How the the Digital Innovation Challenge winners are using the building blocks to make their projects a reality

Connecting national digital infrastructures so that EU citizens can enjoy online public services across borders is a priority for the EU. One way the Commission is helping achieve such cross-border connectivity is through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital and ISA² (Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens) programmes.

The CEF Digital building blocks are free, open and reusable solutions helping connect Europe's varied national I.T. landscapes. Thanks to the international standards they are based on, any system built with them can interconnect with others, so public administrations and companies can easily open up their services across sectors and borders. However, we found that these solutions are much better known by public administrations and big industry players than SMEs. 

This is why the Commission wanted to actively help SMEs digitalise on a wider scale, while also leveraging on their enormous potential as multipliers to increase the uptake of these open solutions and help connect different I.T. landscapes on a more local level. 

This is where the Digital Innovation Challenge comes in.

The Digital Innovation Challenge

At the Web Summit in Lisbon in 2019, the European Commission launched a challenge for European SMEs and startups to grow their business by coming up with new digital services based on CEF and ISA2’s open and reusable solutions. This was a chance to stimulate awareness of these solutions and increase their reuse, for a truly connected Europe at national, regional and local level.

We talked to hundreds of companies and 49 participants, from 17 countries, made it through to the second round. Of these, the 10 best candidates were invited to pitch their ideas at a (virtual) co-creation bootcamp to workshop their ideas, followed by pitches in front of a jury of senior EU officials working in digital. The final step was an award ceremony at the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit 2020, where the three winners were announced.

But how do the CEF building blocks actually fit into these SME's innovative services? Take a closer look at the three winners' projects below to find out.

1^st place: CleverBooks (€50,000) - Sustainable Digital Education

CleverBooks' proposed service platform transforms existing learning materials into reusable, online text- and workbooks for schools by providing a centralised solution for all schools in Europe, all while integrating Augmented Reality technology. The aim is to make education more personalised, engaging and accessible for all kids in the digital age, with a particular focus on nurturing digital literacy and skills in young people. It will allow for distanced education and accessibility to educational resources at anytime, anywhere, regardless of who you are or what educational system you are in. 

So how do our building blocks help CleverBooks realise their project?

• With eIDand eSignature, the platform will allow users to manage their education credentials by electronically identifying themselves and signing documents across borders; 
• By integrating with the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), the platform can put control of education credentials back in the hands of users rather than a centralised authority, thanks to blockchain's distributed ledger system; 
• eDelivery's AS4 message exchange protocol for secure and reliable message exchange channels will let different users exchange educational documents and data through the platform with ease;
• eArchiving will allow the platform to store results and the educational progress of users in a digital repository, making archived data secure and reliable over a long period of time;
• With Context Broker's data aggregation capabilities, the platform will be able to gather any data resulting from user input, classes/tests taken, etc., and display it in real-time in a progress dashboard. 

2^nd place: Latitudo40 (€20,000) - Earth Analytics 

The Latitudo40 platform aims to become the reference point for geoinformation in Europe, turning satellite imagery from the EU's Copernicus constellation and commercial satellites into geospatial information, whether physical, chemical or structural. This information will be made available through a cloud platform allowing organisations and businesses to perform geospatial analytics for better decision-making, particularly in the areas of urban monitoring, infrastructure development and agriculture. This platform will also be able to integrate into any existing I.T. architecture thanks to the building blocks' open standards and specifications.

So how do our building blocks help Latitudo40 realise their project?

• eID's cross-border electronic identification capabilities make it safer and easier for users to register and to manage user accessibility;
  
• eDelivery's AS4 message exchange protocol for secure and reliable message exchange channels makes access to the platform's data more secure;
• By integrating with the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), the platform's data will be more transparent, reliable and immutable over time thanks to the blockchain's distributed ledger system.
• Context Broker will support the platform's data acquisition module through its ability to collect a vast amount of data from a variety of sources, automatically organise it and display it through an interface, all while ensuring the scalability of this modular solution so that more and more modules, or "blocks", of analytical capabilities can be added. User can recombine these modules in any way for an endless number of potential applications. 

3^rd place: OpenContent (€10,000) - eGovernment

OpenContent's platform, OpenCityPlus, is already used by over 300 local authorities, helping small and medium municipalities in Europe integrate into the Single Digital Gateway (SDG). The SDG's aim is for Member States to make the information, administrative procedures and assistance services that citizens and businesses need to get active in another EU country easily accessible and understandable online. 

The OpenCityPlus platform makes it easier for public administrations to manage their public services with intuitive, accessible dashboards that hide the technical complexity of underlying solutions - separate but interoperable modules can be progressively activated to provide more and more services according to an organisation's needs. On the user's side, the platform guides citizens and businesses through the administrative procedures they need to perform, allowing them to complete these seamlessly online and authenticate themselves to check a procedure's progress through a dashboard updated in real-time.

So how do our building blocks help OpenContent realise their project?

• eID will allow users to access the platform by authenticating themselves through eIDAS or SPID;
• eArchiving's international standards and specifications will help public administrations comply with regulations regarding the processing and storing of personal data;
• By integrating with the EBSI, the platform will be able to simplify administrative processes and increase efficiency in cross-border public services while complying with the relevant regulations. 

Looking forwards

We accompanied these SMEs on their journeys from initial pitches to detailed plans, and dedicated onboarding teams are now helping them implement the building blocks in their solutions, with services ranging from integration and technical support to conformance and interoperability tests. 

The EU will continue to invest in SMEs' digital transformation and the creation of brand-new, exciting services. Stay tuned for a more detailed recap of these ambitious SMEs' journeys with the Commission's open and reusable solutions, coming soon. 

Follow the links below to learn more about the building blocks and get started with your cross-border digital project! 

Context Broker eArchiving eID eSignature

eDelivery European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI)