UPDATE: Project details updated during the EPSA 2025-26 edition.
Context
The local open data catalogue and the data portal of the Hradec Králové region (‘Data KHK’) is influenced by the regional development strategy, which defines the main goals and priorities of the region for the period 2021–2027. One of the key areas of the strategy is the digital transformation of the region. The project also responds to the national and European policies and initiatives that support the use of open data and data-driven innovation. These include the Digital Agenda for Europe, the European Data Strategy and the Czech Republic’s Open Government Partnership Action Plan.
Objectives
The objective of Data KHK was to establish a data portal that serves as a central information hub for both professionals and the general public. The portal provides open data sets of the Hradec Králové Region in simple and interactive graphs, which can be downloaded for further processing. Each point on the map has a detailed description, enabling citizens to understand the specific information contained in the datasets. With this initiative, the region has opened up to the public, promoting innovation in public administration, particularly among regions. The action plans and strategic documents of both the Czech Republic and the EU have been fulfilled, ensuring high-quality, innovative, digital and responsive public administration for citizens. This digital data resource enables the development of the digital economy within the region and the organisation. Therefore, citizens can monitor how public funds are managed by the public administration. This promotes financial literacy and the supervision of public finances.
Implementation
The portal is based on the Local Catalogue of Open Data (LCOD) and collects unified data from various sources, including open data sets, statistical data and region-specific data. In addition, feedback from the public is used to further improve the portal. Led by the Data Portal Implementation Coordinator, a small team of seven employees from the Department of Analysis, Management Support and Control built the portal with minimal cost of €15 841 and a short timeframe.
Developments
The Data KHK (Královéhradecký Kraj) portal with its local open data catalogue now inspires other public administration entities to implement open data portals. It has evolved from a regional open data portal into an inspiring data foundation for regions in the Czech Republic. The project has significantly progressed through gradual development. From an originally planned portal focused primarily on publishing open data, it has gradually become a tool supporting transparency, enhancing the digital skills of students and their teachers, and serving as a source of information about the Hradec Králové Region.
The portal already publishes 725 indicators in interactive charts divided into 12 thematic areas, as well as 133 open datasets. The Data KHK portal serves as a gateway to 23 regional portals and 65 map applications, and includes a strategic map of the region containing 37 current strategic documents and concepts of the Hradec Králové Region. The portal provides approximately 90 data cards related to the State of the Region Report and 17 dashboards. Nearly 27 000 unique users have visited the portal during 67 000 visits.
Over time, the role of the analytical team has been strengthened, including its responsibility for the ongoing technical development of the portal, for setting rules in the area of data governance and data quality through internal regulations of the organisation, and for establishing methodologies for data publication. The open data portal contributed to the integration of additional regional information systems such as the unified economic information system, the regional grant portal, and the data warehouse. Modern business intelligence (BI) tools were introduced for data visualisation, including advanced dashboards and 3D map visualisations.
A technological innovation linked to the Data KHK open data portal is an application using artificial intelligence, which enables users to work with large volumes of data through automatic and semantic keyword search, a conversational interface, and intelligent recommendations of regional open datasets. The solution is designed to facilitate navigation within the data catalogue not only for experts but also for less technically skilled users. A unique innovative barrier was implemented to prevent responses to irrelevant queries and to ensure that the AI operates exclusively within the context of open data and the needs of public administration.
The entire project, from its initial implementation and throughout its further development, has been delivered as an in-house solution using the region’s geoinformation system and the team of analysts – employees of the region. During further development, the potential of students was utilised through research activities in cooperation with the University of Hradec Králové. Automatic keyword search was also developed by students as part of a university project. Other activities were carried out within the framework of the Information Strategy of the Hradec Králové Region by the regional analytical team, including the sharing of good practice.
The development of the project demonstrates that systematic work with data and openness to cooperation lead to the creation of modern, innovative, efficient, and long-term sustainable tools for public administration.
Long-term impact
The Data KHK portal inspired the creation of new regional open data portals in the Czech Republic and strengthened cooperation between regions and the academic sphere. Based on the sharing of good practice by the portal’s implementers and proven data visualisation methods, regions inspire one another with new ideas and new open datasets.
Every year, the region organises hackathons together with the University of Hradec Králové for students, using the open data catalogue to design applications for citizens, now also with the use of AI in the form of VIBE coding. As part of research activities, university students developed an AI-based application for information search with a security barrier on top of the portal, which was awarded IT Project of the Year. An increasing number of regions are building on the experience of the Hradec Králové Region in organising student hackathons based on open data catalogues. A central hackathon for the winning teams was established and is organised by the Supreme Audit Office, and these hackathons received an award in 2024 in the competition, The Best E-government. The development of regional open data has supported effective cooperation between public authorities and universities, and the development of research activities.
The Data KHK portal project was included in the international OPSI case study catalogue. It became part of the OECD Annual Report 2024 among global trends in data-driven public services supporting better decision-making. The portal’s implementation team received the Civil Service Act of the Year award for its activities in open data and the sharing of good practice.
The region’s open data and the Data KHK portal were finalists in the Innovation in Politics Awards 2024, thereby joining the community of the most inspiring projects of European policymakers, and the portal was included among the 70 exemplary projects in Europe in 2024.
Adjustment in the objectives
This project has significantly evolved from publishing data to supporting decision-making, developing students’ digital skills, using AI, and especially fostering interregional and academic cooperation. Good practice has been transferred to other regions and public institutions. Based on the experience gained by the team of analysts in working with open data and other data sources, cooperation was established with the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic. Together, a functional BI analytical tool was developed, which can be used both in the preparatory and implementation phases of auditing the financial management of territorial self-governing units. The tool is currently in the phase of active testing in practice in the form of a pilot operation. Through the analytical skills gained by its team of analysts, the Hradec Králové Region has contributed to the gradual improvement of verification activities within the agendas of regional authorities. Furthermore, this analytical team prepared a demonstration version of a control dashboard in Power BI for selected contributory organisations, identifying deviations that serve as a basis for subsequent audit activities. The team of analysts also shares good practice in the area of data warehouses with other public administration entities.