The GovTech Connect Foresight Study: Co-designing future policy directions

A key component of the GovTech Connect Project is the Foresight Study being developed under the leadership of GovTech Connect Consortium partner The Lisbon Council. The Study was aimed at developing a vision and a roadmap with policy recommendations to support the relevant services of the European Commission and help them pave the way for the next wave of policy design in the area of Interoperability and Digital Government Transformation.

Policy interest in the potential of GovTech industries has in fact gained momentum, especially in Europe, not only as an opportunity for government modernisation through the adoption of best of breed technological solutions, but also to grow and consolidate an emergent wave of innovative solutions which might take the shape of “unicorns” in the global market.

This perspective is however undermined by a plurality of bottlenecks, such as the vertical segmentation of the national procurement markets, the slow pace at which service providers and delivery structures become interoperable both within and between countries, the difficulty in making a strategic use of public procurement for the adoption of those technologies through the opening to new suppliers; and more generally the need to further develop an innovation culture in the European public sector, inclusive of dedicated upskilling actions for both civil servants and policy-makers.

Co-developing the GovTech Vision in the EU: what if?

To build future scenarios and a Roadmap at the horizon 2050, a structured foresight process was conducted, ensuring internal coherence with the three methodological steps followed for the execution of the Study: 1) Visioning, 2) Co-Design of future scenarios and 3) Co-Development of the GovTech 2050 Roadmap. 

First of all, adopting a co-creation approach, involving experts and representatives of different stakeholders in the various phases of the research, a vision for the future European GovTech ecosystem has been defined as follows: To establish a shared GovTech governance framework at European level, with common guidelines to steer innovation in the public sector at national and local level, and enforcing rules for procurement in which the use of Startups would be mandatory, in addition to stimulation initiatives and incentives for Public Administrations to share responsibilities of the innovation process with all relevant stakeholders, including tech developers in the value-creation of citizen-centric innovation.

To realise such vision, the desirable future scenario for the European GovTech ecosystem should be based on a multistakeholder and multidisciplinary approach and on intra-organisational and inter-organisational collaboration at all levels of governance and service delivery, building on a European GovTech platform that would facilitate the sharing of ideas and experiences across all stakeholders of the ecosystem, supporting cross-border initiatives and standards, fostering mutual learning schemes by providing tools and knowledge exchange through a community of recognised GovTech innovators.

Paving the way towards the ideal scenario for the EU GovTech ecosystem: what is needed?

Starting from the assumption that GovTech can be described as an ecosystem consisting of various actors and their interactions, the foresight process focused on co-designing possible alternative future scenarios using a structured design thinking technique and expert facilitation to guide the gathering of expert inputs, to capture insights and knowledge, leveraging their diverse expertise. This was complemented by focus groups and an extensive expert survey to validate the Theory of Change and approach to innovation procurement capacity and cross-border interoperability proposed to underpin the strengthening of the EU GovTech ecosystem.

This process allowed the Study team to define, with experts participating in two foresight and roadmapping workshops, a set of alternative future scenarios, with potential positive and negative implications for the European GovTech ecosystem. The ideal scenario, titled GovTechNet.EU was thus conceived, as a fully modular and agile digital public infrastructure and services, with improved interoperability and innovativeness and personalised training programmes for all levels of users, fostering the creation of a virtuous circle that encourages the mutual integration of policy and innovation. In this ideal future, the concept of “GovTech As a Platform” becomes central for nurturing the ecosystem, ensuring a functioning, sustainable, transparent, and inclusive GovTech ecosystem.

The resulting Roadmap and Policy Recommendations elaborated with experts drawn from research, government and industry, engaging Start-ups and policy-makers, are set exactly to define concrete steps and funding options to strengthen the future EU GovTech Ecosystem.

GovTech 2050 Roadmap and Policy Recommendations: what's next! 

The GovTech 2050 Roadmap is being designed to drive forward the EU vision of building ‘A Europe Fit for the Digital Age’, drawing on the Interoperable Europe Act and the need to achieve a dynamic and competitive public sector, as also highlighted in the “Draghi report on The Future European Competitiveness”. To achieve this goal, a clear path toward regulatory harmonisation and the scaling of digital solutions across borders is necessary. To this end, the Draghi report underscores the vital need to invest in digital skills and cultivate a culture of public sector innovation, emphasising the urgency to unleash a fundamental and radical change in our economic system, also leveraging on a strong GovTech sector. The “Letta report, Much More than a Market” further reinforces this call, addressing the challenge of fragmented regulatory landscapes and advocating for a truly European market that can thrive in a global economy. 

The GovTech Connect Foresight study laid out a comprehensive roadmap to build a resilient, innovative, and interoperable GovTech ecosystem in the EU by 2050 and policy recommendations with practical suggestions of what could be needed to achieve this objective. These recommendations will be presented to the GovTech Connect Assembly in Brussels on 28 November 2024, and further discussed with experts and policy-makers in a dedicated workshop to advance the development of a framework of collaboration between European Institutions, all levels of public administration, academia, and the private sector as a crucial milestone in the effort to steer the GovTech sector toward the desired future scenario and provide insights into the Final Report. 

The final report, “Shaping the EU GovTech Ecosystem at the Horizon 2050” is thus expected to provide a clear, actionable framework that could inspire the EU and its member states to pursue a cohesive, forward-looking digital future, marking the beginning of a transformative journey, enticing continued collaboration, fostering adaptability, and fully exploiting strategic foresight to realise the EU’s potential as a global beacon for GovTech excellence.