Latest EU study shows the Member States collaborating and achieving new heights in Open Data
Sixth annual study by Capgemini Invent highlights the evolution of open data in Europe and how it’s capitalizing on efforts to deliver better data quality, interoperability and impact
Capgemini Invent has published its sixth annual report measuring the level of open data maturity across Europe. The “Open Data Maturity Report 2020” records the progress achieved by European countries as they push forward open data publication and re-use, and the different priorities they have set to enable it. The report was requested by the European Commission within the context of the European Data Portal and coordinated by Capgemini Invent.
The 2020 report identified three notable trends:
Peak performance: the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the genuine need for data
Europe is well on track to achieving the goals set regarding open data and making it available so citizens can re-use it. This year, the European countries show a great increase in their maturity levels. The average open data maturity score of the EU27 countries is 76%, an increase of 10 percentage points compared to 2019. The scores have increased across all dimensions compared to last year. A concentration of countries in the higher end of the results spectrum is also clear.
2020 also brought about a renewed emphasis on the importance of systematically collecting and making data available to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to respond to the emergency led many countries to start publishing-related data and developing initiatives and dashboards to make the data more easily understandable and insightful.
From quantity to quality: ensuring interoperability
As the open data propositions of the European countries mature, their focus has moved from the quantity of data being made available to ensuring its quality, too. Moreover, quality is not seen in isolation, but as an enabler to interoperability: the ability to collaborate within the countries and across borders by making it easier for computer systems to exchange data. The intensified focus enables re-users to extract the value of the data and create new products and services and realize their benefits.
From publishing to enabling re-use: harnessing the impact created
Generating positive impact on society and the economy by publishing open data has always been the ultimate objective of the wide multi-year effort across Europe. Measuring impact is a complex task and there still is no shared understanding of how to do it best. Many European countries are successfully performing activities to understand and capture the extent to which open data is re-used and how value is created, by engaging with communities of re-users. The European Commission plans to build on that, by developing a shared impact framework over the upcoming years.
The diagram below shows how the assessment scored the countries’ open data maturity, identifying four indicative categories, from the top performers: “Trend-setters” down to the “Beginners”.
“The clear peak in open data maturity performance highlights the efforts of European countries towards more citizen-centric approaches in their open data practices.” said Laura van Knippenberg, Consultant at Capgemini Invent and lead researcher and author of the report. “By engaging with communities of open data re-users, Europe will develop a better understanding of the significant impact that can be achieved.”
“After many years dedicated to developing open data in Europe, it is with great satisfaction that we observe the Member States achieving such heights, also with timely responses to the COVID-19 emergency.” said Gianfranco Cecconi, Director at Capgemini Invent and project lead. “However, there is still plenty to do. The success of the best performing countries just motivates everyone to do more and better.”
