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1.

Artificial intelligence masters’ programs [er] : an analysis of curricula building blocks. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2021.

Summary

This report identifies building blocks of master programs on Artificial Intelligence (AI), on the basis of the existing programs available in the European Union. These building blocks provide a first analysis that requires acceptance and sharing by the AI community. The proposal analyses first, the knowledge contents, and second, the educational competences declared as the learning outcomes, of 45 post-graduate academic masters’ programs related with AI from universities in 13 European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden in the EU; plus Switzerland and the United Kingdom). As a closely related and relevant part of Informatics and Computer Science, major AI-related curricula on data science have been also taken into consideration for the analysis. The definition of a specific AI curriculum besides data science curricula is motivated by the necessity of a deeper understanding of topics and skills of the former that build up the foundations of strong AI versus narrow AI, which is the general focus of the latter. The body of knowledge with the proposed building blocks for AI consists of a number of knowledge areas, which are classified as Essential, Core, General and Applied. First, the AI Essentials cover topics and competences from foundational disciplines that are fundamental to AI. Second, topics and competences showing a close interrelationship and specific of AI are classified in a set of AI Core domain-specific areas, plus one AI General area for non-domain-specific knowledge. Third, AI Applied areas are built on top of topics and competences required to develop AI applications and services under a more philosophical and ethical perspective. All the knowledge areas are refined into knowledge units and topics for the analysis. As the result of studying core AI knowledge topics from the master programs sample, machine learning is observed to prevail, followed in order by: computer vision; human-computer interaction; knowledge representation and reasoning; natural language processing; planning, search and optimisation; and robotics and intelligent automation. A significant number of master programs analysed are significantly focused on machine learning topics, despite being initially classified in another domain. It is noteworthy that machine learning topics, along with selected topics on knowledge representation, depict a high degree of commonality in AI and data science programs. Finally, the competence-based analysis of the sample master programs’ learning outcomes, based on Bloom’s cognitive levels, outputs that understanding and creating cognitive levels are dominant. Besides, analysing and evaluating are the most scarce cognitive levels. Another relevant outcome is that master programs on AI under the disciplinary lenses of engineering studies show a notable scarcity of competences related with informatics or computing, which are fundamental to AI.

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2.

Proceedings of the 2021 conference on Big Data from Space [er] : 18-20 May 2021. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2021.

Summary

The BiDS conference series is co-organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, and the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen). BiDS’21 emphasises not only on the insights that can be retrieved from Big Data from Space but also on the exploitation of these insights for foresight to improve our capacity to detect trends and model future evolution. This capacity is becoming increasingly important given the pace at which our World is changing. This is exemplified and reflected by the EU Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative and the related digital twin of the Earth. The objective of DestinE is to develop a very high precision digital model of the Earth to monitor and simulate natural and human activity, and to develop and test scenarios that would enable more sustainable development and support European environmental policies. The provision of more reliable scenarios of future evolution under different boundary conditions requires us to improve our understanding of Earth’s dynamic systems besides their monitoring. Similarly to past editions of this conference, the 2021 edition provides a snapshot of the different research and innovation developments in the field of Big Data from Space including technical aspects and applications. These proceedings contain the papers presented at the on-line BiDS’21 conference held on May 18-20 as an on-line conference.

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3.

POINT review of industrial transition of Bulgaria [er] : harnessing digitalisation to link and strengthen the ICT and mechatronics sectors. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2021.

Summary

This report documents the findings of a review of industrial transition of Bulgaria launched in 2019 in partnership with the Bulgarian Council of Ministers, which follows the POINT (Projecting Opportunities for INdustrial Transitions) methodology of the JRC. The review explores some of the policy pathways that Bulgaria might take as it seeks to digitalise its economy and derive multiple associated benefits in terms of pervasive productivity improvements and the creation of knowledge-intensive and therefore well-paid jobs for a broad cross section of the workforce. The Bulgarian information and communication technologies (ICT) sector has been on a meteoric growth trajectory over the past decade fuelled by the export of software solutions. However, ICT is still insufficiently connected to other sectors nationally and faces important skills bottlenecks. An important premise of this exercise is that the emerging strengths of the domestic ICT sector can contribute to the digitalisation of manufacturing and in particular of the mechatronics sector. This is because the needs of one sector closely correspond to the abilities of the other. Bulgaria has production strengths in both ICT and mechatronics dating back to the 1980s, which provides the necessary depth of the system for transformation. Based on extensive research, consultations with key stakeholders, and drawing from international experience the review makes a number of suggestions for improvement in long-term policy orientation, coordination and implementation. Importantly, there are significant gaps in the education and training systems that prevent systematic investments in human capital. Recent cluster initiatives by the ICT and mechatronics sectors and a proliferation of start-ups in both sectors are encouraging signs but will require considerable additional support to further develop and deliver broad-based benefits for the Bulgarian economy and society. The European Green Deal and the EU Recovery Fund offer a unique opportunity to address the gaps in the system and enable long-term transformation. In the medium term, there are considerable opportunities for further growth by nurturing greater domestic ICT use, including by government. A government-orchestrated effort to strengthen the linkages between ICT and mechatronics could help develop world-class production capabilities and also create a platform for wider digitalisation in other areas such as clean technologies, telemedicine and tele-education. For this effort to be successful, policy makers should consider actions that: Elevate human capital investment into a major national goal; Ensure sufficient public investments and encourage business investment on digital innovation, worker training, and upgrading of productive capabilities; Use the occasion of the digital transition to revamp rules and the structure of information flows, in order to improve governance and enable whole-of-government mobilisation; Strengthen and extend mechanisms that allow for coordination and collaboration with the business sector, ensure that policies leverage private investment and facilitate a continuous dialog that informs government policies.

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4.

An open-source solution for encoding and decoding IEC 63047:2018 data [er] : user manual for an IEC 63047 codec. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2021.

Summary

IEC 63047 is a standard specifying the format of list-mode data acquired by nuclear data acquisition instruments. For performance reasons, it is a binary format. It is defined using the internationally standardised syntax notation ASN.1, for which commercially available and open-source compilers exist that convert the ASN.1 definition of IEC 63047 into software code to encode (write) and decode (read) IEC 63047 data. This report provides an open-source solution, built on the open-source code asn1c from GitHub, and includes demo source code developed by the JRC. The report is aimed at developers of software who need to write or read IEC 63047 data. The demo code uses a limited number of IEC 63047 data types and is intended to serve as a basis for developing more elaborate code for the user's specific application.

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5.

Opening new horizons [er] : how to migrate the Copernicus global land service to a cloud environment. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2021.

Summary

The Copernicus programme – the EU flagship on Earth Observation – routinely provides a variety of exiting new user-oriented products that constantly improve the monitoring of our planetary environment, its climate and the anthropogenic use and impact on it. Over the last decade this resulted in an incrementally growing amount of data and products. The Global Land component of the Land service has been generating many such core variables at global scale and with high time frequency. Product specific and rather unharmonized processing chains were used so far. Building on this experience, we know that combining and integrating production chains into an overarching architecture can lead not only to more harmonized, time and cost-efficient product generation, but also to an improved and integrated use of such data and products. This consequently facilitates the conversion of space-based Earth Observation information into actionable knowledge for a better response to the complex global change processes we are currently dealing with. Technological advances happen quick and now with cloud infrastructures we have the unprecedented means to make such deep integration possible. However, transforming an established operational setup, such as was developed and used for the Global Land Service over the years, to another completely new and technological challenging cloud computing environment is not a trivial job. Especially considering that many production chains need to be decomposed into modular bits and pieces which then have to be newly forged into a smooth and fully integrated machinery to provide the user with a transparent, yet integrated, set of tools. The scope of this report is to tackle exactly this: providing clear suggestions for an efficient ‘cloudification’ of the Copernicus global land production lines and user interfaces, and investigating if there is a tangible benefit and what would be the effort involved.

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6.

Advances in reliability, risk and safety analysis with big data [er] : proceedings of the 57th ESReDA seminar, hosted by the Technical University of Valencia, 23-24 October, 2019, Valencia, Spain. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

The 57th Seminar organized by ESReDA took place in the very beautiful city of Valencia, Spain. We were very kindly received by the Polytechnic University of Valencia/Universitat Politècnica de Valencia. The Seminar was jointly organized by ESReDA and CMT Motores Termicos, a research unit at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. A sincere thanks is due to Professor Bernardo Tormos for the way he received us and allowed the Seminar to precede according to our best expectations. In accordance with the theme proposed for the Seminar, communications were presented that made it possible to discuss and better understand the role of the latest big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies in the development of reliability, risk and safety analyses for industrial systems. The world is moving fast towards wide applications of big data techniques and artificial intelligence is considered to be the future of our societies. Rapid development of 5G telecommunications infrastructure would only speed up deployment of big data analytic tools. However, despite the recent advances in the these fields, there is still a long way to go for integrated applications of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence tools in business practice.

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7.

Enhancing safety [er] : the challenge of foresight : ESReDA project group foresight in safety. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

This report is the result of a joint effort by experts, working in the fields of risk management, accident analysis, learning from experience and safety management. They come from 10 countries, mainly from Europe but also from the USA and Australia. Their expertise covers several industrial sectors. The report aims to provide useful information, from both theoretical and practical viewpoints, about “Foresight in Safety”, based on current practices and the state of scientific knowledge.

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8.

Enhancing safety : the challenge of foresight : ESReDA project group foresight in safety. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

This report is the result of a joint effort by experts, working in the fields of risk management, accident analysis, learning from experience and safety management. They come from 10 countries, mainly from Europe but also from the USA and Australia. Their expertise covers several industrial sectors. The report aims to provide useful information, from both theoretical and practical viewpoints, about “Foresight in Safety”, based on current practices and the state of scientific knowledge.

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9.

AI watch, historical evolution of artificial intelligence [er] : analysis of the three main paradigm shifts in AI. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

Artificial intelligence (AI) can have a major impact on the way modern societies respond to the hard challenges they face. Properly harnessed, AI can create a more fair, healthy, and inclusive society. Today, AI has become a mature technology and an increasingly important part of the modern life fabric. AI is already deployed in different application domains, e.g. recommendation systems, spam filters, image recognition, voice recognition, virtual assistants, etc. It spans across many sectors, from medicine to transportation, and across decades, since the term was introduced in the 1950s. The approaches also evolved, from the foundational AI algorithms of the 1950s, to the paradigm shift in symbolic algorithms and expert system development in the 1970s, the introduction of machine learning in the 1990s and the deep learning algorithms of the 2010s. Starting with the fundamental definitions and building on the historical context, this report summarizes the evolution of AI, it introduces the “seasons” of AI development (i.e. winters for the decline and springs for the growth), describes the current rise of interest in AI, and concludes with the uncertainty on the future of AI, with chances of another AI winter or of an even greater AI spring.

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10.

Productivity drivers [er] : empirical evidence on the role of digital capital, FDI and integration. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

There are marked differences in productivity dynamics between countries as well as industries, often leading to substantial performance gaps, such as the gap in labour productivity between the EU and the US. In this article, we use the 2019 release of the EU KLEMS database to look into the drivers of productivity. In particular, we analyse how different types of capital (including intangible capital), foreign direct investment, integration into global value chains and EU integration affect labour productivity. Key findings are that intangible Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capital is a strong driver of productivity both at sectoral and aggregate levels, even more so than tangible ICT capital. Furthermore, backward global value chain integration and EU integration are positively associated with labour productivity. Contrary to expectations, we do not find evidence of a productivity-enhancing effect of foreign direct investment. Finally, we estimate by how much the productivity gap between the EU and the US could be reduced through different ICT investment policies.

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11.

European Union location framework blueprint [er]. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

Location data is fundamental to digital public services and the wider economy, delivering value in combination with other data, and supporting innovation through ‘location intelligence’. In this context, there is a need for interoperability supporting these services across Europe, and an important role for both government-authorised core location data and sector-specific location data. The European Union Location Framework (EULF) project, which was part of the Interoperability Solutions for Public Administrations (ISA) programme took action to tackle these challenges. The EULF vision is to create and promote a coherent European framework of guidance and actions to foster cross-sector and cross-border interoperability and use of location information in digital public services, building on national SDIs and INSPIRE4, and resulting in more effective services, savings in time and money, and contributions to increased growth. The EULF Blueprint is a guidance framework for a wide audience to implement the EULF vision. It is based on an extensive EU survey and consultation with stakeholders and therefore embodies a wide range of views and experience. The EULF Blueprint has been updated periodically to keep pace with developments. This updated version (v4) has been produced by the European Location Interoperability Solutions for e-Government (ELISE) project, which is part of the ISA2 programme. The principles and good practices will be increasingly relevant as the EU progresses to the next stages of its digital and data strategies. The document is aimed at six types of readers: Policy Maker; Digital Public Service Owner, Manager or Implementer; ICT Manager, Architect or Developer; Data Manager or Data Scientist; Public Sector Location Data Provider; and Private Sector Product or Service Provider

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12.

A multi-dimensional framework to evaluate the innovation potential of digital public services [er] : a step towards building an innovative public services observatory in the EU. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

Nowhere like in the European Union is digital transformation playing a decisive role in the present and future evolution of our economy and society. 5 years before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the intuition that connecting people, communities, businesses and governments by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) would help create and reinforce a supranational sociocultural system and therefore strengthen the feeling of European identity was already evident in the European Commission priorities. A digital single market for online transactions would constitute an invaluable opportunity for new and existing enterprises to grow and boost the generation of more numerous quality jobs. Citizens could and should be empowered in their capacity and skills to take full benefit of the Information Society, including by seamless access to news and social media on their mobile and smart devices, irrelevant of the country of residence. Government bodies at all levels (from local to regional and national) in all Member States were and are asked to digitalise existing public services and create new, natively online, facilities to increase their perceived quality, openness, diffusion and acceptance. In addition to interoperability and user centricity, a peculiar metric adopted since long in the EU eGovernment benchmark is “cross-border service delivery”, which again clearly points at a future where location will no longer be determinant for the exercise of citizens’ rights. Indeed, in a well-functioning digitally transformed economy and society, public services at all levels need to be able to ‘follow’ their users’ needs across administrative entities, policy sectors and country borders. More generally, digital transformation of the public sector is as important for renewing its relationship with economic and societal players as it is for the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of internal policy, governance and service delivery processes. However, recent research conducted at the JRC (Misuraca, Ed., 2019) shows that a big gap still exists between expectations and achievements. Not by chance, digitalisation remains a cornerstone of the new European Commission’s 5-year strategy, which the Covid-19 global crisis has only added more reasons to. In this context, further support needs to be given to the widespread adoption and implementation of digital solutions in the local, regional and national Public Administration.

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13.

Exploring digital government transformation in the EU [er] : expert consultation and stakeholder engagement. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

In 2018, the JRC launched the research project ‘Exploring Digital Government Transformation in the EU: understanding public sector innovation in a data-driven society’, referred to in brief as DigiGov. The key objective of the project was to explore how innovation in the public sector, enabled by information and communication technologies (ICTs), can transform governance systems, enabling governments to better address systemic problems. The research was designed to consider governmental transformation in relation to emerging predictive and cognitive technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), in combination with applications providing geospatial/location data, for policy design and service delivery. The research aimed to support the implementation of JRC research in the area of digital government, as part of its flagship project on Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence (DT&AI), and within the framework of the ELISE Action of the ISA2 Programme, jointly led by the JRC and DIGIT. The DigiGov research was directed by the JRC and implemented by a consortium consisting of PPMI, Open Evidence, Politecnico di Milano, Rand Europe and Martel Innovate. The team analysed the state of the art, developed a conceptual framework and carried out four case studies, which included empirical experiments. The study included an extensive consultation and validation process which drew on three workshops as well as online community engagement activities. The participants included experts, academics, practitioners and representatives of NGOs, as well as policy makers from governments, EU institutions and international organisations. In total, almost 100 experts and stakeholder representatives, as well as EC colleagues, engaged in study-related events and activities. They carried out peer reviews, contributed to discussions and provided feedback that informed the research process. More specifically, three events were organised as a core part of the DigiGov research, to discuss the key findings of the study and gain insights for further work and policy implications: - The first workshop was held at JRC Ispra, Italy on 13-14 May 2019. It focused on discussing the review of the state of the art and the first draft of the conceptual framework for the study. - The second event consisted of a Policy Lab, and took place at JRC Seville on 24-25 October 2019. It focused on co-designing the revised version of the conceptual framework, and validating the findings of the four experimental case studies. - The final workshop took place on 9 July 2020. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions, the event was organised online. The workshop discussed avenues for shaping Digital Government Transformation in the EU, and included a foresight discussion to imagine the future of digitally enabled governments. Over the forthcoming sections, we present the key insights that emerged from the workshops. In the final section, we bring together the most prominent ideas, including some of those that originated from the debate on the role of the EU in the light of different digital transformation scenarios.

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14.

The 2020 PREDICT [er] : key facts report : an analysis of ICT R&D in the EU and beyond. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

The 2020 PREDICT Key Facts Report provides a detailed analysis of the state of ICT R&D activities in the EU28 and 12 further economies worldwide. This is the 13th edition of a series that is published annually. Like the previous editions, an online version is available at: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/predict. The report covers the period between 1995 and 2017, providing a long-term analysis of the European Union (EU) ICT sector and its R&D, covering a whole cycle from the initial expansion years, to the double recession that began in early 2008, and the most recent evolution up to 2017. Whenever possible, the report includes nowcasted data for 2018 and 2019. The statistical information provided by the figures allows the comparison between: the ICT sector and the total economy; the ICT manufacturing sector and the ICT services sector; the four ICT manufacturing sectors, two ICT services sectors, and MC and RS sectors; EU countries; the EU and the international context (including the most relevant countries in the world economy). The report focuses especially on the ICT R&D macroeconomic dynamics.

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15.

Practical guidelines on open education for academics [er] : modernising higher education via open educational practices (based on the OpenEdu Framework). European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2019.

Summary

These guidelines are for the academic staﬀ of higher education institutions, with the goal of helping them move towards the use of open educational practices (OEP) in order to widen participation in education. The guidelines are meant to provide an understanding of each of the ten dimensions of open education based on the OpenEdu Framework (JRC, 2016), and to show how academics can start using OEP to prompt inclusion and innovation as important values, starting from their day-to-day activities such as teaching, knowledge creation and research.

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16.

Capital dynamics, global value chains, competitiveness and barriers to FDI and capital accumulation in the EU [er]. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

The study analyses the relationships between capital dynamics, productivity, global value chains and foreign direct investment using panel data techniques. Among other results, we confirm the high importance of tangible and intangible ICT capital for productivity and GVC integration. We examine the extent of underinvestment in ICT in the EU relative to other major economies and identify bottlenecks for efficient capital allocation. The sluggish economic performance of the EU in the post-crisis period has been further challenged by the COVID-19 outbreak. Consolidating policy efforts to facilitate ICT investment, tackling the barriers to ICT adoption and broad-based digitalisation are critical for the EU in order to maintain a competitive edge and unlock new growth opportunities in the new normal.

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17.

Estimating net migration at high spatial resolution [er]. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

This technical report presents new estimates of net migration at high spatial resolution produced by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) – Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography (KCMD). The development of new net migration data is the first step of a broader JRC project aimed at analysing the relation between climate change, population distribution and related migration. The report uses demographic indirect estimation techniques based on population data from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to estimate five-year net migration from 1975 to 2015 at a spatial resolution of about 25 km. Notably, the recent definition of Degrees of Urbanization proposed by the European Commission and developed by the JRC is applied to distinguish net migration in urban and rural areas. Findings from the new datasets constitute the basis for further analyses on the relation between climate change and migration. Two validation exercises of the new database are performed. First, when net migration estimates are aggregated from 25 km resolution to the country-level, a positive correlation with country net migration estimates from UN DESA is observed. Second, when focusing on Europe, the new estimates are coherent with Eurostat net migration figures at subnational (NUTS3) level.

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18.

Estimating net migration at high spatial resolution. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

This technical report presents new estimates of net migration at high spatial resolution produced by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) – Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography (KCMD). The development of new net migration data is the first step of a broader JRC project aimed at analysing the relation between climate change, population distribution and related migration. The report uses demographic indirect estimation techniques based on population data from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) to estimate five-year net migration from 1975 to 2015 at a spatial resolution of about 25 km. Notably, the recent definition of Degrees of Urbanization proposed by the European Commission and developed by the JRC is applied to distinguish net migration in urban and rural areas. Findings from the new datasets constitute the basis for further analyses on the relation between climate change and migration. Two validation exercises of the new database are performed. First, when net migration estimates are aggregated from 25 km resolution to the country-level, a positive correlation with country net migration estimates from UN DESA is observed. Second, when focusing on Europe, the new estimates are coherent with Eurostat net migration figures at subnational (NUTS3) level.

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19.

Improving use of location information in e-government processes [er] : methodology and use case : European Union location framework. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2020.

Summary

Many e-government public services and underlying processes use location information but the use of this information is not always optimal, inhibiting both efficiency and effectiveness. This report describes a two-step methodology for analysing and improving how location information is used in e-government processes, together with an approach for estimating the impact of location enablement on the performance of e-Government processes. The use of the methodology is illustrated by examining an existing use case: the Traffic Safety Monitoring process in Flanders. The process and the current and potential integration of location information are described in detail, as well as the potential improvements, the potential impact of further spatially enabling the process and a series of recommendations. This document is one of a series of guidance documents associated with the European Union Location Framework (EULF) Blueprint. It should be read in conjunction with the companion guidance document “EULF Design of Location-Enabled e-Government Services”

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20.

Web Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) [er] : general-purpose standards, terms and European Commission initiatives. European Commission. Joint Research Centre.

Publication

Luxembourg : Publications Office, 2019.

Summary

From their inception, digital technologies have had a huge impact on our society. In both the private and the public sectors, they have contributed to, or at times driven, change in organisational structures, ways of working, and how products and services are shaped and shared. Governments and public administration units, driven by the digital evolution of information and communications technology (ICT), are evolving from traditional workflow-based public service provisions to digital equivalents, with more innovative forms of government and administration looking for the engagement of citizens and the private sector to co-create final services through user-centric approaches. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have contributed to this notable shift in the adoption of technology, especially when used over the web. They have affected the global economy of the private sector and are contributing to the digital transformation of governments. To explore this in more detail, the European Commission recently started the APIs4DGov study. One of the outputs of the study is an analysis of the API technological landscape, including its related standards and technical specifications for general purpose use. The goal of the analysis presented in this brief report is to support the definition of stable APIs for digital government services adopted by governments or single public administration units. Such adoption would avoid the need to develop ad hoc solutions that could have limited scalability or potential for reuse. Instead, the work suggests that we should consider a number of existing standards provided by standardisation bodies or, at least, technical specifications written by well-recognised consortia, vendors or users. The aim of this report is also to support API stakeholders in the identification and selection of such solutions. To do this, it first gives a series of definitions to help the reader understand some basic concepts, as well as related standards and technical specifications. Then, it presents the description and classification (by resource representation, security, usability, test, performance and licence) of the standards and technical specifications collected. A shortlist of these documents (based on their utilisation, maintenance and stability) is also proposed, together with a brief description of each of them. Also, a set of API related European Commission initiatives is presented. Finally, the report provides a useful glossary with definitions of the relevant terms collected within the APIs4DGov study.

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