Almost 150 participants joined the first-ever Interoperability Academy Winter School, organised last week by the ISA² Programme and the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute. The three-day event provided attendees from public administrations, academia, as well as the private sector with insights on interoperability, public sector innovation and digital transformation. Presentations and photos are now available.
Gertrud Ingestad, Director-General of European Commission’s Directorate-General for Informatics, opened the Winter School with a speech on importance of interoperability and digital skills. “Digital transformation is not only about technology. We need public servants, IT developers, lawyers, researchers and academics that understand the concept of interoperability and the benefits it can bring. There is a need for people with ‘interoperability skills’,” said Gertrud Ingestad.
Head of Interoperability Unit at the European Commission, Natalia Aristimuño Pérez, encouraged participants to be provocative, and look at things from various perspectives. Vice-rector of KU Leuven Bart Raymaekers and Dean of the KU Leuven’s Faculty of Social Sciences Steven Eggermont stressed the importance of lifelong learning and education.
The first day continued with a session on European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and the ISA² Programme and a short panorama of EU policies focused on public administrations such as the Single Digital Gateway and the eGovernment Action Plan followed in the afternoon by workshop sessions on related topics.
Next day was dedicated to public sector innovation. It followed the established pattern, with plenary sessions on the institutional and academic point of view in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. The third and last day was all about the future of digital transformation, featuring presentations, wrap-up of workshops and a panel discussion of experts from the European Commission and academia.
>> PRESENTATIONS
>> PHOTO GALLERY
Organised for the first time, the Winter School was very positively perceived by participants. They appreciated its unique cross-border, cross-domain, cross-disciplinary and cross-generational character.
The event was a first step to reinforce interoperability skills in Europe under a new ISA² action Interoperability Academy. It aims at improving advanced digital skills in the European public sector. Next activities will include a publication of a catalogue of learning resources on ISA² solutions, and later in 2020 a launch of a learning platform. For these next steps, we have shared our preliminary results on the different profiles, learning paths, categorisation as well as a mock-up of our catalogue. Any new educational activity linked to ISA² solutions (tutorials, webinars, etc.) will also be announced on Joinup.
A second edition of the Winter School is also in consideration.
Did you participate in the Winter School? We will contact you soon for your feedback. If you have any questions about the Interoperability Academy, contact us at: IOP-ACADEMY@ec.europa.eu.
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