The project addresses a number of key issues that over the years have been identified

as critical in the public sector. To exemplify, the results of an analysis recently conducted by the Sonnets project on societal needs that could be met by public sector innovation, clearly highlighted streamlined processes, simpler interfaces and  certain response times as some of the key dimensions along which the process of ICT-enabled public sector reform should focus on.

In this respect, the SIMPATICO project has the potential to offer a contribution in overcoming some structural and highly relevant hurdles still preventing the public sector to effectively and efficiently to address societal needs.

This may mainly be attained by a better and smarter utilization of public sector data that often suffer from a distributed and fragmented ownership as well as some advancements in the design of user experiences leveraging on the possibilities offered by ICTs in terms of automation, flexibility and personalization.

The project is still at an early stage, it is thus impossible to assess of the quality of the deliverable yet to be submitted. Nevertheless, to date the most promising result to be generated seem to be the Citizenpedia repository. Other technological assets could have a reusability potential and be of interest for public agencies outside the consortium with “a la carte” process of selection.

As per the dissemination of results and assets it would be wise to leverage existing communities of practice rather than simply relying on a network build ad-hoc for the project. To exemplify the “eGovernment 2.0” group on Linkedin allows to reach over 14000 experts in the field of ICT-enabled public sector innovation while networks such as Eurocities may represent an effective channel to engage a large number of civil servants that may act as ambassadors of the SIMPATICO solutions within their local communities. 

A fifteen year experience in the domain of public sector innovation both within and outside H2020 has taught me that the main challenge to turn innovation visions into real life processes has to do with two factors: 1. The fact that public sector innovation lies at the intersection of a number of knowledge domains (technology, management, and policy) with very different characteristics and constraints. 2. That human capital is a key and often overlooked ingredient in the adoption and diffusion processes.     

In the light of the above, I would suggest that the project tries (for what is possible) to consider the consequences of automation and personalization from an organizational and legal point of view in order to anticipate (and possibly avoid) potential obstacles that may prevent a full scale implementation of piloted solutions.