European Commission awards Capgemini with three year contract to continue the development of the European Data Portal.

The European Commission has awarded a three year contract to Capgemini, aiming to continue the development of its European Data Portal.

Capgemini’s subsidiary, Capgemini Consulting has been awarded the contract for an undisclosed fee. The aim of the appointment is to ensure the development of the European Data Portal continutes, alongside related data economy studies and consulting services within the EU.

The subsidiary group will lead the three year project, coordinating a number of partners and subcontracts, including Capgemini’s Technology and Engineering Services sub Sogeti.

Part of the public sector data infrastructure, the European Data Portal is an important element to ensuring the re-use of data is carried out effectively. Under the Portal are three offerings to ensure it operates efficiently. These include providing access to public data resources across Europe, through a single point of contact of the portal, offering over 800,000 data sets across 34 countries.automation

Another offering from the portal is providing Member States support, via communities of practice to improve and sustain data publishing practices. The final pillar offering to the portal is demonstrating evidence of the benefits the initiative brings, by re-using public data resources to take on better actions in the future and sustain Open Data Publishing.

Using these three pillars, the aim of the portal is to leverage these to deliver impact based on the re-use of data. Additionally, the aim is to educate and train businesses to effectively use the open data portal for the highest impact.

“The European Data Portal is uniquely positioned in setting the standard and supporting European countries to close the gap and reach higher levels of Open Data Maturity,” Dinand Tinholt, Vice-President and European Institutions Lead at Capgemini Consulting, said.  “This strategic win strengthens Capgemini’s position in making the data economy a reality, in providing both support and a perspective on what we can expect from the integration of a growing number of data sources.”

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Aside from the initial objective to deliver improvements to the European Data Portal, the agreement between the European Commission and Capgemini will also include the measurement of Open Data maturity in Europe. This will assess the market value in light of the current and planned developments. Support will be provided to countries where specific attention is needed to improve discovery of data and improving data portals to re-use data effectively.

Wendy Carrara, Capgemini’s Principal Consultant managing the European Data Portal for the European Commission, added: “Member States understand the benefits of walking the Open Data journey together, and have embraced Capgemini as a trusted companion to live the data adventure side by side. We look forward to continuing to work with them over the coming years.”