SENSE4US

Dear readers,

Welcome to the first issue of the Sense4us Newsletter!

Sense4us project aims to help policy-makers and officials to improve public policy making at all levels.

Launched in October 2013, this 3-year EU co-funded project will create two tools: one that will find and summarize information from various sources including open data, data coming from official sources and citizen-generated data, highlighting what is relevant. The second will try to simulate the impacts of different policy options before they are adopted.

In this first issue of our newsletter, you will have the opportunity to read all project updates, upcoming events, news related to Sense4us as well as interesting publications.

If you have any comments or suggestions, we will be more than glad to receive them, so please feel free to contact us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Discover more about the project and its related activities with our newsletter!

Enjoy the reading!

The Sense4us Dissemination and Communication Team

Kick off meeting, 13-15 November 2013

Sense4us project was launched in October 2013 and its Kick Off meeting took place on November 13th – 15th 2013 in Stockholm. It was a fruitful meeting where the consortium of the seven participating partners presented the work to be done per Work package and decided how the project will proceed during the three upcoming years.

Sense4us website: the online informational tool of the project

The website of the Sense4us project serves as the major informative and dissemination tool that includes the entire project related information. You may find a lot of interesting news and upcoming events, as well as links to other initiatives. You can register to the project newsletter, staying always fully abreast of project developments!

Join the newsletter

Find Sense4us in the Social Media

Sense4us social media profiles gain greater visibility of the project, attract more followers every day and achieve further engagement of users interested in the project and its objectives.

You can:

Like Sense4us	Follow Sense4us	Connect with Sense4us

Sense4us launched its 1st Press Release

On December 3rd 2013, Sense4us project published its first Press Release, announcing the launch of the project, its objectives, expected outcomes and partners involved. You can view the full press release here.

Sense4us promotional material

Sense4us created its first dissemination materials that present and provide information about the project. Click on the links below to view on our website:

• Project brochure
• Project poster
• Project factsheet

Sense4us presented at the ePolicy project meeting

Sense4us is striving to liaise and network with other EU-funded projects and initiatives that focus on the same thematic area. In this effort, we presented our project at the ePolicy’s project meeting on 27 January 2013 and discussed possible ways of collaboration, knowledge exchange and sustainability beyond the projects’ lifetime.

Sense4us at the Semantic Interoperability Conference 2014

Sense4us project partner Gov2u will be participating at the Semantic Interoperability Conference – SEMIC 2014 that will be taking place in Athens Greece on April the 9th, 2014. This conference offers a unique opportunity to explore how Public Administrations can use semantic technologies to make information exchange efficient and effective, allowing them to operate at lower costs and provide better services. This is an excellent opportunity for Sense4us to gain more visibility and share its goals and upcoming developments with other organizations from Europe.

Parliamentarians call for more legitimacy in economic policy-making in the EU

European deputies and their colleagues from national parliaments met at the European Parliamentary conference from 20 to 22 January in Brussels to mark the beginning of the annual EU national fiscal policy coordination cycle. Parliamentarians want to ensure that measures aimed at reining in budget deficits and public debt take into account how the measures will affected people. They also pointed out that austerity programmes for bail-out countries currently lack democratic legitimacy.

ICT analytic tools for policy modelling reshapes public consultations

Providing policy makers and the public with user friendly tools for analysing the impact of proposed policy changes can enhance the quality of public consultations, writes an expert. Public consultations are a regulatory process to engage the public in policy making processes. Policy makers are seeking innovative methods to collect and analyse public opinions, and ensure they are reflected in policy changes or new propositions.

Linked Open Data: The Essentials

This is a quick start guide for decision makers who need to quickly get up to speed with the Linked Open Data (LOD) concept, and who want to make their organization a part of this movement.

You can download it from the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) website here.

Open Data Charter

Charter on open data signed by G8 leaders to promote transparency, innovation and accountability. View and download at the Gov.uk website.

Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice

This book lays a strong conceptual foundation to understanding the rationales of and limitations to public policy. It gives practical advice about how to do policy analysis while demonstrating the application of advanced analytical techniques through case study examples.

Buy it on Amazon