Events

In this iTalk on Government Innovation, João Farinha (Policy Analyst, Competence Centre on Foresight) and Orsi Nagy (Policy Analyst, EU Policy Lab) introduce how technology foresight and horizon scanning can support European policy-making in times of rapid technological change.

The session explores practical foresight methodologies used to identify and assess emerging technologies in the science, technology, and innovation domain. Participants are invited to look beyond headlines and hype, learning how to distinguish genuine technological breakthroughs from over-promised trends, and how to understand different technology maturity levels in a policy context.

Through concrete examples and hands-on reflections, the speakers examine cross-cutting enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum technologies, alongside specific application areas including healthcare, environmental technologies, and dual-use innovations. The focus is not on predicting the future, but on building the capacity to ask better questions, interpret weak signals, and connect technological developments to policy relevance.

The iTalk highlights how foresight can help policymakers navigate uncertainty, prioritise strategic choices, and support more resilient, evidence-informed decision-making across EU policies.

In this iTalk, Claudia Caparelli, Head of Innovation at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), will present how CNPEM serves as a platform for disruptive innovation and international co-development.

The session will explore how CNPEM integrates world-class scientific infrastructure with industrial collaboration to accelerate the development of disruptive technologies. Participants will gain insight into how the institution supports talent development, fosters connections between research and market applications, and strengthens national industry in strategic sectors.

Drawing on practical examples, the speaker will highlight CNPEM’s role in advancing frontier areas such as energy, materials, and biotechnology, while also demonstrating how its model enables opportunities for global co-development aligned with shared technological and societal challenges. The focus will be on understanding how integrated innovation ecosystems can drive impact across borders and sectors.

In times of crisis and uncertainty, futures thinking and foresight are becoming essential tools for public decision-making. Yet foresight is not about predicting what will happen. It is about exploring possibilities, understanding uncertainties, and making more informed choices in the present.

In this iTalk, Sanna Rekola will share how foresight can be applied practically in the public sector to support preparedness, adaptation, and the long-term shaping of better futures. Drawing on Sitra’s extensive experience in futures work, the session will present concrete tips, tools, and approaches that help translate foresight from theory into everyday policy and governance processes.

The talk will also introduce Sitra’s Futures Barometer, a long-running instrument used to capture perspectives on the future and support evidence-informed foresight across Finnish society. By combining futures thinking with data, participation, and democratic engagement, Sitra’s approach demonstrates how foresight can strengthen institutional resilience, improve decision-making, and contribute to more inclusive and forward-looking governance.

In this iTalk, Kjersti Steien (Senior Advisor and Product Owner at the Norwegian Digitalisation Agency) presents Data.norge.no, Norway’s national data portal designed to strengthen data sharing and reuse across the public sector.

The session explores how the portal connects metadata about datasets, APIs, concepts, information models, and public services using semantic web technologies and linked data principles. Built on EU and W3C standards such as DCAT-AP, the platform enables automated metadata harvesting from public bodies and contributes directly to the European Data Portal.

By structuring data and metadata in a standards-based, interoperable way, Data.norge.no supports more efficient data discovery, reuse, and cross-border collaboration. Developed as an open-source solution, the portal provides a scalable model that is already attracting interest from other countries, including Estonia and Czechia.

The iTalk highlights how national data portals can serve as foundational infrastructure for modern public administration, enabling interoperability, transparency, and data-driven policymaking across institutions.

In this iTalk, Josephine Bernickel (Organisational Officer and Policy Officer, German Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation – and former Open Data Coordinator at the Federal Ministry of the Interior) presents how organisational structures can evolve beyond static boxes and lines to support data-driven transformation. Her work explores how machine-readable organisational models can make public administrations more automated, interoperable, and analytically robust. 

By structuring organisational charts as data – rather than documents – administrations can enable advanced use cases such as automated workflows, system integration, organisational analysis, and improved coordination across departments. This approach contributes directly to modernising government operations: organisational data becomes a reusable digital asset, supporting interoperability, clarity of responsibilities, and the design of more adaptable public sector architectures.

The session also highlights how these developments align with broader efforts across Europe to modernise public administration through standards, semantic technologies, and data-driven approaches.

In recent years, Slovakia has taken bold steps to better understand and demonstrate the societal impact of open data. In 2023, the country introduced the Open Data Impact Methodology (ODIM), a new approach designed to assess the real-world benefits of open data initiatives across government, the private sector, and civil society. 

The development of the ODIM was a collaborative process, shaped through dialogue with data users, experts, and stakeholders. The result: Slovakia’s open data impact score jumped from 280 to 590 in just one year - a clear sign of progress in transparency, innovation, and accountability. 

In this iTalk, Lukáš Jankovič, Open Data Expert at the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic, presented how the methodology was built and highlight three concrete use cases that have delivered public value: 

• Finstat.sk, a portal making company financial statements openly accessible
• Open Wood, a platform bringing transparency to wood harvesting and timber sales
• COVID-19 Subsidies Tracker, ensuring open access to pandemic-related public subsidies 

An insightful event where two powerful initiatives come together to empower public sector transformation:

• The OECD Innovation Playbook offers an accessible and actionable instrument to translate the OECD Declaration on Public Sector Innovation into practical guidance on how its principles can be applied to solve public sector challenges. Specifically intended to allow public officials of all levels an interactive engagement with these principles, it helps users assess and expand their awareness on innovative challenges, identify opportunities for improvement in public sector systems and translate the innovation resources and tools into concrete action.
• The Public Sector Tech Watch (PSTW) is an observatory dedicated to monitoring, analysing and disseminating the use of emerging technologies (e.g., Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, etc.) within the public sector in Europe. This way, it acts as a  “one stop” for all stakeholders – including public sector officials, policy makers, GovTech startups and SMEs, and academia – interested on the latest technological developments to improve public sector operations and service delivery. 

As digital transformation continues to shape foreign policy, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office is exploring new ways to bring data and diplomacy together. In 2023, the Ministry launched the Data Innovation Lab, a platform designed to foster experimentation, policy innovation, and international cooperation through data and technology. 

In this iTalk, Gunda Ehmke, Lead of the Data Innovation Lab, will share how the Lab connects human-centered design and data-driven solutions to address global challenges. Administered by GovTech Campus Germany, the Lab creates space for collaboration across sectors — from foreign policy experts and civil society to UN agencies, governments, academia, and the private sector. 

The session will explore how the Lab tests and refines emerging AI and data technologies for use in foreign policy, while also promoting ethical innovation and multilateral engagement. Participants will gain insight into how public institutions can use data not only to improve internal processes, but also to advance sustainable development and global dialogue. 

Estonia is known for its digital leadership. Behind the scenes, a small four-person Innovation Team is helping shape how public services are designed, tested and delivered across the entire government. 

Created seven years ago to serve all Estonian ministries and their agencies, the team drives user-friendly and future-ready government by introducing new ways of working across the public sector. 

Combining ethnographic fieldwork, behavioural insights, design thinking, co-creation and experimentation, the Innovation Team designs and applies hands-on formats like Innovation Sprints, Nudgeathons and Experimentation Masterclasses. 

In this iTalk on Government Innovation, Helelyn Tammsaar, Team Lead of Estonia’s Public Sector Innovation Team, shares examples and insights on innovating public services effectively. This is an opportunity to see innovation in action and understand how it can bring meaningful change to public services.

Please find the presentation slides below!

Can GovTech unlock $10 trillion in public value? 

As governments face growing pressure to become more efficient, transparent, and sustainable, GovTech is emerging as a powerful enabler of public sector transformation. From AI-powered decision-making to platforms for citizen engagement, GovTech is reshaping how public services are delivered and helping to rebuild trust in government. 

In this iTalk on Government Innovation, Kelly Ommundsen (World Economic Forum) and Manuel Killian (Global Government Technology Centre Berlin) share insights from global use cases in Brazil, Rwanda, Ukraine, and Germany. Together, they discuss how GovTech is streamlining services, cutting costs, and creating measurable public value. 

The iTalk is co-organised by the Digital Innovation Lab at the European Commission, the World Economic Forum and the Global Government Technology Centre Berlin.

Please find the presentation slides below!

What exactly is supercomputing – and how is it helping Europe tackle some of today’s biggest challenges?    

In this session, we explore the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) – a major EU initiative to make Europe a global leader in supercomputing and to support emerging AI factories.   

Oscar Diez (Head of Sector for Quantum Computing at the European Commission) and Sabine Mehr (Chief Quantum Projects Officer at ⁠GENCI) introduce the world of supercomputing and quantum computing. Discover how they are driving AI innovation, enhancing Europe’s digital capabilities, and offering solutions to complex scientific, industrial, and societal challenges.  

Please find the presentation slides below!

Corruption poses a significant threat to development as Government agencies struggle to identify fraud and corruption in public expenditures. The World Bank developed the Governance Risk Assessment System (GRAS), a tool that uses advanced data analytics to improve the detection of risks of fraud, corruption, and collusion. It also increases the efficiency and effectiveness of audits and investigations by identifying a wide range of risk patterns.  

The GRAS has been piloted in Brazilian subnational governments and has helped in the identification of over 850 suppliers with strong indication of collusive behavior, 450 suppliers likely registered under strawmen, 500 cases of conflict of interests involving suppliers owned by public servants, and about 4500 companies with connections to political campaigns, among other examples.  

In this talk, Daniel Ortega Nieto (Lead Governance Specialist and Program Manager GovTech at World Bank) presents digital achievements of the World Bank.

A new wave of "technologic Arab Renaissance" is on the way. The United Arab Emirates are thriving digital innovation for governance, as witnessed by the World Economic Forum project “A Human Centric Journey to Service Excellence: The UAE Digital Courts GovTech Use Case”.   

In its journey of government digital transformation (UAE's 2025 Digital Government Strategy), the UAE Government launched several flagship projects that have revolutionised the delivery of government services and procedures. Leveraging a robust array of digital enablers, the UAE Ministry of Justice has successfully transitioned 94% of its court cases and proceedings to a fully remote, digital platform. The transformative nature of this initiative, combined with its significant reductions in time, cost, and environmental impact, makes it a pioneering example of innovation in public service and GovTech.  

In this session, co-organised with the World Economic Forum, H.E. Mohammed Bin Taliah, Chief of Government Services of the UAE Government presents the United Arab Emirates digital achievements.