OBJECTIVES

January 2016 - June 2019

The SmartEGOV project aims at harnessing ICT and EGOV technologies and processes to promote effective, secure and integrated smart governance structures at all levels of Administration. In particular, it aims at congregating synergies between major players --- government, academia, private sector, civil society --- to build a research and innovation laboratory for designing and testing new smart (e-)governance solutions, as well as an internationally renowned think-tank for inter-sectoral and multi-level public administration problems. Those objectives are pursued in strong articulation with the newly established Operational Unit of the United Nations University on Policy-driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV), hosted by the University of Minho and in the fulfilment of the bilateral agreements between the UNU and the Portuguese Republic signed on 23 May 2014. SmartEGOV boosts such a unique opportunity to consolidate in the North region a pole of excellence in EGOV research and innovation, building a global brand with a clear regional, national and international impact. The project is structured around three complementary levels, each of them corresponding to a specific Research Line extended horizontally along the 3 years of project development.

RESULTS

January 2016 - June 2019

Detailed information is available from the project FINAL REPORT submited in October 2020.

SOME FACTS

Publications: 136 research papers of which 45 are policy-oriented (i.e. bridging between academic research and public policies and/or policies case studies). Of these 136 papers, 23 are journal papers, 6 book chapters, and 107 international, refereed conference papers. Additionally, 15 policydriven, applied research publications, in the form of SmartEGOV Technical Reports with high dissemination among the UN system and worldwide.

Several proof-of-concept, prototype implementations of repositories and tools, created along the different research lines.

13 PhD thesis initiated during the project (8 already concluded, see below).

Support to the realization of 5 top International Conferences in the area, and to the edition of 5 Books of proceedings, published by Springer Verlag, ACM and IOS, respectively, and several research and dissemination seminars.

Several other internationalization initiatives, including fostering a consortium for a EU Research project approved: E+ KA2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices - Knowledge Alliances ERASMUS+ Call: EAC/A03/2016; and an intensive cooperation with the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) and several Governments. In particular, the project lead the elaboration of the National Strategy for Digital Governance of São Tomé e Príncipe.

Jointly with UNU-EGOV, the project formally joined the Advisory Working Group for the UN eGovernment Index, published by UN DESA, the most important international index in the area. The project initiated a new component in the survey devoted to assessment of EGOV at the local level. A study of 40 different cities in 40 different countries was conducted for the 2018 survey, later lifted to 100 cities and 100 countries for the 2020 survey. This was assessed as an important recognition of our impact among the relevant international players in the area.

The development of a capacity building portfolio with 7 executive training short courses (1.5 ECTS each) and 12 regular courses (from 2.5 to 3 ECTS each) on the main project themes, distributed over the three Research Lines. Some of these courses were already tested in different contexts and countries, including Portugal, Angola, Indonesia, Mozambique, East Timor, Cabo Verde, S. Tomé e Principe and Georgia.

PhD Thesis

(initiated within the project)

• Guillermina Cledou: A Virtual Factory for Smart city Service Integration (pdf), University of Minho, 2018.
• Ayman Abdul Hadi Alarabiat: Electronic Participation through Social Media Citizens: Acceptance Factors at Local Government Level. (pdf), University of Minho, 2018.
• Tiago Casal da Silva: Uninformative News or Hollow Campaigns? (pdf), European University Institute, 2018.
• Debora Dutra: Fatores Decisórios para a Disponibilização de Soluções de Governo Móvel (pdf), University of Minho, 2020.
• Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen: The Demise of eGovernment Maturity Models: Framework and Case Studies (pdf), Tallinn University of Technology, 2020.
• Leandro Gomes: Weighted computations: semantics and program logics (pdf), University of Minho, 2021.
• Wagner Araujo: A method for the formulation of E-Governance strategies taking into account international rankings (pdf), University of Minho, 2022.
• Leticia Martins: A resolução de problemas: Um estudo com alunos do ensino secundário (pdf), University of Minho, 2023.
• To be completed in 2023:
  • Joana Carvalho, A tool for assessment and monitoring local EGOV policies and instruments, University of Minho, 2023 (expected).
  • João Martins, Socioeconomic effects of the electronic government , University of Minho, 2023 (expected).
  • Teófilo Júnior, Modelo para a Implantação da Computação em Nuvem na Administração Pública Municipal , University of Minho, 2023 (expected).
  • Sara Fernandes, Peer-Production and Technology-Enhanced Collaborative Teaching and Learning , University of Minho, 2023 (expected).
  Rui Ribeiro Sampaio, Data analytics over local public administration , University of Minho, 2023 (expected).

RESEARCH LINE 1

A Laboratory for EGOV Research-Innovation

RL1 aims at developing multidisciplinary research on EGOV with innovative, crosslevel and cross sectorial contributions to different domains of Smart Governance. The objectives of this RL are:

O1 - To foster research, policy, technology and innovation in highly-demanded areas, some of them related to emergent societal challenges, including but not limited to the efficiency of administrative processes, sustainable solutions for process dematerialisation, institutional transparency, accountability and open government, inclusion and participation, etc.

O2 - To identify, develop and package remarkable experience and achievements of Portugal in this area, and share and promote this experience internationally. O3 - To become a trustworthy partner and a key player for research, consultancy, executive training and capacity building at all levels of public administration in Portugal, the European Union and in other countries, with a particular focus on the Portuguese-speaking countries.

One Activity: SmartEGOV workshop on EGOV Strategies in Africa: Guimarães, 2018.

RESEARCH LINE 2

Smart Governance Innovative Frameworks

The aim of this RL is to develop three innovative frameworks harnessing ICT and EGOV technologies for Smart Governance. The three frameworks aim at going beyond the state of the art in providing new solutions at three complementary levels of the smart governance process: design, healing and monitoring. Each of them will be addressed, not in a general, abstract way, but with a clear focus in an application area.

O1 - At the first level (design), this RL will contribute with methods and tools for modelling and validating normative and legal text in a precise (mathematical) way. This aims at reducing potential administrative burden acting from the outset on one of its main sources: the design of legal and normative texts themselves.

O2 - At the second level (healing) the RL will explore how EGOV can be utilized as a tool for Administrative Burden Reduction (ABR) imposed by different levels of public administration, often in incremental ways, on citizens, businesses and the administration itself.

O3 - Finally, at the third level (monitoring), the RL will develop a framework and tools for local EGOV measurement and monitoring. This knowledge is fundamental for leading EGOV development in a country, namely for the definition of new EGOV strategies and action programs that are aligned with the needs of governments, public institutions, citizens and the society as a whole.

One Activity: Launch of the Portuguese edition of the United Nations e-Government Survey: Guimarães 2019.

RESEARCH LINE 3

EGOV for Context-specific Public Service Delivery

Context-specific Public Service Delivery (PSD) considers the uniqueness of the national, local or sectoral context to achieve the best match between the circumstances where a public service is delivered, the needs of the target audience and the standard of PSD agreed across contexts. The focus of this RL is on digital innovation for context-specific PSD. The aim is to analyze the contribution of information and communication technologies for the development, implementation and evaluation of the use of context-aware and context-intelligent public services (CACI-PS), co-created with the beneficiaries, and smartly delivered to meet the specific needs of service recipients and to satisfy the conditions of the local context, in order to contribute to the identification and diagnosis of specific cases of vulnerable groups and social exclusion, offering solutions aimed at reducing such problems and increasing social cohesion. Aims:

O1 - Theoretical foundations for CACI-PS.

O2 - ICT innovations for co-creating CACI-PS.

O3 - ICT innovations for delivering CACI-PS.

O4 - Toolbox for CACI-PS.

The main aim of O2 and O3 is to propose methodologies for the design and use of innovative ICT tools to deliver CACI-PS aimed at people affected by social exclusion. Objective O2 focus on comparative studies of the use of ICT tools for the co-creation (from O2) and delivery (from O3) of CACI-PS, as well as on synthesizing findings into policy recommendations and courseware.

One Activity: SmartEGOV project as a partner for CPLP Digital Agenda, Bissau, 2017.