The TROPICO project (Transforming into Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments) aims to comparatively examine how public administrations are transformed to enhance collaboration in policy design and service delivery, advancing the participation of public, private and societal actors. It will analyse collaboration in and by governments, with a special emphasis on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), and its consequences. Assessing the institutional conditions and individual drivers and barriers is crucial for understanding the transformation of governments towards greater collaboration. The state structures and administrative traditions provide different 'starting points' of the public sectors in Europe. Likewise, individual attitudes, skills, and expertise of officials play a decisive role in understanding this transformation. Subsequently, TROPICO will examine collaboration practices within governments (internal) and between public, private and societal actors (external), across a variety of policy sectors. We will study the actors and means of innovative collaboration, including ICT, and how they are interlinked. Lastly, assessing the effects of collaboration for legitimacy, accountability and government efficiency is essential to provide a comprehensive analysis of the transformation towards open, innovative, and collaborative governments. Our multidisciplinary project will follow a truly comparative approach, examining ten countries representing the five administrative traditions in Europe: Nordic (Norway, Denmark), Central and Eastern European (Estonia, Hungary), Continental (Netherlands, Germany), Napoleonic (France, Spain; Belgium (mixed)), and Anglo-Saxon (United Kingdom). We will combine rigorous quantitative and qualitative research methods. TROPICO puts a strong emphasis on the inclusion of stakeholders and users throughout the project to test and reflect upon the applicability of our key findings and policy recommendations.

Eroding liberal economic model and democracy require novel approaches to development cooperation. The new research agenda emphasises the need for more research on the interactions between the nation-states' policies and organisational models. SoEco4Dev aims at responding to these policy and theoretical debates by providing an original and innovative approach and multilevel perspective to understanding the role of the local bottom-up institutions to uphold democratisation and development in post-communist countries. The objective of SoEco4Dev is to analyse how the emerging phenomenon of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) organisations drive social innovations and change in three distinct dimensions of SSE: entrepreneurial culture (economic dimension), solidarity bonds (social dimension) and democracy promotion (governance dimension). The research focuses on the nascent entrepreneurial forms of SSE – social enterprises (SE) in two post-Soviet republics, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan that continually strive to develop and democratise their societies. SoEco4Dev project is marked out by its ambitious and interdisciplinary nature that contrasts nation-state and organisational levels, and carefully integrates research and policy, local and global perspectives. The project is underpinned by an innovative and robust methodological approach that aims at constructing a well-grounded theory of SSEs internationalisation in under-explored country contexts. The project is particularly timely in the context of conflicts and increasing inequalities as it aims at gaining an in-depth understanding of the new forms of social organising and their capacity to complement the traditional local development actors, such as civil society organisations and the private sector. SoEco4Dev also aims at the career development of the researcher, broadening her research areas and improving her qualitative research and publication skills to obtain a permanent teaching and research position in the EU.

Increasing both transparency and efficiency of public spending in the age of austerity presents formidable challenges for European societies. Innovative, open data tools hold the key to simultaneously meet both. The key objective of the proposed project is to combine the provision of data on public spending in the area of public procurement with actionable governance indicators and a monitoring procedure facilitating whistleblowing and thus strengthening accountability and transparency of public administrations. Since public procurement is prone to corruption and budget deficit risks, high quality open data and innovative assessment tools in this area are especially relevant for the efficient and transparent use of public resources. The project, in particular, aims to systematically collect, analyse, and broadly disseminate tender-level information on public procurement in 35 jurisdictions across Europe. This data will be linked to company and public organisation information on finances and ownership and to information on mechanisms that increase accountability of public officials in order to systematically investigate the patterns and mechanisms of allocation of public resources in Europe. The proposed project addresses directly the objectives of the call by using innovative ICT-based measures and services which will provide wide access to information about governments’ spending and additionally involve private and public agents to actively collaborate in improving the quality and volume of the relevant data. Partners represent an effective combination of large, well-renowned institutions and small and highly-innovative ones, including scientists and researchers from computer and political sciences, sociology, criminology, and economics at 6 institutions from 5 European countries, both old and new members states. The project builds extensively on the partners’ prior innovative work in this area as well as their rich experience with EU funded projects.

AI-EFFECT will establish a European Testing Experimentation Facility (TEF) for developing, testing, and validating AI applications in the energy sector. It will be distributed across nodes, virtually connecting existing European facilities. The solution includes a digital platform leveraging European building blocks for interoperability, flexibility, and scalability. AI-EFFECT aims to be a central hub for testing energy sector AI algorithms, fostering collaboration across utilities, industry, academia, and regulatory authorities. Resilience is ensured through a decentralized design, aligning with the EU Energy Data Spaces framework. The project involves developing 4 use cases/nodes addressing key energy challenges, focusing on district heating, transmission congestion management, DERs integration, and energy communities. The framework involves utilities proposing challenges, vendors developing algorithms, and researchers contributing solutions. Each use case has evaluation criteria, baselines, and benchmarks. AI certification procedures, including interpretability and verification, will be implemented, and the evaluation process will be automated. Benchmarks and certifications are publicly available, encouraging open-source contributions. The project breaks sector barriers, leveraging existing infrastructures and technologies for cross-sectoral collaboration. The platform enforces policies for data quality, integrity, and privacy, promoting controlled data sharing and collaboration. Secure APIs ensure controlled interactions, including risk and security assessments. The consortium explores certification, standardization, and quality requirements in line with the EU AI Act. Governance and business models for the enduring AI-EFFECT will be examined, considering the EU AI Act. The consortium aims to make AI-EFFECT a sustained business beyond initial funding, seeking input from members, other TEFs, and regulatory authorities for the preferred model.

CIVICA–The European University of Social Sciences is an ambitious European University Alliance that unites ten higher education and research institutions across cultural, linguistic, and national borders: Bocconi University, Central European University, the European University Institute, the Hertie School, IE University, the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Sciences Po, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, the Stockholm School of Economics, and The London School of Economics and Political Science. Following a successful pilot phase that laid the foundation for a comprehensive digital and physical campus, CIVICA will increase even further institutional collaboration and consolidate its plans for creating a sustainable European University of the future. Built around 11 work packages, CIVICA aims to achieve significant progress in education, research and innovation, lifelong learning and civic engagement, and to develop a diverse and inclusive CIVICA community, while extending the alliance’s global outreach to establish itself as a leading actor in the social sciences.CIVICA aims to establish an integrated and fully-fledged European University, providing joint and multi-campus courses to over 2,000 bachelor’s and master’s students and more than 400 training opportunities for early-stage researchers. 800 academic and administrative staff will contribute to CIVICA’s continued implementation, and over 7,500 students, early-stage researchers, and staff are anticipated to benefit from mobility activities. Research collaboration will be deepened around four thematic priorities, which reflect contemporary issues and the joint expertise of CIVICA’s members. In the face of evolving political contexts, CIVICA strives to build bridges between academia and civil society, while acting as a model of sustainable institutional cooperation and providing a stable and inclusive environment in which the values of autonomy and academic freedom are defended.