As the Big Data Test Infrastructure (BDTI) project ends, we reflect on the progress made, highlight the resources that remain available, and highlight key initiatives that continue to support data-driven innovation in the public sector.
The data.europa.eu Academy offers free learning material about open data in Europe, open data API training, and more.
Simple is a groundbreaking programme designed to enhance interoperability and data exchange across Common European Data Spaces. It's an initiative supporting the European Strategy for Data and a project to watch following on from the BDTI. This explainer article is a nice place to start to become familiar with SIMPL, its context, and how you can get involved.
Be inspired by what public administrations from Greece, Germany, Italy and others have achieved with the open source tools provided by BDTI. These stories offer an in-depth look at the data, teams, tools and collaborations behind the solutions.
We're coming to you today with our final BDTI newsletter. As the project has ended, we'd like to take this opportunity to celebrate some achievements and point you to where you can continue to access BDTI resources.
This month, the OSOR team attended FOSDEM 2025, one of the world's largest open source gatherings. We explored groundbreaking projects across diverse sectors and gathered valuable insights to share with our community.
The “Decentralized data catalogs of the administration in Austria”, Data.gv.at, is expanding from open data to include an open source software search function. With this update, users can now access almost a hundred of open source applications of public interest.
The European Commission's Big Data Test Infrastructure (BDTI) project, a flagship initiative under the Digital Europe Programme, is winding down after five transformative years. Since its inception in 2019, the BDTI has redefined the role of data in public administration, fostering innovation, collaboration, and a profound culture of data-driven decision-making across Europe.
The Municipality of Naples, Italy's third-largest metropolitan area, is a city faced with complex urban challenges, ranging from socio-economic disparities and climate change to overtourism and gaps in public services.
This webinar will highlight how open data drives smart city initiatives and fuels cutting-edge digital twin applications. The concept of smart cities and the latest European policies and developments in this field will first be introduced. The session will then highlight Rotterdam’s digital twin project as a best-practice example, showcasing how open data platforms and real-time integrations enable informed decision-making, enhanced transparency, and collaborative urban planning. Participants will gain valuable insights into the technical requirements, societal benefits, and transformative potential of open data in creating sustainable, data-driven urban environments.
The BDTI team headed along to the FARI Conference 2024, held in Brussels from November 18th to 19th, which brought together public administrations, researchers, NGOs, and innovators to explore how AI can be harnessed for public good. The team presented how BDTI enables smart, data-driven systems in the public sector, participated in a panel on public administration and public good, and hosted a workshop helping attendees build their data use case.
This pilot story highlights how the Smart City Innovation Unit and the Environmental Agency of Bochum are using data analytics to monitor and improve tree health. Led by project manager Philipp Zuber, who has a background in geo and data science, this initiative showcases a remarkable example of how the public sector can use data for environmental sustainability and urban planning.
Many public servants are eager to innovate, desiring to translate their ideas into concrete, impactful initiatives. However, they often find this process difficult: They might have little knowledge about data management or lack access to practical guidelines and tools to guide them in managing the initiative.
The EuroLLM project aims to offer a competitive multilingual and multimodal LLM for all 24 official European languages. This pioneering initiative positions Europe as a leader in open-source AI innovation and exemplifies how artificial intelligence (AI) can be tailored to Europe’s language diversity while encouraging an innovative European AI ecosystem.
The BDTI-powered pilot MitosLOD, a project leveraging linked open data for public sector interoperability in Greece, has been nominated for a best practices award. This pilot exemplifies how public sector data can be transformed into actionable insights for improved governance.
During the EU Week of Regions and Cities, BDTI showcased its role in empowering local and regional authorities with data tools for enhanced decision-making. This event highlighted BDTI’s commitment to fostering collaborative innovation across EU regions, enhancing the capability of local governments to make data-driven decisions that directly impact their communities. Read more at the link below.
In October, BDTI’s Skills Studio workshops provided public sector professionals with hands-on training on geospatial analytics, graph analytics, and visualising data with dashboard creation. Participants gained practical experience using open data to tackle real-world challenges, from mapping urban crime rates to optimising city transport routes.
The municipality of Arezzo, Italy, has launched a pilot under the BDTI initiative to enhance urban planning through time-series analysis of public space and accident data. This pilot project is part of BDTI’s commitment to supporting European public administrations in experimenting with open-source data analytics tools to foster safer and more sustainable cities.
In September, the data.europa Academy hosted two insightful sessions, engaging over 875 registrants who explored the topics of emerging geospatial trends and advancements in cyber and digital skills together with experts. The first session, titled ‘Emerging Geospatial Trends 2024: Opportunities for data.europa.eu in the Era of Digital Twins’, gave participants a deep understanding of geospatial digital twins and examples of their real-world applications. The second session, ‘Beyond Europe: Global Perspectives on Open Data Excellence’, featured speakers from The Global Data Barometer and The World Bank, offering insights into successful international open data initiatives.
URBREATH project aims to integrate transformative technical and nature-based solutions by leveraging community participation, Local Digital Twins, and AI technologies. BDTI is proud to collaborate with URBREATH to achieve these goals.
