation & startups. The panel will gather speakers from startups, regional policymakers, experts on design and data to discuss why, how and for what, regions should open their data and look at challenges and opportunities.Follow AER!

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Coding for Ethics With AI

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Ethical issues around the future usage of artificial intelligence (AI) have helped turn it into a polarising issue in society. From techno-optimists to people derided as luddites, many have an opinion on the ethics of AI. Later this month, AER’s event Artificial Intelligence: Are Regions Up to The Challenge? will bring together field experts, academics, artists, politicians, and stakeholders to discuss these ethical issues, giving regional decision makers the opportunity prepare for the future together.

Difficult Ethical Questions

It is quickly becoming impossible to imagine a world where artificial intelligence does not play a prominent role. Whether it’s using Google Maps to navigate a new city or asking Siri to make restaurant reservations, AI impacts nearly everyone’s daily life. As AI continues to advance, man and machine will only become more integrated. While AI holds the potential to vastly improve our lives, complicated ethical questions cloud its future usage. Last year, high profile figures such as Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates penned an open later to the International Joint Conference in Argentina claiming that the progression of AI could be humankind’s most monumental achievement but could also become its greatest mistake if not handled responsibly.

Towards an Unequal Society?

A defining feature of 20th century was an unprecedented reduction in inequality between classes, races, and genders. Futurists worry that if not properly regulated, AI could once again increase inequality between the masses. Firstly, there is the matter of economic inequality. As more people are displaced by machines, AI will simultaneously result in larger profit margins for the companies that both develop and employ AI. With people no longer collecting weekly paychecks and those creating and using AI profiting, many fear that wealth will become concentrated in fewer hands. A related concern is that future and current economic inequality may beget biological inequality. AI assisted biotechnology will soon make upgrading our cognitive and physical abilities a distinct possibility. Biological engineering would likely only be available to those with the means to purchase it, possibly splitting humanity into biological castes. The 2017 Forum Européen de Bioéthique in the region of Grand Est offered several discussions around this theme. Of course, not all view inequality as an inevitable bi-product of the advancement of AI. Google CEO Ray Kurzweil believes everyone will be able to benefit from AI, comparing its progression to the advancement of cellphones which are now owned by nearly five billion people.

Social Justice and AI

Another concern about the development of AI is that it adopts society’s dominant social norms, privileging certain groups over others. For example, in 2015 a study found that jobs displayed by Google’s advertising algorithm to women paid less than those it showed to men. Similarly, a report from ProPublica revealed that AI used by US law enforcement agencies incorrectly predicted that black offenders are more likely to become repeat offenders than white offenders with similar criminal records. Given that gender inequality and systemic racial biases are still issues society is confronting, people have expressed concerns that AI could reinforce racial and gender inequalities.

Big Data and Privacy

By 2020, scores of sensors and billions of devices will be online. More devices connected to the internet means more companies holding sensitive personal information. While usage of personal data could do everything from making roadways safer to improving medical diagnoses, the collection of data carries questions surrounding the protection of people’s privacy. After a record number of cybersecurity breaches in 2016, the ability for corporations to safeguard people’s personal information has been questioned. How companies such as Facebook use the personal data they possess has been another ongoing concern. For example, previously unknown genetic diseases detected by AI programs could potentially raise premiums for thousands if obtained by insurance companies. According to Professor Erik Vermeulen society will have to redefine the word privacy itself. He believes humans have already become so dependent on AI assisted technologies which deliver better user experiences that we will never return to a world where people can exist in complete solitude. For Vermuelen, in a world where privacy is an illusion the next step is ensuring that data protection regulations are stringent and consistently updated.

What it Means to Be Human

Outspoken entrepreneur Elon Musk believes that by 2030, AI will be able to outperform humans at everything. To continue to add value to the economy Musk believes that humans must become cyborgs, merging biological and machine intelligence. Theoretically, this technology would involve self involve direct brain to machine communication which creates  “lag free interactions between us and our external devices” making the program a literal extension of the self. Possessing the ability to fuse people and machine would give humans unprecedented power to alter their physical and cognitive abilities which have been stable for thousands of years. Thus, the development of brain-machine technology poses ethical questions about whether its usage would alter the natural course of evolution. Moreover, some state that the hasty integration of such programs has the potential to create unforeseen consequences. While brain-machine interfaces are a reality which is still years away, some believe that devices like smartphones and laptops have already become virtual extensions of the self. For them our integration with modern technology has already created a new class of humans who exist as cyborgs.

Can Machines be Moral?

Perhaps due to popular culture, people’s worst fears about AI often conjure up images of robots running amuck and taking over the planet. While experts believe the reality is far less dramatic, it still creates complicated potential situations for programmers and society to deal with. Popular scenarios often involve something like this: With a self-driving car moving quickly down the road, a child darts out onto the street to grab a ball. Does the car risk killing its passengers by making a sudden correction? Or should the car do nothing and continue ahead? This scenario highlights an ongoing debate about how programmers should introduce morality into AI as it becomes increasingly autonomous. Microsoft Researcher Danah Boyd says there are legitimate questions regarding the values being programmed into AI claiming ““There is increasing desire by regulators, civil society, and social theorists to see these technologies be fair and ethical, but these concepts are fuzzy at best”. Amid these concerns, earlier this year MEPs voted to consider granting legal status to robots who would be classified as “electronic persons” suggesting that new legislation was required to hold AI responsible for their actions. Complicating matters is the difficultly of introducing regulations when products are already playing a prominent role in people’s lives, making grappling with these issues before AI becomes fully autonomous a necessity.

Imagining the Future

Many of the issues previously mentioned outline future scenarios where AI creates as many problems as it solves. Introducing these topics is not meant to induce a sense of fatalism, but rather the opposite. Discussing and raising awareness about the ethical issues involving AI is vital to the development of appropriate policy responses. Given the breakneck speed at which technology develops, policy makers must be forward thinking to avoid playing catch up. AER’s event on AI will give attendees the opportunity to grapple with some of these issues alongside contributors who have experience in dealing with these issues. Speakers include Nilofar Niazi Founder & CEO of the TRAINM Neuro Rehabilitation Center and Beniot Vidal a co-founder of DataVeyes. Trainm helps humans become more human via technology, including artificial intelligence, while Dataveyes which specializes on the interactions between humans and data.The ethical issues surrounding usage of AI will only intensify as it progresses meaning people will have to examine difficult questions about what society’s future will look like. AER’s event on AI gives the chance to shape and imagine that future.

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Don’t miss out on the chance to apply for the Silver Economy Awards!

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If you are reading this, it’s because you are thinking of applying for the Silver Economy Awards! The SEED Consortium is searching for talented candidates like you to showcase innovative solutions addressing the needs of ageing populations and thus contribute to raise awareness on the implications of demographic change.

Do not wait any longer to submit your proposal for the Awards and get outstanding recognition by becoming the European Ambassador of Silver Economy.

The deadline for applications has been extended until the 10th of December! 

What makes the Awards so special?

If you think this project is just about an award, then you’re completely wrong. It has major implications for this expanding economic sector as a collector of financial, intellectual and technical resources of the Silver economy:

  • The awards are a catalyser of ICT solutions that brings together local and regional authorities, business and service providers, academia and civil society.
  • The Awards provide applicants with high visibility and international recognition by enabling them to get in contact with investors and key stakeholders associated with the cross-cutting domain of Silver Economy at the EU level.
  • The Awards are the fast-track to the Silver Economy stage: successful applicants will be at the core of the Silver Economy Network!
  • The Awards are flexible and tailored: they are designed by professionals from the 3 different categories (public authority, for-profit organisation and non-for-profit organisation) in 7 different domains.
  • The Awards are a champion of fairness and transparency due to their innovative assessment approach based on peer-reviewers belonging to each of the 3 categories.

And the benefits?

 Simply by taking part, applicants are promoting their innovations:

  • All applicants will benefit from online publication on the Silver Economy website after the winners are selected.
  • Heightened visibility begins with the evaluation process: all eligible applications are peer-reviewed by members of the Covenant on Demographic Change; the second round is evaluated by SEED members and vice-presidents from the Covenant on Demographic Change; and a high-level jury of experts and key players in the European Silver Economy will select the final winners.

Winners and finalists are invited to showcase their product or service before a High Level Jury at the Awards Ceremony in spring 2018, where they will be celebrated for their achievements. Winning teams will also receive an Award bearer logo and exclusive photographs from the event. This will be a unique opportunity to network & exchange with other innovators and Silver Economy leaders.

The winning solutions will be further promoted by the European Commission and SEED partners in the media, on websites, in newsletters and through other promotional material.

How to apply?

The submission is a simple 5-step online process:

  1. Register.
  2. Receive an authorisation email and login.
  3. Complete the fields (save as you go along or so you can come back in and complete the form later).
  4. Check you have completed all the obligatory fields – marked with an asterix.
  5. Agree to the Terms and Conditions.

Power to the regions!

As concluded in the SEED Workshop within the EU Open Days of the Committee of the Regions, the action of regions and cities is crucial and some have already developed comprehensive strategies to address demographic ageing while supporting and developing local business demonstrating that the Silver Economy, as a broad political and economic paradigm, holds the promise to benefit older persons themselves as well as the public welfare systems and the private sector.

This 1st edition of the only EU Award on Silver Economy is certainly a great opportunity to place regions under the spot inspiring European policy-makers to follow their example!

Save the dates again! Applications open until the 10th of December!

The winners of this first edition will hold the status of European champions of the Silver Economy for one year.

Contact

 

Photo credits:@SEED: http://silvereconomyawards.eu/2017/homeFollow AER!

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Policy learning event on research and innovation and SME competitiveness

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Don’t miss the #policylearning event in Milan organised by the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform. The two day networking conference will be a unique opportunity to learn about the latest developments concerning the use of R&D results and open innovation, to share on how to better contribute to the competitiveness of SMEs and regional growth and to find out what the platform has in store for you.

19-20 October 2017 in Milan – Research & innovation and SME competitiveness

During the two-day events you will:

  • Meet colleagues working with similar topics
  • Hear about the latest EU-wide developments in your field
  • Have opportunity to share experiences, learn from each other and collaborate with each other
  • Test the services of the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform

The events welcome Interreg Europe project partners, representatives of the managing authorities of the Structural Funds programmes and other policy actors working with any of the event topics.

Participation is free of charge. Places are however limited and allocated on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis, so register now and start preparing for a new kind of #policylearning experience!

Go to the Policy Learning Platform event page for more information and for registration.

About the Policy Learning Platform

The Policy Learning Platform is the second principal activity besides the projects funded by the Interreg Europe programme. Our aim is to make the projects knowledge accessible and usable by other regions and to offer networking, knowledge sharing and policy learning opportunities to any interested region even without being partner in a project. We create a hub of information and services to facilitate continuous learning mainly among local and regional public authorities in Europe. You can learn from the experiences and solutions of your peers and benefit from the policy know-how of our experts. As our platform community grows, so will the pool of good practices and expertise in our four topics: research and innovation, competitiveness of SMEs, low-carbon economy, and the environment and resource efficiency. Join us today to exchange with the other policy makers in your field and access expert services, tools and information on how to improve the effectiveness of your regional development policies and programmes.

If you have not already done so, register now to the Policy Learning Platform community to access the services (if you already have an Interreg Europe account, you can update it in a few simple clicks to join the Policy Learning Platform community)

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Artificial Intelligence: a revolutionary wave

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Artificial what?

Cognitive scientist Marvin L. Minsky, who is also a co-founder of the MIT AI Laboratory, defines artificial intelligence as “the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men”. The term artificial intelligence is therefore used when machines perform human-like cognitive functions such as learning, understanding, reasoning and interacting.

Out of the lab, into society

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are increasingly permeating our economies and societies. The OECD estimates that artificial intelligence already underpins over 50% of  global financial transactions. This innovative technology has brought recent breakthroughs in both machine learning techniques, computational power, and systems design by adopting more human-like performance. In addition to this, the prevalence of data, computation, and communication has also contributed to expanding the possibilities of artificial intelligence and its impact on everyday lives. For instance, technological companies such as Google or Facebook take advantage of data and artificial intelligence techniques to compile and process the information issued by internet users, identifying behaviour patterns. Artificial intelligence advances will then have important effects on individuals and on culture since they may create a new “language”, facilitate a more accessible knowledge or even alter the value of certain ways of thinking.

Artificial intelligence advances are expected to  have significant effects on individuals and on culture. They make knowledge more accessible, may create new forms of “language” and more importantly will change the value of certain tasks. Processes based mainly on memory are likely to be challenged by artificial intelligence while complex motricity, empathy and creativity may gain new value.

Applications

Significant investments in artificial intelligence over recent years have opened up new opportunities in many different fields. A range of digital-world applications exists in areas such as social networking, advertising, customer service, finance, and healthcare. Numerous physical-world applications are also emerging in transportation (e.g. driverless cars and flying drones) and manufacturing. Since artificial intelligence sees data and patterns at scales that humans cannot, it creates opportunities for cost reductions and efficiency gains.

And policy?

The 2016 OECD Technology Foresight report on AI reveals that “a number of leading artificial intelligence experts warn that the likely impact of artificial intelligence in the years ahead is still underappreciated by policymakers and the public at large”. It is generally agreed that artificial intelligence technology, combined with big data and computing power, will transform entire sectors of the economy and lead to in-depth societal changes. Likewise, the AI Initiative of The Future Society (Harvard Kennedy School dedicated to the rise of AI) points out that “there are clear upsides and opportunities to increase quality of life and longevity for all as well as to shift the paradigm of growth and development towards sustainability”.

 

What’s in for regions?

Regions have a significant role to play to engage all relevant stakeholders and help shape the policy framework needed for a smooth digital transformation. Because they are at the same time close to citizens while being able to impact a significant territory, regions are well placed to harness the opportunities and address upcoming challenges. The ongoing race for the development of artificial intelligence, needs to be based on a human-centric design that respects the rules of societies, engagement of all stakeholders is therefore essential.

AER members will benefit from a extensive exchange of expertise through different activities which will be organised on this topic within the network. The objective is to highlight the experience and stories from the regions, and identify fields for action at regional level across Europe. To this end the Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy is inviting AER members to contribute to the organisation of an event on artificial intelligence to be held in Brussels, on November 30th 2017. This event, “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge” will be organised on the same format as the event “E-health let’s find a common language” which took place in December 2016 with the contribution of very diverse stakeholders.

Regions and organisations interested in contributing to this event should contact AER Coordinator for Policy & Knowledge exchange Johanna Pacevicius

For more information check out the Committee 1 for Economy and Regional Development work programme!

Photo credits: @visualhunt https://visualhunt.com/photo/35009/ @Thefuturesociety http://ai-initiative.org/

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Cllr Roy Perry (Hampshire-UK) on UK referendum

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Cllr Roy Perry (Hampshire-UK) could not attend our General Assembly in Bodø last June due to his responsibilities in the Remain campaign for the UK referendum. However, he sent this video to be presented at the Bureau meeting on June 22 2016. The Bureau was focused on the possibilities that new technologies offer to regional authorities to imporve governance, but was closed with a brief but intense discussion on the possible scenarios after the referendum the day after.

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