EPSA 2021

EPSA 2021 – “Building a Better Europe for Citizens”

Public administrations across Europe at all levels continue to be faced in 2021 with the exceptional nature of the challenge of COVID 19 which impacts on all aspects of economic activity and public service delivery as well as impacting strongly on public sector finances and increased needs of citizens for support.

Under the overarching theme “Building a Better Europe for Citizens” EPSA 2021 aims to showcase and reward cases submitted by public administrations which have found new solutions in public service delivery and policy-making for the increasingly complex, difficult to address and often multi-dimensional challenges faced by the public sector in Europe.

EPSA 2021 – Our Achievements

EPSA 2021 Winners and Good Practice Certificates

In 2021 cycle, we received 126 applications in total. After a thorough evaluation, 18 applications were preselected to be presented to the jury. In the final stage, the three best projects in three categories – Innovation, Green and Digital – have been praised during the Award Ceremony on 29 November 2021.

In the category ‘Green’

• First prize: EnerCoach – ‘A digital energy accounting platform for municipalities to monitor energy consumption of public infrastructure’, SIGI – Syndicat Intercommunal de Gestion Informatique, Luxembourg;
• Second prize: ‘Smart infrastructure for smart public administration’, eu-LISA – European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, Estonia;
• Third prize: ‘Processing invasive alien plants into useful products and input material for industry’, The city of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Good Practice Certificate

• ‘R&I Mobility Strategy’, Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK), Austria
• ‘Renewable Energy from Wastewater – Wastewater Treatment Plants as Local Energy Cells’, Wasserverband Mürzverband, Austria
• ‘Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources in Public School Buildings in the Municipality of Serres’, Municipality of Serres, Greece
• ‘Greening of Budapest Metropolitan Area 6th district Terézváros Municipality’, Budapest Metro Area 6th Distr. Terézváros Municipality, Hungary
• ‘IRec’, Câmara Municipal de Cascais, Portugal
• ‘Green Supply Chains’, Ljubljana Tourism, Slovenia
• ‘Green Port Initiative’, Autoridad Portuaria de Málaga, Spain

In the category ‘Digital’

• First prize: ‘Vienna provides space’, The city of Vienna, Austria;
• Second prize: ‘JustizOnline’, Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice, Austria;
• Third prize: ‘Cross-border fines’, The Federal Public Service Justice, Belgium

Good Practice Certificate

• ‘Relaunch of FinanzOnline and integration of chatbot “Fred”’, FinanzOnline, Bundesministerium Finanzen, Austria
• ‘All-in 1 HR’, Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), Cyprus
• ‘rEEYplace: Automatic Processing of Substitute Teacher Needs in Public Schools’, Educational Service Commission (ESC), Cyprus
• ‘Municipality ASP 2.0 (Further development and nationwide extension of the Municipality ASP system)’, Governmental Information-Technology Development Agency (GITDA), Hungary
• ‘Digital for reconstruction grands’, Special Office for the Reconstruction of the municipalities of the “Seismic Crater” (USRC), Italy
• ‘Casemates’, Ministry of State – Central Legislation Service, Luxembourg
• ‘The Electronic Documents Archive’, Head Office of Polish State Archives, Poland
• ‘Id.gov.pt’, AMA – Administrative Modernization Agency, Portugal
• ‘Consultas Covid Extremadura’, The Government Delegation in Extremadura, Spain
• ‘The public policy planning and evaluation area’, Andalusian Institute of Public Administration, Spain
• ‘City Deal Zicht op Ondermijning’, Department of Internal Affairs in co-operation with ICTU, The Netherlands
• ‘Information-supported decision-making’, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands

In the category ‘Innovative’

• First prize: ‘LabX – experimentation laboratory for the public administration’, AMA – Administrative Modernisation Agency, Portugal;
• Second prize: ‘Government buys innovation’, NIDO, Belgium.

Good Practice Certificate

• ‘U25 – Together for young people in Vienna’, City of Vienna, Municipal Department for Social Welfare, Social and Public Health Law, Austria
• ‘Human Rights Go Local Vienna, the City of Human Rights’, Vienna City Administration, Austria
• ‘Blueprint for Artificial Intelligence adoption’, Flanders Investment & Trade, Belgium
• ‘Innovative Administration In Cyprus Prisons’, Cyprus Prisons Department, Cyprus
• ‘Stay home – the Municipality of Serres stays at work for you’, Municipality of Serres, Greece
• ‘The Innovation Laboratory’, The State Chancellery, Latvia
• ‘Raising children’s awareness of sustainable development’, The City of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• ‘Chivalry in Ljubljana: assisting citizens and improving their quality of life’, The City of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• ‘My City, My Future!’, Nilufer Municipality, Turkey

Additionally, two projects were rewarded with an honourable mention for reaction/relevance to the Covid-19 crisis:

• In the ‘Digital’ category: ‘Transparency at the service of health’, Junta de Castilla y León (Governing Council of Castile-Leon), Spain
• In the ‘Innovative’ category: ‘At a distance, but close to you’, 6th District General Directorate for Social Care and Child Protection, Romania.

We sincerely congratulate all the winners!