Knowledge Base

Copernicus is the European Union's Earth Observation Programme and offers information services based on satellite Earth Observation and in situ (non-space) data. The Programme is coordinated and managed by the European Commission. It is implemented in partnership with the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA) and further European organisations.

Galileo is the European Union's Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS). Sometimes called the ’European GPS‘, Galileo provides accurate positioning and timing information. Galileo is a programme under civilian control and its data can be used for a broad range of applications. It is autonomous but also interoperable with existing satellite navigation systems. At the moment, the Galileo constellation consists of 24 satellites.

The Big Data Test Infrastructure (BDTI) is a building block of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). It provides a set of services to help public administrations explore and experiment with various data sources, software tools and methodologies.

EUMETSAT is the European operational satellite agency for monitoring weather, climate and the environment with the purpose of supplying reliable and accurate weather and climate-related satellite data, images and products – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – to the National Meteorological Services of the EU Member States and other users worldwide.

EUMETSAT provides data, products and support services to the Copernicus information services and user communities, with a focus on marine, atmosphere and climate.

Regulatory sandboxes are experimental rooms to test policies or business models in an environment with minimal legal requirements. Certain governments have already started to adopt the concept, which originally evolved in the fintech startup context. It helps governments better understand new technology and its regulatory implications

Already the political economist and sociologist Max Weber once has pointed out that decision makers need to ensure the rationality of their decisions, by trying to balance out the best relation of means and ends.[1]

Concerning the public, a close cooperation between public administration and citizens seems essential. Through participative democracy and public involvement, a new relationship between the citizens and the administrations can be established. The publicity becomes a valued partner to identify problems, discover new thinking and propose solutions.

The focus group, that has been conducted with domain experts in the fields social security and institutional question on local and regional level has proven one more time, that strategic planning is fundamental important. For its success, the focus group advised to fund long-term digitisations strategies adequately, as this is essential for the implementation of new tasks.

To improve public administration´s image, it is important to rebuild the trust in it. The citizens’ cooperation seems essential to achieve public purposes. The lack of trust can make the formulation and implementation of policies more difficult or even impossible. Relevant factors that influence citizens’ trust is the administrations´ integrity, as well as its performance.

Evaluation represents a separate stage in the policy cycle, but has to be pointed out as an own need in public administration. Evaluation decides whether a policy will be finished, modified and/or continued. At the same time, it can inform about results and consequences (intended and not intended). Only if policies are evaluated, potential improvement will be identified and at best implemented. In this context, it should be emphasised that a policy is never completed and is always evolving. This makes a qualitative and regular evaluation essential.