How CEF Big Data Test Infrastructure is helping to modernise official statistics

European statistical offices use BDTI to experiment with big data and to find new ways of collecting statistics for more accurate results.

Big Data Hackathon 2019: Director-General of Eurostat, Mariana Kotzeva, in the middle with the top three winning teams. Photo courtesy of Eurostat.

Quick facts

• Project: European Big Data Hackathon 2019
• Organisation: Eurostat (European Commission) with National Statistical Institutes (NSIs)
• Challenge: How to modernise statistics with automated data collection and more accurate indicators to better support policy decisions?
• Solution: Experiment with big data from mobile devices to create smart surveys for more accurate statistical indicators
• Building block: Big Data Test Infrastructure (BDTI)
• CEF funding: Yes

Redefining statistics with big data

In an effort to continuously improve the statistical services offered, Eurostat organised the ‘Big Data Hackathon 2019’ in association with a number of European National Statistical Institutes (NSIs). The purpose was to foster innovation through collaboration with third party developers. Participants from all across Europe had two days to experiment with data and innovate new indicators on time use. The hackathon was based on a large amount of data, which – in a first for Eurostat – was collected through mobile phones. Data was made available to each team using the European Commission’s Big Data Test Infrastructure (BDTI), a digital building block offered by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme. BDTI features virtual testing tools and big data expertise free of charge to public administrations in the EU.

Behind the scenes

Prior to the Hackathon, data was collected for two weeks through mobile devices. Applications were installed on volunteers' phones to track their time use through two different means of data collection:

• Automated data collection: information picked up by the phone’s existing sensors, such as the gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer to determine orientation and movement. The operating system’s states and events were also tracked to determine activities, such as when a person was on a call or listening to music.
• Complementary manual data input: hourly pop-up questions about volunteers’ activities, where they were, with whom and what their mood was.

Machine learning algorithms ease manual input by using sensor data to determine what activity is ongoing and to detect when an activity ends. Altogether, 25-30 different types of information were collected, with 20 pieces of information per second. 

Special infrastructure and support were needed to handle the vast amount of data collected. The pieces of data collected by the applications were sent to a server deployed in a big data cluster using BDTI.

The Hackathon itself ran from 8 to 12 March 2019. 17 teams competed with three people each to solve the given statistical challenge: innovate new indicators on time use. Time use is a common indicator that is well established in both research and official statistics. It is an important indicator for several policy areas and can answer a wide range of questions, such as how much time people from different demographics spend on education and how many hours people work per week.

BDTI for fast and reliable support

The main difficulty for Eurostat resided in finding a partner that could work with the hackathon’s tight timeline. The BDTI team was able to meet all deadlines, with the data collection successfully set up within a month. Same with the technical infrastructure for the hackathon. Furthermore, working with BDTI did not require budgetary planning or time-consuming framework contracts, since all services and supports offered by BDTI are free of charge for Europe's public administrations.

The technical burden on the infrastructure during the hackathon also brought challenges, as 60 people worked in the same data centre to process large amounts of data simultaneously. BDTI provided on-site support staff and there were no performance issues with the platform. 

On the last day of the Hackathon, each team presented the prototypes they developed. The winning team came from Poland, followed by Italy and the UK. The winning data prototype compared caloric intake (estimated based on pictures of meals) with how many calories were consumed (based on activity estimated by the phone’s motion sensors). In October 2019, the winners will have a chance to present further developed versions of their prototypes to Eurostat experts.

Once the prototypes are fully developed, they can be adopted by official statistics bodies, modernising and improving the way data collection and reporting are done. Statistics based on big data are more accurate than traditional means of surveying, such as keeping a diary or maintaining manual logs. With BDTI, it is much easier to explore data and find new indicators for the creation of smart surveys.

“With the BDTI, we could very quickly set up a substantial infrastructure for the European Big Data Hackathon 2019 and get great support!”

Fernando Reis, Big data statistician, Eurostat

What's next?

In the future, Eurostat foresees developing frameworks for collecting data using a wide range of applications to facilitate the implementation of smart surveys. For example, another smart survey could be developed for household consumption, where spending is machine analysed through pictures of grocery receipts.

Given the positive experience of working with the BDTI team, Eurostat are currently using BDTI again for innovating and testing big data based smart surveys and frameworks.

Sources

1. Eurostat Overview, European Commission, accessed 28 June 2019, <https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/about/overview>

The European Commission supports AS4 for Passenger Name Record data exchange

Image source: Pixabay

The CEF eDelivery team is supporting the implementation of the AS4 messaging protocol for Passenger Name Record (PNR) data exchange between airline companies and Passenger Information Units (PIUs) in the Member States. In this context, and to facilitate the implementation and adoption of AS4 among the different stakeholders in the PNR data exchange ecosystem, the CEF eDelivery team issued a document with guidelines for the Access Point PMode configuration for PNR.

PMode is a collection of parameters that determine how user messages are exchanged between Access Points within an eDelivery AS4 network with respect to, for example, naming conventions, quality of service, transmission mode and error handling. The guidelines for the PMode configuration for PNR can be used with any AS4 conformant solution and it defines the standard parameters regarding naming conventions (i.e. for responder and initiator parties), services and actions (i.e. name of the services that are used to describe the type of PNRGOV messages that are exchanged and transported over AS4) in the context of PNR data exchange. The Access Point PMode configuration guidelines for PNR were developed based on the IATA's Implementation Guide - PNRGOV message and in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, early adopters of the AS4 protocol to exchange PNR data. These guidelines are recommendations that can be customised by the implementers according to specific needs. The CEF eDelivery Support team provides free of charge support to answer any questions on the document.

Download guidelines for PNR

The use of AS4 for PNR data exchange

The PNR Directive ensures the use of passenger name record data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime in the support of European law enforcement. The PNR Implementing Act, on the common protocols and data formats to be used by air carriers when transferring PNR data to PIUs, promotes, among two other transmission protocols, the use of AS4 protocol for the transfer of PNR data. AS4 is an open standard that ensures secure and reliable exchange of digital documents and messages in various contexts, it is the foundation of the eDelivery building block. 

The PNR Implementing Act states that

 “Industry and Member States should be encouraged to take the necessary measures so that AS4 becomes in the following years the reference protocol for the transmission of PNR data by air carriers to Member States’ PIUs.”

Since 25 May 2018, the PNR Directive is being actively implemented in the Member States. The Commission remains strongly committed to promote the use of AS4 to the largest extent possible. The CEF eDelivery team offers training sessions and deployment support of the CEF eDelivery components to public authorities. Support is also available to other stakeholders, such as airlines, that want to reuse Domibus, the European Commission sample implementation of the AS4 profile.

CEF eDelivery

The CEF eDelivery building block proposes the use of the AS4 messaging protocol to create a secure channel for the transmission of documents and data by electronic means, over the internet or via a private network. AS4 both provides evidence relating to the handling of the transmitted data as well as protecting it against the risk of loss, theft, damage or any unauthorised alterations. Projects use eDelivery to exchange documents and data in a secure way among many participants (within Europe and beyond).

New Official Journal publication resetting the chain of pivot LOTLs

The European Commission has published the recently modified location of the ‘list of trusted lists’ (LOTL), as well its latest set of signing certificates in the Official Journal of the European Union, available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.C_.2019.276.01.0001.01.ENG.

Initially, the LOTL location and the set of signing certificates of the LOTL (termed ‘LOTL-signing certificates’) are specified in the Official Journal. Then, following a decision of the Commission to modify the LOTL location or the set of LOTL-signing certificates, the Commission may publish these modifications in the LOTL itself, to enable systems using the LOTL to process the change automatically. Such instances of the LOTL are referred to as the chain of ‘pivot LOTLs’: the pivot LOTLs represent successive pivot points in the historical values of the LOTL location and the LOTL-signing certificates starting from values published in the Official Journal. More information about the pivot LOTL mechanism can be found https://ec.europa.eu/tools/lotl/pivot-lotl-explanation.html. Following this mechanism, as announced on 13 August 2019 in this news article, the Commission recently changed the LOTL location (from https://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/esignature/trusted-list/tl-mp.xml to https://ec.europa.eu/tools/lotl/eu-lotl.xml) and published this modification in a pivot LOTL.

The new publication in the Official Journal resets the chain of pivot LOTLs, confirming all information already contained in the last pivot LOTL. To that end, all references to the pivot LOTLs will be removed from the LOTL (in particular, from the <SchemeInformationURI> element in the LOTL). The first issuance of a LOTL anchored to the new Official Journal publication, with an empty chain of pivot LOTLs, is scheduled for 4 September 2019. As before, the Commission may then publish future updates to the LOTL-signing certificates (or the LOTL location) via pivot LOTLs, to enable automated processing of the updates. 

Finally, please note that the LOTL will continue to be published in parallel on both the old and new locations until at least the end of 2019. However, we strongly recommend updating any existing IT solution making use of the LOTL as soon as possible to take the new location of the LOTL into consideration.

Registry of supporting artefacts to implement the European standard on eInvoicing now available

On 8 August 2019, the European Commission published a registry of supporting technical artefacts to implement the European standard on eInvoicing (EN 16931).

Visit the Registry

This registry provides you with direct access to the different technical resources (validation artefacts, code lists, etc.) to be used in eInvoicing implementations when using the eInvoicing standard.

You can access the following via this registry:

• The European standard: this standard addresses the proliferation of different standards in Europe;
• Validation artefacts: the European standard defines rules to check that an invoice complies with the standard. These rules are expressed in technical validation artefacts. You can use these technical artefacts to automatically validate whether an invoice complies with those rules;
• Code lists: the European standard defines which code lists may be used for each business term that has the data type "code", such as electronic address, VAT number, currency, etc.. The European Commission is managing authority for the VAT and electronic address, code lists. All other code lists are managed by European Committee for Standardization (CEN);
• Core invoice Usage Specifications (CIUS) and Extensions: buyers who must support specific processes or legal requirements may need to restrict, or extend the European standard's core data model. You can use a CIUS to help mitigate this;

You can also submit requests for change to these technical resources via this registry. Such change requests are essential to ensure these technical artefacts evolve to suit market needs and the Commission invites all stakeholders to actively contribute to the development to these artefacts.

The items in this registry will be updated when necessary. The Commission warmly invites you to register on the dedicated page in the eInvoicing User Community to receive automatic email notifications for updates to these technical artefacts.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eInvoicing Building Block aims to promote the successful uptake of electronic invoicing in Europe, respecting the European standard on electronic invoicing and Directive 2014/55/EU on electronic invoicing in public procurement

CEF eTranslation: Polish NAP Interview "The system never lacks words"

The following is an interview with Ms Anna Kotarska, National Public Service representative (NAP) in the European Language Resource Coordination (ELRC) programme

You are welcome to read the interview in its original Polish, or via the English translation below. The views expressed are those of Ms. Kotarska and not of the European Commission.

Read the Interview (Polish)

First published in "IT w Administracji" 2019 vol. 7-8: www.itwadministracji.pl

The system never lacks words

The overall amount of funding available for reducing the language barriers to the Digital Single Market, the promotion of European multilingualism and the protection of languages at risk of digital extinction has increased considerably.

Interview with Ms Anna Kotarska, National Public Service representative (NAP) in the European Language Resource Coordination (ELRC) programme

e-Translation is the main platform currently used by the public administration in the European Union (EU) to translate the texts. What is its significance in the context of other core services?

The CEF AT platform (“Connecting Europe Facility Automated Translation”) can be used by public administrations in the EU as well as in Iceland and Norway for translation of documents and text via a website. One of the main users of the tool is the European Commission (EC) where the number of pages translated per year is over 3 million. ETranslation can also be used as part of digital services, enabling public administrations, citizens and businesses in the EU to use them in the language of their choice. It is now integrated with more than 50 digital services, such as, for example, the European Union Open Data Portal or the ODR platform or eJustice. Concerning the concept of the EU core services - CEF Building Blocks — eTranslation is less widely known than the other services in the group, such as eID, eSignature, eDelivery or eInvoicing. These services can be combined together in cross-border digital services, for example, eTranslation was used in the iADAATPA project to build a dynamic router, which is able to switch between various, domain-specific translation engines to obtain the highest machine translation quality. In this case, eTranslation has been used together with the eDelivery Building Block. In general, the Building Blocks are aimed at reducing barriers to the development of the European Digital Single Market, improving the efficiency of communication and services in order to increase the competitiveness of the Union’s economy.

The e-Translation platform was launched in November 2017 and replaced the previous MT@EC. What are the advantages of neural machine translation compared with the translation technology used in MT@EC?

I will try to describe it using simple words: neural machine translation has got two main advantages: the text produced is more natural and idiomatic in character, and is much more correct than in the case of the previous generations of machine translation systems, e.g. statistical translation (SMT) offered under the MT@EC system. Neural machine translation (NMT) allows to predict what the next word in the sentence will be, making NMT’s sentences more similar to those produced by humans. First of all, however, the data – the words used for training of the translation engines are represented by numbers (vectors). The words that have a similar meaning are represented by similar numbers, which allows the system for detecting words having similar meaning (based on the context in which they occur) which, in turn, contributes to the improvement of the quality of translation — the system never lacks words, because it can always find words that have a meaning close to that of the needed word. The system can also replace a given word with a synonym, which makes the translation sound more natural.

 How does the e-Translation platform differ from other tools that use NMT?

Most machine translation platforms available on the market (Google Translate, DeepL, Bing Translator, Facebook) make use of very similar software, which in addition is often made publicly available in the form of a source code, allowing comparisons of translation techniques. The main difference is the data of each institution and means of filtering these data, for example Google relies mainly on the parallel texts found in the Internet sites. Whereas eTranslation uses the translation memories of the European institutions, dating back to the 60s. Linguistic data used by eTranslation is arguably one of the largest, if not the largest, collection of texts in the world almost exclusively translated at the request of the European institutions and manually aligned sentences. This made it possible to train the engines particularly useful for the translation of texts of administrative or legal character or if the institution concerned provided larger training corpora for the creation of specialised (domain-specific) engines. I would also like to draw your attention to the most important feature of the CEF AT platform, namely data security. In contrast to publicly available commercial tools available on the market where, in exchange for free access to the tool, we freely give our textual data and rights to the texts practically to unknown users, the EU tool, based on TESTA-ng dedicated Data Communication Network Service ensures the security of translated texts while intellectual property rights for translation remain with the owner of the text submitted for translation.

A new version of the system — eTranslation v.2.7 — was made available in June 2019. What are the new features of this version?

A considerable number of changes have recently been made, including upgrades for pre/post-processing for all engines, cleaning of spaces, the normalisation of quotes and apostrophes, regular expressions correction, avoiding capitalisation within a compound.. There has been a new release of Court of Justice Case Law domain-specific engines for a number of language pairs with French. The efficiency of the domain-specific engines and of the engine dedicated for the Bundesbank has been improved. The responsiveness of the website has been increased, statistical analysis of the use of the CAT tool (Computer Assisted Translation) has been modified and improvements in some cloud services have been introduced. For Polish users, earlier changes were more visible, i.e. the shift in March 2018 from statistical machine translation (SMT) to neural machine translation (NMT) and significant increases in engine efficiency to reduce translation time.

 [NB: a detailed description of the eTranslation version 2.7 was published here:
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/display/DIGITAL/2019/06/19/CEF+eTranslation+Upgrade%3A+eTranslation+2.7 ]

How is the risk of errors in machine translation minimised?

NMT generally delivers better results than SMT in terms of fluency and grammatical correctness of the translation, but it also introduces serious translation errors and does not cope well with terminology, nor does it generate a coherent translation at the level of the whole text. Neither does it cope sufficiently well with the translation of words not present in the training corpora; in such cases, the NMT is “creative”, i.e. it creates non-existent words. There are also typically problems with abbreviations, personal names, context-specific, or out of context, and idiomatic and metaphorical language. As these are the inherent features of the system, 100 % of these errors can only be prevented by the verification of a  translation by a qualified and experienced translator. Only a number of issues that are included in the rules can be solved by different IT tools for quality control, such as checking that the names of the countries are translated correctly. An example of such a solution can be, for example, a tool for assessing the translation quality and the automatic post-editing - an APE tool,  created under the APE-QUEST project, which has been incorporated into the Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information (EESSI) workflow and the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR). The term ‘Post-Edited Machine Translation’, which describes a corrected or modified machine translation has been used in the industry. From a commercial point of view, it is a product other than human translation, delivered also with the use of CAT tools. The standards for the process have been included in the ISO 18587 standard. Due to the increased use of machine translation tools and the need to correct/ edit their output, there emerged also a new profession — that of the so-called “post-editor”, and the product itself is known as the ‘post-editese’.

What are the plans for the development of language technologies in EU programmes?

The European Commission helps to promote the development of language technologies and their applications as well as research in this area in a number of ways. As far as the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is concerned, on 12 July, information was published on a new tender: Action on CEF Automated Translation (SMART 2019/1083). General objectives include the operation, maintenance and continuous modernisation of the CEF AT platform, its implementation on a larger scale in all EU Member States, as well as the coordination of actions and activities related to language technologies. The EC intends to allocate EUR 2.5 million to these objectives in the next two years (2020-21), including the continuation of the ELRC programme and the work of the Language Resources Board (LRB). It is worth noting the new objectives that have appeared among the proposed tasks, such as the creation of tools for automatic speech recognition or the automatic text summarization. In addition to the mentioned EUR 2.5 million in this year’s CEF Telecom call, EUR 4 million have been earmarked for projects involving the collection of language resources, language tools and integration projects, so that the total funding for reducing the language barriers to the Digital Single Market, promotion of European multilingualism and protecting endangered languages at risk of digital extinction has increased considerably. The Digital Europe programme envisages the financing of modern technologies, including building of capacity of AI based solutions. Here I have in mind the tools and resources for natural language processing (NLP). In view of the next financial framework 2021-2027, scientific projects on multilingualism will be funded under Horizon Europe programme, where priority will be given to protect languages understood as cultural heritage and research aimed at achieving transparency in the digital language.

Anna Kotarska — Public Services NAP in the European Language Resource Coordination (ELRC) programme. The function is carried out on the basis of the nomination of the Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) of the European Commission. She graduated in English Philology from the University of Gdańsk and completed a postgraduate programme in the field of translation at the University of Warsaw, she also studied corporate finance (Gdańsk University of Technology/ESC de Rouen), logistics (WSL in Poznan), and took an eMBA course in healthcare.

She is a member of the Polish Society of Sworn and Specialized Translators TEPIS, and works part-time as a specialized translator of English into Polish. She was also a translation project coordinator at the Gdańsk University of Technology and at the Polish National Health Fund.

Monheim Am Rhein steps up to the challenge of delivering fully digital trusted public services

The German city of Monheim Am Rhein is putting the Once Only Principle at the heart of its digital transformation strategy.

The concept paper "The Once and Only Principle implementation in the City of Monheim Am Rhein" suggests how the use the Once Only Principle is a way to boost efforts towards the digitalisation of public services in the city. Most importantly, reuse of the Once Only Principle aims to assure the city's residents that privacy and trust are not only key considerations in public service digitalisation, but are actively built into its technical and conceptual framework. 

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme is currently funding the implementation of key trans-European digital infrastructure, known as the CEF Building Blocks. Currently, the Once Only Principle is undergoing a preparatory action within CEF to define if this should be considered as a Building Block itself or a service within an existing Building Block.

The Monheim Am Rhein city authorities want to support their citizens through digitalising document management (such as birth certificates); the use of the city library, access to public facilities, such as the city swimming pool or e-bike rental, etc., by using smartphone apps, a smart card, and a citizen’s web portal.

Concretely, the project participants aim to implement a model in which the security risks related to replicating the storage of privacy information in more agencies’ databases, are reduced by building a single, secure and centralised storage system for citizens’ information. Put simply, the less databases used, the more secure the citizens' data. The project seeks to create a scenario in which the completion of a process between citizens and public agencies is digitally validated by the different branches of the public administration, without the need for the citizen to provide the same data on multiple occasions.

The concept paper further suggests that these efforts could be combined with the project 'MonLightGrid: The "Once & Only Principle" Implementation'. MonLightGrid is a Smart City initiative, building a Smart City-Platform based on the CEF Context Broker Building Block.

“The main pillar of this project is the experimentation of how the Once-and-only principle could be integrated in this privacy and security by design concept, possibly together with other innovative solutions, like the ones based on distributed ledger technologies, (e.g. “smart contracts”, etc.) and the Connecting Europe Facility’s “Building blocks” supporting the management of electronic identification, electronic deliveries of data and documents and context information management.” - The Once Only Principle Implementation Concept paper.

The city has elaborated an architecture based on CEF NGSI LD (FIWARE) standards, in collaboration with its research partners to build a “carbon free administration”. The concept paper explains that "tangible benefits for citizens do not only derive from the improved quality of the environment, but also from the fact that residents could be granted the right to charge their electric vehicle “cost effective” (via their “citizens” pass application or smart card), further promoting the use of non-polluting mobility across the city. The city is currently testing an autonomous driving bus service in the city center.”

The city's efforts to ensure that the security and integrity of citizen's data does not stop there. By using electronic identification means (eID) conformant to the eIDAS Regulation, allowing seamless cross-border authentication, the project increases the added value for citizens requesting and receiving services locally, removing the need to apply or present themselves in person. The project also adopts to the principle of data sovereignty, which provides usage control of data from all domains.

While the project team note the complexity of the task at hand, an adherence to principles such as the Once Only Principle and use of such European technical and legal frameworks and standards, means that Monheim Am Rhein can seek to realise very ambitious digital goals.

The Once Only Principle also enables digitalisation at a European-level. The EU Single Digital Gateway will facilitate online access to the information, administrative procedures and assistance services that citizens and businesses need to get active in another EU country. The Once Only Principle will be applied to cross-border exchanges of evidence for a range of procedures. For these procedures users will be given the option to request the direct exchange of evidence between authorities in different member states.

Recording Live: Webinar on the Data Building Blocks for Smart Cities

The European Commission is happy to publish the recording of the recent CEF Webinar on the Data Building Blocks for Smart Cities.

We've published eight separate recordings of the various presentations to help you find the most relevant parts. You can also download the webinar sides and see the CEF Big Data Test Infrastructure (BDTI) and Context Broker promo videos.

Visit event page

Context Broker and BDTI can help you make sense of the data available through your city's information systems, and make the right decisions to improve the public services you offer to your citizens.  This webinar presented funding opportunities  of the  Public Open Data Call for Proposals , which opened on 4 July 2019 and close on 14 November 2019.

The team were especially delighted to include a presentation by Faubourg Numérique, organised through our partners Open and Agile Smart Cities (OASC). This presentation looked at how the CEF Context Broker helps the French city of Saint-Quentin, together with Bruges and Mechelen in Belgium and Delft in the Netherlands, create value and better services for their city and citizens supported by innovative public procurement procedures, interoperable solutions, opening up data and an open data platform.

Context Broker is a standard-based API allowing users to collect, integrate and contextualise near real-time data. BDTI is a testing infrastructure offering virtual environment templates to explore and experiment with various data sources, software tools and big data techniques.

These two Building Blocks together form part of the CEF “Data Value Chain”.

For those interested in the interoperable storage of data, you can simplify long-term access to information with the CEF eArchiving Building Block, a technical solution for developers that need to migrate, preserve and reuse data.

To build a Digital Single Market in succeeding, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme is funding key digital infrastructure, known as Building Blocks. The CEF Building Blocks offer basic capabilities that are reusable in any European project to facilitate the delivery of digital public services across borders and sectors. Currently, there are eight Building Blocks: Big Data Test Infrastructure, Context Broker, Archiving, eDelivery, eID, eInvoicing, eSignature and eTranslation.

Spanish Interoperability node of the Spanish University System (NISUE)

NISUE has been developed for the electronic interchange of academic data among Spanish universities as well as between national and European organisations that use academic data in order to provide better electronic services.

@Photo from Pixabay.

NISUE aims to become the single point for the exchange of information between universities themselves as well as between universities and other agencies or institutions.

Summary 

The Conference of Principals of Spanish Universities (CRUE), with the collaboration of RedIRIS (the Spanish academic and research network) and MINHAFP (Ministry of Finance and Public Administration of the national government), have launched the Interoperability Node of the Spanish University System (NISUE).
NISUE has been developed for the electronic interchange of academic data among Spanish universities as well as between national and European organizations that use academic data in order to provide better electronic services. NISUE cooperates with other information systems such as STORK 2, among others. Thus, NISUE aims to become the single point for the exchange of information between universities themselves as well as between universities and other agencies or institutions.

Additional remarks
Example of a Use Case: transfer of academic records
To facilitate the mobility of students, universities need to share files or academic research data.

ENABLING ASSETS OR COMPONENTS

ENABLING ASSETS OR COMPONENTS

Political commitment
Law 39 / 2015

Promotes the scheme of interoperability between public sector bodies.

Data handling / data exchange

Data handler

Architecture

Functional description
The introduction of the Node of interoperability aims mainly to the following main objectives:
- Facilitating data exchanges between universities and between other organizations. 
- The integration with RedSARA (SARA network) and the interconnection with the platform of MINHAP (Ministry of Finance and Public Administration of the national government).
- Facilitating the implementation of the National Scheme of Interoperability (ENI) for universities.

https://scoop4c.eu/sites/default/files/2017-06/NISUE_schema.png

https://scoop4c.eu/sites/default/files/2017-06/NISUE_academic_records.png

Source: https://scoop4c.eu/cases/spanish-interoperability-node-spanish-university-system-nisue

Disclaimer : Please note that this article is a result of the SCOOP4C Pilot Project, not an application of a CEF Building Block.

Find out more

Spanish address change service

This service is a single process, where the updated address is communicated to important agencies of the administration.

@Photo from Pixabay.

Every year 8% of the population is changing home and must perform the following procedures: updating and renewal of DNI and passports, renew permission and driving license of vehicles, updating of the home in the Tax Agency, communicate this change to the Autonomous Community for those services provided in function of the home (healthcare, choice of schools, etc) and pensioners must notify Social security. 
The address change service facilitates all these procedures in a single communication that is done at the citizen's request from the municipality or alternative via the internet from an online portal.

Summary 

The primary objective of the address change service is to facilitate the procedure a citizen must conduct, according to the current regulations, due to a change of registered residence. 

Secondary objectives derivatives of the previous are:
- The citizen is provided with a single point of access, comfortable and simple to perform the communication of the new home to agencies of administration.
- Establish a system of confidence for the exchange of information securely between agencies and entities involved.
- Collaborate with other administrations in the realization of procedures for providing a common service to the citizen.
- Increase the quality of data and facilitate the processing of information for managing units.
- Improve the image of the public administration.

ENABLING ASSETS OR COMPONENTS

Relevant Enablers
Spanish network Red SARA

Political commitment
Within the framework of the action Plan eEurope 2005 set 20 basic services (12 for citizens and 8 for companies) with the aim of improving the progress in electronic administration committing, member countries to develop these services.

Motivations, benefits, public value
• Prevent displacement of the citizen, reducing the time and expense in the communication of the new domiclio
• Agility in the process of updating the home in agencies and avoid errors in the data
• A homogeneous service of “ communication address change in the administration "
• Integration in the service of the main bodies of the AGE recipients of communications address change TGSS, DGP and DGT. MUFACE
• Incorporation in the service of other regional and local administrations to give a acobertura 80% in 2010

Further enabling assets
• Connectivity with municipalities in the case of Autonomous Portals, Internet connection in the case of municipalities
• Meet the specifications of “ replacement of certificates Paper ”
• For the CCAA and EELL, it is necessary for the signing of an agreement framework that provides.

Data handling / data exchange

Data handler

Further stakeholders
Agencies Responsible:
Ministry of Finance and Public Administration; S. of E. of Function Publishes; S.Gral. Digital administration

Participating Agencies:
Barcelona; Terrassa City; Sabadell City; Mataró City; MINISTRY OF EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL SECURITY; S. OF E. OF SOCIAL SECURITY; OVERALL WTHE SOCIAL SECURITY; GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA; DEPARTAMENT OF SALUT; THE SERVICE CATALÀ DE SALUT (CATSALUT); THE INTERIOR MINISTRY;

Architecture
The platform that offers the service is presented as a broker of Web services facilitating semantic interoperability between the participantes. La current platform is defined as a service oriented architecture (SOA) based on the following elements: 
1. Functions through web services and external presentation of the same expressed in WSDL 
2. Documents XML exchanged between web services and signed electronically through XMLDsig 
3. Setting of insurance channels between participants through SSL 
4. Use of electronic certificates issued by certification service providers
Barriers and success factors
Indicators:
- Number of departments and agencies (AGE) attached to the communication system of home.
- Number of Autonomous Communities affixed to the system.
- Number of Municipalities from which you can make the communication.
- Total population covered by the service of communication of change of address.
- Effective notifications nº address change made by this system.
Benefits for involved actors
Benefits for citizens:
• Comfortable, podent fulfil its obligations from anywhere at any time and in a single operation
• Easy, with online help and possibility of communication to the selected agency
• Fast, avoiding the delay between the time to update the list and the communication to government bodies
• Positive experience, since the official acts as an intermediary to assist the citizen in the process
Benefits for Administrations:
• Elimination of the number of flyers that gives the citizen for submission before others
• Avoid outdated residence infromation, with the consequent cost savings by communications rejected
• Guarantees the quality of data
• Provides the service without the need for development

Source: https://scoop4c.eu/cases/spanish-address-change-service

Disclaimer : Please note that this article is a result of the SCOOP4C Pilot Project, not an application of a CEF Building Block.

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Slovenian e-Health (eZdravje)

The Central Application Office has been delegated by higher education institutions in Ireland the task of centrally processing applications to their first-year undergraduate courses.

@Photo from Pixabay.

The Slovenian eZdravje project aims to integrate existing fragmented Health Information Systems into a complete solution that benefits all stakeholders.

Summary 

Ministry of Health has been dealing with the informatization of Slovenian health care system for almost two decades. The eHealth project from 2005 in its latest form consists of 17 sub-projects aiming at extensive renewal and integration of information and communication systems in the health care domain. Strategic objectives within the eHealth strategy should be implemented by the year 2023 facilitating fully integrated national IS enabling monitoring of the on-going treatments and related costs, faster access to medical data, medical services as well as cost evaluation, online ordering and coordination of waiting lists, increase of efficiency and transparency of the
health care system and optimization of the business processes taking place in health care institutions (Ministry of Health, 2005 and 2008).
eHealth project is thus divided into three substantially separate, yet related areas. The first area is the establishment of a national IS, comprised of Health Network (hNET), a health portal (hAOP) and EHR. The second area represents the establishment and operation of center for health care informatics, undertaking the central role in governing of IS. This area also includes upgrading and maintenance activities of the entire project after its completion. The third area will enable the improvement of health care processes, access to health care services as well as education and training of target groups.

ENABLING ASSETS OR COMPONENTS

Technical interoperability
eHIS components: 
- zNET eHealth network: secure exchange of healthcare data;
- zVEM central eHealth portal: searching, exchange and providing healthcare information and data; secure and controlled use of national eHealth services;
- Electronic Health Record (EHR): electronic healthcare records, based on the open standard [1, 2] OpenEHR;

Motivations, benefits, public value
The strategic goals of the project are to:
•increase the citizen's activity and responsibility in regard to their healthcare;
•improve access to all necessary information, and allow citizens to participate in the development of high-quality healthcare services;
•provide secure and reliable access to all key patient information for all healthcare providers, general practitioners, specialists and pharmacists through Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other databases;
•make planning and management within health organisations and the healthcare sector as a whole easier, based on high-quality and authenticated economic, administrative and clinical data; and
•improve access to healthcare services for groups of people who are usually excluded because of reduced abilities, age or any other reason.

Data handling / data exchange

Data handler

Further stakeholders
The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) took over the management of the eHealth project at the end of 2015. Until then, the project was governed by the Ministry of Health. According to their mandate, NIJZ is responsible for the preparation of strategic documents and action plans. The further adoption of the eHealth development platform will be kept in parallel with the national implementation and promotion of the existing eHealth solutions and services.

https://scoop4c.eu/sites/default/files/2018-03/Architecture.JPG

Barriers and success factors
The implementation of the eHealth project has been significantly hampered for a number of regulatory, financial, institutional and technological reasons, says Stanimirović. As a consequence, the current eHealth infrastructure is only partly functional.
Apart from the operational difficulties of the existing HISs and deficiencies in project management, the major problem eHealth is currently facing is a lack of appropriate strategic and implementation documents to comprehensively regulate its further development. The existing strategic documents formally expired in 2010 and 2013, and the implementation of such a large and complex project as eHealth without proper strategic orientation is subject to various considerable risks.

Benefits for involved actors
•For citizens
− Increased confidence and independence through comprehensive security
measures and access to their own data
− Simplified procedures (no card updates ...)

•For healthcare workers
− Less time for administrative processes
− Additional administrative data for communication between healthcare
workers
− Additional medical data for increased quality of treatment

•For health insurance providers
− Better control of health insurance status and rights of insured persons

•For all
− Reliable, secure and open infrastructure for eHealth

Lessons learned
The realisation of the infrastructure components and the planned implementation of other eHealth applications represent an important milestone in the public and professional perception of eHealth in Slovenia. Successful further implementation of eHealth solutions requires relative consensus between the various stakeholders in the healthcare system, as well as better coordination and cooperation throughout the development and implementation process.

Source: https://scoop4c.eu/cases/slovenian-e-health-ezdravje

Disclaimer : Please note that this article is a result of the SCOOP4C Pilot Project, not an application of a CEF Building Block.

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Portuguese Levantamento Geral de Dados da FMUP (LGDF)

The university of FMUP has implemented a web-based interface for data insertion of its staff. The data of about 300 staff gets neatly organized in the system. It is then easily worked on and the information is organized according to the requirements of different services.

@Photo from Pixabay.

Summary 

The university of FMUP has implemented a web-based interface for data insertion of its staff. Besides its logical organization, most fields have word-matching capabilities from relevant internal lists, drop-down menus for options, calendars, etc. There is also a detailed explanation for data format errors. This system has been going on since 2012, is updated every year using the comments from users and is also evaluated by them every year. From the administrative point of view, the data of about 300 staff gets neatly organized into an excel book. It is then easily worked on and the information is organized according to requirements: Scientific Report of the Faculty; Scientific Report of each department; evaluation of each researcher. Furthermore, any faculty service knows that only needs to contact one person to request staff information: human resources, academic departament, directors, scientific council, etc. The LGDF is also updated from feedback from all these people.

ENABLING ASSETS OR COMPONENTS

Legal interoperability
Simplex+ (Portuguese National Government)
Published in 2007 and still well and alive today, this document changes many things in Universities. The main ones were: i) the compulsory evaluation of teaching staff (article 92 - Rector attributes); ii) the compulsory publication of the annual report (article 159) otherwise a fine up to 100 000 € might be paid (article 164). Both of these are related to our own efforts with the LGDF. 

Simplex+ (Portuguese National Government): https://www.simplex.gov.pt/medidas
This is the main national programme for simplifying public services. There are several measures specifically related with higher education. For example: “Ensino Superior 360º”: centralise all information of students in portuguese universities. Students in control (e.g. student transportation passes go directly to the companies). The objective is to fight the dispersion and inaccessability of information. "Once and Only Principle for Higher Education": as the name says, the idea is to have a single platform with data of university staff (just like our LGDF system but countrywide!). Finally, also foreign students will be directly connected with our "Foreign Office" so that they get quick access to vital information for them.

Juridic Regimen of Higher Education Institutions (RJIES) - National Government LAW: https://sigarra.up.pt/fmdup/pt/legislacao_geral.legislacao_ver_ficheiro?pct_gdoc_id=509608&pct_nr_id=7&pct_codigo=1

Published in 2007 and still well and alive today, this document changes many things in Universities. The main ones were: i) the compulsory evaluation of teaching staff (article 92 - Rector attributes); ii) the compulsory publication of the annual report (article 159) otherwise a fine up to 100 000 € might be paid (article 164). Both of these are related to our own efforts with the LGDF. 


Semantic interoperability
Not applicable. As said elsewhere in this document, all our data exchange processes are rather arcaic. As mentioned, to connect with the main university system (Sigarra) we use Excel sheets for import/export. In addition, we do connect with external databases, such as publication repositories (e.g. Web of Knowledge, PubMed) but, again, we import a text file created by each user (related to their publication record).

Socio-cultural influence factors
LGDF has been crucial internally. It would be, otherwise, impossible to present detailed and accurate annual reports. In addition, indiduals are no longer constantly harrassed internally for providing the same information again and again. The OOP is now fully working in our institution. The data are also valuable at the highest level since it is the country Presidency itself involved, every year, on using a good part of the data collected to produce the comparative annual report of our institution. The individual data are not disclosed to anyone except the individual himself and his superiors. The only exception is the Science Manager, who is responsible for data checking for accuracy.

Data quality
The data is shared collectively, i.e., although each invididual gives is own data, a lot of it is dilluted with similar one given by others (e.g. collaborative publications). What comes out is the "whole", combined and per department or for the whole faculty (annual report). Each individual has access to is own data only on the context of his own evaluation. In this case, only him, his evaluator and the Science Manager have access to his personal data.

Data handling / data exchange

Type of data sharing

Actual data

Data handler

Lessons learned
Must define what we want the data for straight from the beginning. This will permit to tailor-make the language and system to be used avoiding later issues of compatibility. At the moment the way we work here is archaic, using an Excel sheet that is imported into the University system (Sigarra) for concluding the process of the evaluation of staff. Every year we are learning of improvements from the users themselves and, indeed, we have been doing our best to implement them all (this has been the key enabler and success factor). Quite for some time too (3 years), we have been dreaming of an LGDF2.0 upgrade but lack of staff has been preventing such a major improvement.

Source: https://scoop4c.eu/cases/portuguese-levantamento-geral-de-dados-da-fmup-lgdf

Disclaimer: Please note that this article is a result of the SCOOP4C Pilot Project, not an application of a CEF Building Block.

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Spanish Via Oberta

Via Oberta facilitates the transmission of electronic data and documents of Catalan citizens and businesses among public entities across Spain.

@Photo from Pixabay.

Summary 

Via Oberta encompasses the services developed to facilitate the telematic transmission of data and electronic documents among the administrations and, in general, among public institutions and entities, enabling the substitution of the provision of certificates and other documents in paper by the interested parties.

OOP aspect

The administrations that use the services of Via Oberta have a channel to obtain, by electronic means, the data and / or documents held by other public institutions, when these data and documents are necessary for administrative processing, instead of asking the citizens to provide the data / documents themselves.

Enabling assets or components

Political commitment
Via Oberta is in full compliance with the right of citizens and companies not to provide the data and documents that are open to public administrations recognized by Law 11/2007 of June 22, electronic access of citizens to public services (art.6.2, letter b) and Law 26/2010 on the legal regime and procedure of the public administrations of Catalonia (article 25.4).

Motivations, benefits, public value
Both the administrations, as well as society in general, earn:
- Citizens and companies save in their procedures with the administration, not having to supply and provide documentation that is already in the possession of other public institutions.
- Public institutions save, because they are released from the administrative and economic burden of issuing certificates 'on paper' and because the automation of access to data by the administrations that process translates into a decrease of errors in the data and in files that incorporate truthful and up-to-date information, with the consequent procedural economy that this represents.

Therefore, the intensive use of the services of Via Oberta allows not only to comply with the law, but to gain efficiency and competitiveness, save money and at the same time be more respectful with the environment.

Data handling / data exchange

Type of data sharing

Actual data

Other

Data handler 

Benefits for involved actors

943 have joined the Convention (789 town councils, which represent 97.3% of the Catalan population)

Source: https://scoop4c.eu/cases/spanish-oberta

Disclaimer: Please note that this article is a result of the SCOOP4C Pilot Project, not an application of a CEF Building Block.

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Polish Baby bonus Becikowe

The Polish government applied the OOP to the baby bonus service – which is a part of financial aid for families. Parents don’t need to provide any certificates, including their birth and tax certificates, to apply for this financial support.

@Photo from Pixabay.

Citizens will no longer be required to provide some data that was handed over to public sector earlier, for example, a birth or tax certificates

Summary 

The Polish government applied the OOP to the baby bonus service – which is a part of financial aid for families. Parents don’t need to provide any certificates including their birth and tax certificates to apply for this financial support. They just have to apply online and provide statement then, the government will complete and cross-check the applications with records they already have. These services have been added to the information portal Emp@tia.

ENABLING ASSETS OR COMPONENTS

Legal interoperability
Act of 23 March 2017 amending certain acts regarding public administration tasks related to some public registries (2017)
The Act introduces some legal modifications to allow citizens to deal with a number of cases with the public administration without leaving home, i.e. via IT systems. These changes are convergent with the targets of the Paperless Cashless Poland Programme. They are another step to help the citizens to apply for benefits without having to visit a lot of offices issuing various certificates. In particular, 
- Reduces the number of documents (certificates) that must be attached to applications for family benefits, the grand family card, and childcare benefits.

Data protection and privacy
Act on the Protection of Personal Data (1997)

The Act on the Protection of Personal Data was adopted on 29 August 1997 and has been amended a few times so far. This Act follows the rules established by the European Union's Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data. The Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data supervises the observance of the Act. In case of breach of the provisions on personal data protection, the Inspector General, ex officio, or upon a motion of a person concerned, by means of an administrative decision, shall order to restore the proper legal state.

Socio-cultural influence factors
Development of this service expected to saves about half a million parents trips to government offices.
In this manner, service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The most important change is that the state finally begins to trust its citizens making declarations instead of certificates.
For the application of its eGovernment services, the ministry is cooperating with three large banks to use their online banking services for the identification and authentification of Polish citizens. Similar services from two other banks are expected and are currently being tested. This will provide access to eGovernment services to about 55% of all citizens, the ministry says.

Data handling / data exchange

Type of data sharing

Actual data

Data handler

Architecture
Citizens have the only option of online application.

Benefits for involved actors
Citizen have access to 24/7 service. They do not need to provide any certificates to public authorities in order to apply for baby financial support.
This OOP service reduced huge number of parents trips to government offices.

Lessons learned
By applying the OOP to more services, and by offering services online, Poland is modernising its government, says Minister Streżyńska. Making its services available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week requires a fundamental change in the approach of public administration.

Source: https://scoop4c.eu/cases/polish-baby-bonus-becikowe

Disclaimer: Please note that this article is a result of the SCOOP4C Pilot Project, not an application of a CEF Building Block.

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Netherland's Studielink project

Studielink is the common registration and enrolment application for all non-private institutions of higher education in the Netherlands. Studielink arranges the exchange of information between the current or prospective students and the higher educational institution.

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Applicants do not have to provide personal and educational data which is already stored in the governmental databases.

Summary 

Studielink is the common registration and enrolment application for all non-private institutions of higher education in the Netherlands. Service arranges the exchange of information between the current or prospective student and the higher educational institution. Applicants can use Studielink to submit a digital enrolment application to an educational institution. Students can enter and check information which they can then access and use whenever they need it. This also applies for all bodies involved in the enrolment process, including universities of applied sciences, universities and DUO (Dients Uitovering Onderwijs - Education Executive Agency/Ministry of Education).
Studielink is linked directly to authentic sources, such as the municipal personal records database (GBA), which includes personal data, and the IB-Groep’s General Register for Student Numbers (including exam data). The result is a significant reduction in the paper-based bureaucracy for students and institutions. It also enables an increase in the quality of information sharing: since the information need only be entered and checked once, there is less chance of error than if several bodies enter and check the same information individually.

ENABLING ASSETS OR COMPONENTS

Political commitment
Higher Education Act, http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=&p_isn=69514&p_country=NLD&p_count=2273&p_classification=09&p_classcount=29
In accordance with the 'Higher Education Act', educational institutions are required to verify the student's identity.

Legal interoperability
Chapter 4. Registration, selection and registration § 1. General provisions
notification Article 4.1. Electronic Registration (Request for Enrollment), http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0035059/2016-10-01#Hoofdstuk4

The process was given a legal basis in 2009. Before that year students had to type in the diploma data at the Studielink website and then give permission to Studielink to have the data checked by DUO. That old process was particularly prone to error.

Many students forgot to give the permission or made mistakes in typing their diploma data. So at the request of the HEI’s the Ministry of Education added Studielink to the Law on higher education.

Data protection and privacy
Personal Data Protection Act, https://www.privacy.nl/uploads/guide_for_controller_ministry_justice.pdf

It has been laid down in a contract between Studielink Foundation, the institutions for Higher Education and DUO that Studielink is the processor of the personal data within the meaning of the Personal Data Protection Act

Socio-cultural influence factors
The staff members of the universities requested the implementation themselves, so they were eager to accept it.

Data handling / data exchange

Type of data sharing

Actual data

Data handler

studielink.png (950×436) (scoop4c.eu)

External impacts
Much less printed paper

Lessons learned
Studielink has been created for and by higher education itself (initially only for those institutions of higher education that are financed by the Dutch government. Studielink provides institutions of higher education, educational umbrella organisations Mi VSNU (Association of Dutch Universities) and the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Science and DUO – with a platform for cooperation and innovation in higher education in terms of Student & Education information and administration.

Source: https://scoop4c.eu/cases/netherlands-studielink-project

Disclaimer: Please note that this article is a result of the SCOOP4C Pilot Project, not an application of a CEF Building Block.

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United Kingdom Universities and Colleges Admissions System (UCAS)

In order to apply to university, students must submit a single application via UCAS' online application service. Candidate students can apply for up to five university courses by a single online application.

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Summary 

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS /ˈjuːkɑːs/) is a UK-based organisation whose main role is to operate the application process for British universities. It operates as an independent charity, funded by fees charged to applicants and to universities, plus advertising income, and was formed in 1992 through the merger of the former university admissions system UCCA and the former polytechnics admissions system PCAS.
Services provided by UCAS include several online application portals, a number of search tools and free information and advice directed at various audiences, including students considering higher education, students with pending applications to higher education institutes, parents and legal guardians of applicants, school and Further Education college staff involved in helping students apply and providers of higher education (universities and HE colleges).
While UCAS is best known for its undergraduate application service (the main UCAS scheme), it also operates a number of other admissions services:
- Conservatoires UK Admissions Service (CUKAS) – for performing arts at a UK conservatoire
- UCAS Teacher Training (UTT) – for postgraduate teacher training schemes
- UK Postgraduate Application and Statistical Service (UKPASS) – for some postgraduate courses
- UCAS Progress – for post-16 education and training

Enabling assets or components

Political commitment
Data Protection Act, https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/the-data-protection-act

UCAS is a charity that provides the undergraduate admissions service for the UK. To provide this service, we collect personal data from over 700,000 applicants each year. We take our responsibilities around data seriously and fully comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act

Legal interoperability
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/2598/pdfs/uksi_20112598_en.pdf

UCAS is a charity, not a government body. The Freedom of Information Act does not apply to UCAS in the way it does to almost all public authorities. It is subject to Freedom of Information from 1 November 2011, but only in relation to some of its functions. These are set out in The Freedom of Information (Designation as Public Authorities) Order 2011. These functions are the provision and maintenance of a central applications and admissions service in relation to:

• an institution listed in paragraphs 53(1)(a) to (e) and 55(1)(a) and (b) of Part 4 of Schedule 1 to the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

• an institution listed in Part 5 of Schedule 1 to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

• the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise.
Socio-cultural influence factors
UCAS uses personal information and share it with its partners such as universities in secure manner. This includes maintaining Information Security standards in line with the international standard ISO 27001:2013.
Also they make sure that third parties who use this personal information, are committed to keep them safe and secure. Thought some of services and suppliers of UCAS are based outside of EU(EEA), they always make sure that all personal information which are handle either inside or outside of EU in a safe manner consistent with the requirements of the PDA. Under the PDA students have right to ask UCAS for a copy of their information or request to edit, delete or stop using of their personal information.
UCAS provide outstanding data and analysis which are free to use by universities and government.

Data handling / data exchange

Type of data sharing

Actual data

Data handler 

Architecture

citizens should apply online in UCAS website.
web-link is a web-based service used to manage data and institution requirements and contacts. It can be used stand-alone or with any of the other online data transfer services. It must be used for updating applications data by providers who do not have any other online methods.

Lessons learned

To support candidate students UCAS publish a growing portfolio of information and advice about qualification and subject choices on their website, alongside information about learning and career opportunities, and specific content for mature learners, care leavers and disabled students. UCAS aim to make sure admissions processes minimise any barriers to candidate students from less represented groups, and support the efforts of universities and colleges to broaden their intake. For example:
• the UCAS Tariff now includes Access to HE qualifications
• we offer a contextual data service
• we publish analysis and insight about progress in closing gaps in applications, offers and acceptances between different groups
• we offer an analytical service (STROBE) which enables organisations to evaluate effectiveness of activities intended to widen participation

Source: https://scoop4c.eu/cases/united-kingdom-universities-and-colleges-admissions-system-ucas

Disclaimer: Please note that this article is a result of the SCOOP4C Pilot Project, not an application of a CEF Building Block.

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