However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments suspended travels, and we had to adjust to his “new normal” in the COVID-era.

Luckily, many telco solutions were available to us – from WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and countless other platforms.

Although technology helped us stay in touch, we all missed the genuine, human connections during these meetings. Nonetheless, our first meeting was a success.

First day

We started with the meeting agenda presentation led by our colleagues from Unisystems. After that, every consortium member got the chance to introduce their team and their envisioned role in the project. It was, once again, an excellent display of European values as we were listening to colleagues from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, and Malta introduce themselves and their organisations.

Colleagues from the University of Macedonia then shared more information about the inGOV project in general. That was followed by a presentation from a representative of the European Commission regarding the policy context and expected project management considerations.

After a coffee break (virtual and real, at our own offices), we were able to learn more about our pilots. Representatives from MITA (Malta), Region of Thessaly (Greece), City of Bjelovar (Croatia), and Land Niederösterreich (Austria) shared their pilot cases.

Pilots play a crucial role in our project as they are testing and proving grounds for several approaches, methodologies, and technologies developed as a part of the inGOV project.

Following pilot cases presentation, partners from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven introduced us to our first work packages and subdivision of tasks and partners involved.

Ethics is one of the critical elements of our inGOV project. After the KUL presentation, colleagues from Unisystems introduced us to this important topic. Since we involve different stakeholders in our project, it was crucial to understanding how to address ethics considerations, especially within the GDPR context and data processing.

We ended our first day with an open discussion and were excited about the next day.

Second day

Our second day followed the established pattern – first, there was an introduction to our second-day agenda by Unisystems.

We were then introduced to other work packages. Colleagues from Deloitte talked about WP2 dealing with building a holistic framework for integrated public services. Our KUL colleagues then moderated the discussion about common definitions and needs identification for this framework.

Our third work package deals with ICT architecture and tools, and our UBITECH colleagues, as WP3 leaders, shared detailed views and expectations related to this work package.

Colleagues from Austria (DUK) were in charge of our fifth work package dealing with sustainability and policy recommendations. They presented their understanding of this work package, tasks and a preliminary roadmap, and its objectives.

Dissemination and exploitation of our project results and impact were major topics of our sixth work package. Colleagues from Unisystems provided us with their view of this work package and associated tasks and activities.

And to round up our work package presentations, the same colleagues explained project management processes and approaches in our seventh work package.

We ended our second day with an open discussion. Many questions and a lot of enthusiasm, and a positive atmosphere provided a nice conclusion of this meeting.

Until we meet again, be sure to stay in touch with us!