BDTI achievements, resources and other public sector projects to keep up with

Throughout its implementation, BDTI has enabled public administrations to experiment with big data technologies, fostering greater efficiency, transparency, and innovation. Several pilot projects have demonstrated the practical applications of data analytics in different policy areas. 

Key achievements of the BDTI project   

One of the early pilots focused on labour market insights, where a big data platform helped statistical offices analyse online job vacancies using real-time data collected through RLMI. This provided a clearer picture of EU countries' labour market trends and employment dynamics. 

Several pilots explored data in urban mobility and transport planning to analyse traffic patterns and improve public transport services. Projects in Milan, Florence, Dublin, and Turku showed how mobility data can uncover insights that support sustainable urban mobility policy. A pilot in Arezzo, Italy, applied data analytics to assess road safety, aiming to reduce accidents and improve traffic management. 

In Bochum, Germany, the Smart City Unit developed a machine learning model to monitor and predict the health of certain trees, contributing to better environmental management. The Municipality of Casola Miglierina applied data analytics to optimise renewable energy production by examining energy consumption patterns, supporting the transition to more sustainable energy solutions. 

BDTI also supported efforts to enhance public procurement data analysis. In Norway, a pilot with the public management agency Difi created a data lake using procurement data from PEPPOL (Pan-European Public Procurement Online). Authorities used it to detect inefficiencies and gain insights to improve procurement processes. A similar initiative involving a collaboration between Italy, Portugal, and Norway explored scalable analytics for eProcurement, demonstrating how data can improve transparency and efficiency in public sector spending. 

 During the COVID-19 pandemic, BDTI was used in several pilots to support crisis management and healthcare initiatives. The City of Valencia developed advanced data visualisation tools to help clinicians and policymakers make sense of a vast volume of scientific evidence and regulatory information on COVID-19. Milan and Florence leveraged mobility data to assess the impact of lockdown measures and inform reopening strategies. The European Blood Alliance and DG SANTE created an EU-wide platform to support research on convalescent plasma therapy.   

Other pilots focused on enhancing access to public sector information. The GRNET and University of Macedonia project in Greece transformed MITOS, a database of structured descriptions of over 3,000 public services, into Linked Open Data, improving accessibility and interoperability. Meanwhile, a pilot in Casola Valsenio, Italy, analysed population distribution and internet accessibility to inform broadband infrastructure planning. 

Open-source resources for public administrations 

Although the European Commission will no longer support pilots, most of the tools within the BDTI service offering have open-source versions to build, run and manage data projects, with a bit of technical knowledge. And some components of BDTI will be accessible through code.europa.eu. Previous BDTI pilot details, data use case tools, and templates remain accessible on the BDTI section of code.europa.eu. These open-source solutions support public sector professionals in building their use cases and ultimately create data-driven services and approaches.  

We want to draw particular attention to the workshops and webinars developed as part of the BDTI Skills Studio. These follow-along sessions are ideal for those keen to upskill and understand how to leverage data to build solutions to current challenges, and to predict and plan for future interventions. Complement these sessions with the BDTI Essentials course, which guides participants along a typical data journey following a fictional use case in the green investment sector. For each session, recordings, slides and code are available. 

Staying connected with public sector data innovation 

Although the BDTI project is ending, we hope that you continue to engage with data-driven innovation through various European Commission initiatives and resources:   

• Data.europa.eu – Europe’s open data portal shares datasets spanning sectors, data skills events, and data stories. Subscribe to the newsletter to be notified of upcoming news and events. 
• SEMIC (Semantic Interoperability Community) – A platform for sharing best practices and standards in semantic interoperability across the EU.  
• Public Sector Tech Watch – A resource for tracking emerging public sector digital transformation trends.  
• Data Spaces Support Centre – Contributes to the creation of common data spaces to enable data reuse within and across sectors. 
• SIMPL (Sharing and Integration of Public Sector Data) – An open-source, smart and secure middleware platform that supports data access and interoperability among European data spaces.  
• Publications Office of the EU -  The official provider of publishing services to all EU institutions, bodies and agencies. Keep up to date with EU Publications. 
• European Commission Library – A collection of reports, guidelines, and case studies on digital transformation in the public sector. 

As of April 2025, the BDTI website will no longer be updated. The project’s successes and milestones have been collected on the Commission’s Shaping Europe’s Digital Future website; feel free to share it with your network.