News

This year the International Day of Education will be celebrated on the 24 January 2023. It is imperative to note that only education and upskilling the EU citizens will help achieve the set targets for the ‘European Year of Skills 2023’ and make the vision for digital transformation in Europe come true. Education can shape the employment landscape and aid in the overall development of the EU. Currently, many European companies are experiencing a significant skill gap and facing challenges in finding expert workers. About 3% of all available jobs are unfilled and 44% of EU citizens lack basic

Between the 9 and 14 December the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) will host a four-day virtual conference on ‘Powering the European digital transition – What can we learn from Cedefop´s 2nd European skills and jobs survey?’. The conference will focus on the main findings of Cedefop´s second European skills and jobs survey (ESJS2). The survey sampled about 46000 adult workers, collecting information on how digitalisation affects them, whether their skills match their job requirements, and the extent to which they are ready to invest in vocational training to

The European Big Data Value Forum (EBDVF) is the flagship event organised annually by the Big Data Value Association (BDVA) to bring together the whole European data-driven AI research and innovation community to share knowledge, collaborate and celebrate achievements in the field. This year, the EBDVF took place in Prague (Czech Republic) between the 21st and 23rd of November. Under the theme ‘At the heart of the Ecosystem for Data and AI’, the programme involved several keynote speeches, presentations, and co-creative workshops on ‘Data Spaces’, ‘Industrial and Trustworthy AI’, ‘Technology

On 14 September 2022, Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, announced in the annual State of the Union address, her intention to make 2023 the ´European Year of Skills’ to address the current skill shortage in the EU. Currently, in fact, more than three quarters of companies in the EU report difficulties in finding workers with the appropriate skill set. This is even truer when it comes to digital skills, with only 4 out of 10 adults and every third person who works in Europe lacking basic digital skills. Additionally, IT and security specialists are few and the female

The Use Case Observatory is a three-year-long research project by data.europa.eu. It aims at contributing to the portal’s broader goal to measure the economic, governmental, social and environmental impact of open data. To do so, the Use Case Observatory monitors 30 re-use cases of open data from 2022 to 2025, focusing on the services they offer, the data they use, and the impact they create over time. On the occasion of the launch of the first of the three reports foreseen within this research project, the webinar ´Stories from the Use Case Observatory – Volume I’ was organised on 7 October

On Friday 16 September, the first webinar for data providers ‘Data.europa.eu – The official portal for European data’ took place. During this webinar, we focused on data.europa.eu as the single point of access to European open data, with over 1.4 million datasets from EU institutions, European countries and other international organisations. We defined open data as ‘any data that is made available with an open licence’ or, following the definition of the Open Knowledge Foundation, ‘data that can be freely used, re-used and distributed by anyone’. To ensure open data is consumable, the FAIR

On 21 and 22 June 2022, the EU Digital Assembly took place in Toulouse and online. The assembly is an event organised every year by the European Commission and the holder of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union to gather the European digital ecosystem and discuss important tech-related issues. During this year’s Digital Assembly, France – which held the presidency from January until end of June – and the European Commission focused on the concept of EU sovereignty and autonomy in the digital sphere. On 21 June, four topics were touched upon in two distinct workshops and two

Every year, EU Datathon calls for innovators from around the world to come up with new ways of using open data to address important societal and environmental challenges, with the condition that they use at least one of the thousands of data sets published on data.europa.eu. Over the five years of its existence, the competition has generated dozens of practical apps and propelled new start-up enterprises. This year´s edition of EU Datathon is now open for submissions of ideas. Here are five reasons to join in. Get international visibility for your innovative ideas: EU Datathon and its

At this year’s State of the Union Address, the European Commission introduced the “Path to the Digital Decade”. This actionable plan aims to digitalise skills, infrastructures, businesses, and public services to accomplish the digital transformation of our society and economy by 2030. At the heart of the Path to the Digital Decade is the ambition to foster close cooperation, common governance, and coordinated investment between the EU and Member States. Together with them, the Commission will develop trajectories, strategic roadmaps, and an annual cooperation mechanism to make this possible

From 10 to 12 May, the Data4Good festival invites charities, social enterprises, public sector bodies, funders, and support organisations to share their data stories. The flagship event presents social sector organisations that use data to deliver greater impact, and showcases how these organisations use data to design more effective and efficient products and services. At the event, charities including Citizens Advice, London’s Air Ambulance Charity, Sustrans, Teach First, Cause4, and the British Red Cross will share their data journeys. There will also be several ‘how to’ sessions to gain