CEF Building Blocks presented at Releasing the Power of Procurement
On 2 May 2019, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Blocks were presented at the event "Releasing the Power of Procurement" in Brussels, Belgium.
This workshop addressed the issue that current public procurement processes are struggling to keep up with the fast pace of digital innovation in key application domains such as smart cities, health-care and energy.
The workshop sought to stimulate a debate on the benefits and shortcomings of public procurement processes and how to fix the shortcomings to benefit both public purchasers and the local innovation ecosystem.
Participants discussed the role of open standards for public administrations and the local innovation ecosystem for procuring digital, IoT-enabled solutions. It also explored possible ways forward in deepening the European cooperation in procurement of innovative IoT solutions and services and showcased innovative procurement methods from advanced sectors as well as domain frontrunners.
Joao Rodrigues Frade presenting the CEF Building Blocks: "SMEs & Public Procurement".
Mr Joao Rodrigues Frade, Head of Sector, Building Blocks, DG DIGIT, European Commission presented the CEF Building Blocks during the session SMEs & Public Procurement
To build a Digital Single Market, CEF funds a set of generic and reusable Digital Service Infrastructures (DSI), or Building Blocks. The CEF Building Blocks offer basic capabilities that can be reused 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, eArchiving, eDelivery, eID, eInvoicing, eSignature and eTranslation.
The Building Blocks ensure interoperability between national IT systems so that citizens, businesses and administrations can benefit from seamless digital public services wherever they may be in Europe. The Building Blocks consist of the following elements:
- At the core of each building block, a layer of technical specifications and standards that have to be complied with;
- To facilitate the implementation of the technical specifications and standards, a layer of sample software that complies with them and is meant for reuse (for certain building blocks only);
- To facilitate the adoption of the technical specifications and standards, a layer of services (e.g. conformance testing, help desks, onboarding services, etc.) meant for use (which varies depending on the building block).
To learn more about how the CEF Building Blocks can benefit you, visit the CEF Digital site.
The recording of the workshop will be available soon here. You can also download the slides: