News from the programme (archived)

The Work Programme for 2008 was adopted on 11 June and a new call for proposals was launched subsequently. The 2008 eParticipation Call for Proposals closed on 29 August 2008. 

The ePractice.eu portal has reached the milestone of 1,000 good practice cases published online. Launched in June 2007, this important mark has been achieved in only 16 months, proving the growing interest of European professionals in sharing practices and being informed about the latest developments in the eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth domains.

ePractice.eu is an interactive initiative of the European Commission that empowers its users to discuss and influence open government, policy-making and the way in which public administrations operate and deliver services. ePractice.eu currently includes over 14,500 members, 1,000 real-life cases, 19 communities, 34 country factsheets and more than 3,000 news items. Other portal services are a weekly newsletter, a worldwide events agenda, the online publication European Journal of ePractice and free off-line workshops available to all members.

The second call for proposals of the ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) opened on 29 April 2008 and closed on 9 September 2008. The evaluation of the proposals, assisted by independent experts, took place in October. Following the communication of selection results to proposers, negotiations started in November. The negotiations and contracts are foreseen to be finalised in early 2009. The Work Programme 2009 is expected to be formally approved in early 2009. The third call for proposals should be launched at that time. More on the ICT PSP website.

Entries for the first ever European eInclusion Awards will close on 12 September 2008. Organisations - in the public, business and voluntary sector or civil society - have only a few days left to submit their entries demonstrating how they have used ICT to help address social and digital divides in Europe. There are seven competition categories: Ageing Well; Marginalised Young People; Geographic Inclusion; Cultural Diversity; Digital Literacy; e-Accessibility and Inclusive Public Services.

In the month of June 2008 ePractice.eu, the European good practice exchange platform for eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth practitioners, reached a number of over 100 000 visits. The number of unique visitors has been increasing rapidly as well and during the last month achieved almost 50 000. The growth shows the success of the portal in reaching its objective to empower its users to discuss and influence open government, policy-making and the way public administrations operate and deliver services.

"e-Inclusion: Be Part of It!" is the campaign to enable people to fully participate in the information society, regardless of individual or social disadvantages. The campaign is part of the European e-Inclusion Initiative, which seeks to build on all existing e-Inclusion activities and identify synergies between them and improvements in overall e-Inclusion impact. Anyone can be part of this campaign by submitting their events, projects, initiatives and experiences. By raising the visibility and sharing experiences, others can be inspired and stimulate more efficient approaches to promote e-Inclusion.

Whatever your experience, you can share it through the portal http://www.epractice.eu. Your initiatives, events, reports and news can be registered or updated through standardised online forms. The portal supports other facilities like blog discussions and newsletters. The knowledge base accumulated in this portal will also be used to support the campaign in various ways, e.g. for documents events, newsletters, awards, etc.

The new eGovernment website is now online at http://ec.europa.eu/egovernment. Many updated pages offer you interesting reading material and an insight to the activities undertaken and supported by the European Commission in this field. Please let us know what you think by contacting the eGovernment Communication Team and by frequently visiting the website.

ePractice portal's popularity growing – time for your project to benefit from it

Is your eTEN project already part of this good practice database? The possibilities for enhancing your project’s visibility on ePractice.eu are great.

ePractice is a platform exchange of good practices in eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth. Cases are written summaries of real-life projects or business solutions developed by public administrations, entrepreneurs and corporations. Case studies included in the portal are based on actual experiences, and reading them provides a picture of the challenges and dilemmas faced by the professionals in the three ePractice areas. You might also find other functionalities of the portal useful for networking, exchange of experience and dissemination of other activities of your project, organisation or company. Therefore, we encourage you to register in the ePractice portal - http://www.epractice.eu/ - and submit a case based on your project.

15/02/2008: Communities at ePractice

The ePractice.eu portal has recently been upgraded to include functionality for Communities. This tool allows a group of people with a common interest to share documents, information and experiences.

Any ePractice.eu registered member can start a community or voluntarily join one. However, all communities have their specific guidelines, so please read the Rules of Conduct.

Read the ePractice.eu Communities guide to learn more about how to join a community and how to start and moderate your own community.

23/10/2007: First Call for Proposals of the CIP ICT Policy Support Programme closed

The first call for proposals of the ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) opened on 25 May 2007 and closed on 23 October 2007. The evaluation of the proposals, assisted by independent experts, took place in November. Communication of selection results to proposers is foreseen for December 2007; negotiations are likely to start early 2008.

13/09/2007: eParticipation Call for Proposals closed

The eParticipation 2007 Call for Proposals was launched on 13 June 2007 and closed on 13 September 2007. The 2007 Workprogramme of the Preparatory Action was adopted by the European Commission on 11 June 2007.

An Information Day for interested proposers was held on 29 June in Brussels. eParticipation is a Preparatory Action to promote the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies in the legislative and decision-making processes, in parliamentary and government environments, aiming at enhancing the participation of citizens and contributing to better legislation.

Read more or contact: infso-eparticipation@ec.europa.eu.

The Commission invites individuals to register as experts and assist in the evaluation of project proposals, review of projects and other tasks requiring specialised skills and competences. The request for expertise is very wide and oriented towards innovation. Experts are supposed to have a university degree and a minimum of five years work experience. Experts must have the ability to evaluate proposals and review project reports and other documents written in English. Knowledge of other EU languages is an advantage. The programme invites individuals with experience from public as well as private sector to register. A full overview of the skills and competences requested is available on the registration page. Potential experts are encouraged to register now to be available for the evaluation sessions in autumn 2007. Registration of experts for the ICT PSP is now open at http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp.

website

12/08/2007

The 4th Ministerial conference on eGovernment took place in Lisbon on 19-21 September. The event was successful and enjoyed the support of about 20 ministers and 1100 delegates. On the eve of the conference there was a Ministerial meeting chaired by the Portuguese Presidency and Vice-President Kallas, where the Ministerial Declaration was signed, supporting and accelerating the Commission’s i2010 eGovernment Action Plan.

Alongside the conference there was an exhibition of 52 finalists of the European eGovernment good practice awards. There were four prizes awarded by the jury in the themes: Better public services for growth and jobs, Participation and transparency, social impact and cohesion, and Effective and efficient administration. HoReCa1 – One-stop-shop for Hotel Restaurants Café from the Netherlands, Mypage from Norway, Besancon.clic from France and the German Administration Services Directory were the European eGovernment Awards Winners, selected from 52 finalists' cases. The fifth price for the most inspiring good practice went to the Online Police Station from Italy as a result of the public vote.

01/06/2007 Good Practice Exchange - Meet - Share - Learn on www. epractice.eu

This new service to the professional community of eHealth, eGovernment and eInclusion practitioners is expected to be an interactive initiative that empowers its users to discuss and influence open government, policy-making and the way public administrations operate and deliver services. ePractice.eu's mission is to create a dynamic community of practitioners, driven by a participative approach, which enables capacity building through proactive dissemination, exchange and assessment of good practice in eHealth, eGovernment and eInclusion.

ICT Policy Support Programme - The first Call for Proposals is open

The first call for proposals of the ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) opened on 25 May 2007 and will close on 23 October 2007. The call text, the Guide for Applicants and all relevant forms and templates for the submission of a proposal are available on the following site. Relevant documents have been uploaded into the Library of the site, under the section "Reference documents". The opening of this first call follows the adoption of the Work Programme for 2007 by the Commission, as well as an Information Day held on 24 May in Brussels, which hosted over 450 interested participants. Click here to see the presentations of the Info Day.

ePractice.eu Kick-off Workshop

The European Commission is organising the ePractice.eu kick-off workshop on 31 May 2007 in Brussels. Participation is based on previous personal invitation. The European good practice exchange, www.ePractice.eu, is a service to the professional community of eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth practitioners. This interactive initiative empowers its users to discuss and influence open government, policy-making and the way public administrations operate and deliver services.

European eGovernment Awards 2007 - Third call for applications to demonstrate eGovernment good practices in Europe

The ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) is a component of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The ICT PSP aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses and will run between 2007 and 2013.

The European Commission launched a call for eGovernment awards for the 3rd time as a promotion of good practice among the Member States of the European Union. Submissions will be evaluated by independent experts and a Jury. This year there are five categories. The call for submissions is open until 11 June 2007. Winners of the various categories will be announced at the 4th Ministerial eGovernment Conference 2007 to be held on 20 September in Lisbon, Portugal.

Visit the brand new website of the ICT Policy Support Programme

The ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) is a component of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The ICT PSP aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses and will run between 2007 and 2013.

The new website of the programme has been launched and we therefore invite you to visit it at: http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp.

On 16 November the European Commission gave green light to launch 30 new eTEN projects which will run over the next 3 years. These will validate and deploy electronic services in the public interest serving European citizens and businesses in areas including eHealth, eGovernment, eLearning, eInclusion, SME support, and Trust and Security.

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16/11/2006

Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme

The 2006 call for proposals was the last for the eTEN Programme. From 2007 onwards, support to electronic services in areas of public interest will be provided by the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP), a component of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), which will run until 2013.

The European Commission and the European Economic Area (EEA) have signed on 10 March a Memorandum of Understanding for participation of the three EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) in the eTEN programme. The three countries concerned will be able to participate in the eTEN call for proposals 2006.