After all, are the needs of the public sector addressed?

The evaluation of public sector needs was one of the foremost steps of the Big Policy Canvas project. It was main subject of the interviews, focus groups and online surveys conducted within the course of the first phase of the project asking public sector representatives to appoint their views on data informed policymaking. We talked with a wide range of practical and scientific experts from Greece, Italy, Spain and Germany with background in several domains such as youth, welfare, science and technology or health.

Generally, we received the feedback that many existing needs in the public sector are still not met, but there is a strong awareness about changing conditions in government and policy making particularly through the increasing level of digitisation.

Interviewees addressed the lack of educational training in the field of data science and computational knowhow. Moreover, organisational and infrastructural basic preconditions are partly not given to empower data informed decision support, to just name some of the explicated needs. The needs are building the foundation of the roadmap for future research directions that gebins with a gap analysis based on the mismatch between what currently can be provided by existing assets, and what are the current needs with respect to informational, organisational, strategical, legal and technological aspects.

For this reason, it can be stated that public sector needs have been addressed by the project in a twofold manner. On the one hand, technological, methodological and conceptual assets have been mapped against identified needs. On the other hand, needs that are not addressed by existing tools, technologies and standards have been recognised in the definition of research challenges and research directions.

All the needs and assets along with their interconnections can be found in the Big Policy Canvas Knowledge Base.