Testimonials: The Interoperable Europe (IOPEU) Academy through the eyes of two professors and a public servant.

Over the years, the Interoperable Europe Academy team has created valuable and strong synergies with their stakeholder that are based on fruitful cooperations. Recently, different stakeholders shared their opinion on IOPEU Academy and its importance in the advanced digital skills in the public sector. They have provided feedback on how they perceive the IOPEU Academy, how it helps them with their day-to-day activities, the courses they would recommend, and much more!

"The IOPEU Academy is a much needed initiative to strengthen the capacities of civil servants across the EU and beyond” says Gianluca Misuraca.

Gianluca Misuraca is the Executive Director of the “AI4Gov - Master on Artificial Intelligence for public services” in Unive

rsidad Politécnica de Madrid and Politecnico di Milano. He believes that the IOPEU Academy “is a much needed initiative to strengthen the capacities of civil servants across the EU and beyond. The IOPEU Academy is very useful for raising awareness and share concrete practices that could be reused”. Furthermore, he stresses how the wealth of knowledge and use cases available in the Academy as well as the specific practical experiences and information on how to use the tools developed by the Commission and Member States is very useful to share with students of the AI4Gov Master he leads and, through them reach out to many other Public Administrations in EU Member States and outside the EU. Data Interoperability is indeed a crucial aspect when it comes to AI in the public sector. 

 

"I believe that such a European Commission initiative contributes greatly to raising the level of knowledge and skills among Member States’ civil servants, as IOPEU Academy’s courses provide a comprehensive approach to many aspects of digital government” says Michał Bukowski.

Michał Bukowski is an enterprise architect, currently working in the Ministry of Digital Affairs of Poland and he is an important stakeholder of the Academy. He wanted to express

his appreciation for the establishment of this initiative as, in his words “For many years I’ve been searching for credible information sources on European approach to interoperability, as well as all subjects related to the digital government effectiveness and efficiency. I believe that such a European Commission initiative contributes greatly to raising the level of knowledge and skills among Member States’ civil servants. You can safely say it provides a unique opportunity to familiarize with various aspects of interoperability. It is worth stressing that IOPEU Academy is open for all interested people, regardless of whether they work in public administration, non-governmental organizations, at academia or in the business environment. Moreover, the IOPEU Academy courses enriched with videos and animations greatly enhance the understanding of the presented material.” As Michał works on digital transformation of a public administration and is interested in all methodologies, techniques, frameworks or best practices which could help in higher level of digital maturity, IOPEU Academy helps him with his day-to-day activities since: “The courses produced by IOPEU Academy provide a comprehensive approach to many aspects of digital government. In Poland we recommend participation in IOPEU Academy courses to everyone by providing information on them on central government Interoperability and State Information Architecture portal”. In his opinion, there are two courses produced by IOPEU Academy that he would recommend to his colleagues: “The first course, “Interoperability: An introductory course”, is aimed at beginners and in less than an hour provides enlightening introduction into European interoperability. Second one entitled “Digital-ready policymaking” is a longer course which describes the approach to policies to fit the needs of the digital age. During second course various components of digital-ready policymaking are presented by experts from different Member States.”

"IOPEU Academy’s courses serve as a way to introduce some key issues that will be analysed in the lectures to come or dive deeper on some existing practices at European Level.” says Yannis Charalabidis.

Yannis Charalabidis is a Professor of Digital Governance at the University of the Aegean, in Samos, Greece. IOPEU Academy

has established a long cooperation with him, most recently by participating in Samos Summit 2023. As the instructor of Digital Governance both in pre and post graduate levels, the IOPEU Academy courses seemed like the ideal add-on which was the reason that drove him to check the course of the Academy and recommend them to his students. To him, the courses serve as a way “to introduce some key issues that will be analysed in the lectures to come or dive deeper on some existing practices at European Level. Students are also greatly assisted by the self-assessment tools available”.  To conclude, Yannis shared the following statement to emphasise how IOPEU Academy helps him with his day-to-day activities: “A good amount of our students in the MSc on Digital Governance are coming from the public sector, dealing with the preparation and monitoring of Information Systems projects. These courses help them easily identify what is important and also stay aligned with the EU policies including/proposing specific tools and assets for the development of each initiative.”

What do you think of the IOPEU Academy? Leave us a comment below or start your interoperability learning journey by enrolling in our courses!

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