Projects

Indicative ongoing and recently completed projects, that EPU-NTUA implements as a coordinator or as a partner, in the area "Organisation and Management Information Systems" include the following:

• ADMIE
• e-PASITHEA
• MAOP - Accessibility
• Website of the Greek Presidency of the EU Counsil
• Public Gas Corporation – OIIS 1, 2
• ICRS
• LOT 2 Economic assistance
• PENED - Resources Management
• TC Ministry of Justice 2TC
• MEDNET
• TS - DELOS
• JSO Ukraine
• Digital Lakonia
• PLACE - PEP ΑΤΤΙΚΗΣ
• PΑVΕΤ-ΝΕ VARXIL
• Cost Benefit studies - RAPT
• BPR SGC - SGI
• Re-engineering SGC, SGI
• EPΑΝ – Risk Management
• PAVE - ERP SHEDULING

ADMIE: “Development of a state-of-the-art web portal for ADMIE”,

Ongoing, Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO or ADMIE)

Start date: 27/1/2015, Duration: 6 months

The objective of the project is to develop the official new website of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE). The new website will exploit state-of-the-art technologies in order to enhance the user experience design of the current site and thus disseminate and promote the brand, culture and outreach of ADMIE. The new design of the portal will allow further future upgrades to the portal without affecting its consistency and overall quality. The structure of the website and navigational controls will be improved, in order to facilitate information retrieval in an efficient and user-friendly manner. The first step in the implementation of the new website is to identify the user requirements starting from the vision, the objectives and the particular needs of ADMIE. The user requirements will be gathered and analyzed in order to provide concrete suggestions to ADMIE. Thereafter, the new web portal will be developed and linked with the existing systems of ADMIE. Lastly, data from the old website will be migrated to the new web portal. The development of a state-of-the-art web portal will result in promoting the ADMIE’s brand in a significantly positive manner. ADMIE’s new web portal aims to be a vital part of its business operations and not merely an information site. The professional representation of ADMIE on the Internet will improve its image as an active and highly energetic company that follows up closely any advances and adjusts its business operations according to the needs of its clients. The new web portal of ADMIE not only will disseminate and improve the image of the company but it will also offer practical and tangible benefits in terms of improving its services, including direct communication with its clients, flexible means of communication and support, business process automation and overall communication cost reduction.

e-PASITHEA: “Upgrade of the PASITHEA and e-PASITHEA Information Systems”,

Ongoing, General Secretariat of Communication, General Secretariat of Information, Greek Ministry od Mass Media Start date: 19/9/2014, Duration: 6 months

The objective of the “Upgrade of the PASITHEA and e-PASITHEA Information Systems” project is the debugging, updating and the implementation of new requirements for the PASITHEA back-office system and the e-PASITHEA front-office online system of the Secretariat General of Information & Communication/ Secretariat General of Massmedia, which have been developed by the ICCS. The expected outcomes are the implementation of the entirety of the debugging, modification and upgrading requirements, which have been recorded in the proposal, as well as to ensure the seamless, consistent and accurate operation of these Information Systems for the projects’ duration.

MAOP - Accessibility: “Transport Infrastructures and Sustainable Development 2014-2020”,

Ongoing, Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, Managing Authority of Operational Program Partners: DROMOS, PLANET

Start date: 28/2/2014, Duration: 11 months

The purpose of the project is to support the Managing Authority to collect, process and synthesise all the data required for the design of the Operational Programme “Transport Infrastructures and Sustainable Development 2014-2020”, which will be shaped based on the foreseen consultation processes, as these are mentioned in detail in the “3rd Circular for the design of the Operational Programmes of the Programming Period 2014-2020” of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness. In particular, the part of the Programme related to the Transport Sector will be elaborated, taking into account the Strategic Framework for Transport Investments, which is being drafted, and in cooperation with the Consultant of the Operational Programme “Environment and Sustainable Development”, the sector policy for the Environment and Sustainable Development, that will be provided in a complete form by the responsible Managing Authority, will be utilised.

• Preliminary Draft of the Operational Programme “Transport Infrastructures and Sustainable Development 2014-2020”.
• Draft of the Operational Programme “Transport Infrastructures and Sustainable Development 2014-2020”, as it will result after the initial consultation with the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness and the social and economic stakeholders, as well as the content of the Strategic Environmental Impact Study.
• Final Draft of the Operational Programme “Transport Infrastructures and Sustainable Development 2014-2020”, that will be submitted to the European Commission, after embodying the final comments of all the parties to the consultation, the conclusions of the ex-ante evaluation of the Operational programme and the adjustment to the approving decision of the Strategic Environmental Impact Study.

Website of the Greek Presidency of the EU Council, Completed, Hellenic Republic - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Start date: 1/11/2013, Duration: 10 months

The objective of the project is to develop the official website of the Greek Presidency of the EU Council and support its operation. A successful Presidency relies heavily on a well-designed communication strategy, a major axis of which is the function of the official website of the Presidency. The site supports the communication objectives of the Presidency and will be the main source of direct and continuous information on the presidency, both to national and international media and EU officials and the general public. At the same time, it will be an important tool for the work done by the governmental services and the Permanent Representation of Greece in Brussels. The site will consist of the following modules/subsystems:

• Users Management Subsystem
• Content Management Subsystem
• Portal
• Infrastructure Hosting subsystem
• Accreditation Subsystem

Expected outputs:

1. Improved organisational and operational framework of the Organisation

2. Improved operation and interconnection / interoperability of the Information Systems of the Organisation

3. Evaluation of scenarios and selection/implementation in collaboration with the staff of the Organisation:

         I. Framework of the Organisation uniform strategy (IT strategy)

         II. Business Intelligence System (BI) for selected executive functions of the Organisation

4. Knowhow transfer and ELGA staff training for the new organisational and operational framework of the Organisation, of the already provided electronic services and the anticipated future electronic services.

Public Gas Corporation – OIIS 1 Modeling and Development of an Optimization Integrated Information System (OIIS) for the Public Gas Corporation (PGC),

Ongoing, Public Gas Corporation (PGC). The project "Modeling and Development of an Optimization Integrated Information System (OIIS) for the Public Gas Corporation (PGC)" has as general purpose the modeling, design and development of an OIIS which will support the executives of PGC in the decision making procedure on issues such as: Natural Gas (NG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supply and demand meet in an organized and systematic manner. The OIIS to be developed under the project will create a competitive advantage for PGC as it will encompass all the parameters involved in the decision-making procedure of NG/LNG supply in the modern conditions of the liberalized market established and it will give the enterprise the possibility to make decisions that optimize as much as possible its financial results. The expected outcome of the project is an Optimization Integrated Information System (OIIS) in which the problem of decision-making on the supply of Natural Gas (NG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will be modeled as a Mixed/Integer Linear Programming problem. The implementation of such a system will support the various actions that the enterprise’s executives carry out, concerning the decision making procedure on supplies, through the following specific features provided:Possibility to execute, process and store different supply scenarios, by altering various parameters of the problem; Gradual optimization of the accuracy of the proposed by the system decisions, through the continuously update and incorporation of history data; Production of reports on the data concerning the overall process of supplies. PGC – OIIS 2 Extension of the Optimization Integrated Information System (OIIS) for the Public Gas Corporation (PGC), Ongoing, Public Gas Corporation (PGC). The objective of the project is the modeling, in terms of mixed-integer programming, and the integration in the OIIS of new commitments for DEPA, derived from newcomer regulations in the activation environment of the enterprise, that produce additional requirements related to the operational activities of the company. Additional objective is the expansion of the OIIS application with the integration of extra operational requirements, which have incurred from the trial operation of the system and the consulting to the executives of the company for their familiarization with the OIIS and for other optimization issues. The expected outcome of the project is the expansion of the OIIS’ s model, which aims to support the various business actions of the PGC’ s executives during decision making process, with the: Modeling of a virtual natural gas trading node (hub); Incorporation of an additional group of constraints related to the total supply quantities purchased through separate supply contracts in a common entry point Modeling of intra-reservoir transactions Integration of an additional group of constraints, concerning the daily tank stock and gasification quantities Inclusion of transportation cost in case of past data usage The calculation of available space in the tank, based on the regulation of Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA).

ICRS - Interconnection of European Criminal Records Systems,

Ongoing, EUROPEAN COMMISSION, HELLENIC MINSITRY OF JUSTICE. The objective of the project is the development and evaluation of alternative methods and the finding and application of the most appropriate for the adaptation of the existing Criminal Record Information System of the Hellenic Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights, in order to enable communication with the corresponding systems of other EU member states. The ICCS participates by providing scientific and research support during the entire process. The project includes the research and examination of the legal and technical framework governing the exchange of criminal record data in the EU, requirements analysis and design for the new system and the procurement of the necessary hardware and software. Furthermore, the project includes training for the relevant Ministry personnel, as well as the dissemination of the project activities and results (technical, scientific and administrative) within Greece and the EU. The project is implemented by the Hellenic Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights in collaboration with the ICCS. It is co-financed by the EU (70%) and through public funds (30%).

LOT 2 Economic assistance,

Multiple Framework Contract with reopening of competition for provision of services of economic assistance in the field of energy.

Ongoing, European Commission DG for Mobility and Transport & DG for Energy, Shared Resource Directorate. The purpose of the multiple framework contracts is to provide at short notice the contracting authority with highly qualified external expertise to support with objectivity the contracting authority in the design, preparation and implementation of EU policies and initiatives and legislative proposals. Services listed suggest a smaller range of target sectors and advice formats, which can be combined in the future contracts according to the potential needs of advice facing the European Commission and its Agencies. Potential areas of advice cover a broad range of issues including: Energy markets design and regulation, including integration of new policies into current markets Social and public aspects of energy markets, including aspects related to liberalization and competition in the internal market and technology and innovation. Development and operation of networks and infrastructures in general and corporate finance issues. Regarding the type of advice and project formats, we understand that they can be summarized as follows:

• Data gathering
• Data analysis and statistics
• Financial analysis
• Economic and regulatory research and analyses
• Cost‐Benefit analysis (CBA)
• Studies
• Design of projects
• Recommendations
• Assessments

Intelligent and Expert Resources Management Systems,

Ongoing, GSRT. The subject of the research project is the development of intelligent and expert resources management systems. In the current intensively competitive and continuously changing business environment there are many times that a new approach, except for the traditional management and the existing business structures, is necessary for the improvement of the enterprises’ performance. One important point for the accomplishment of all these is the best possible management of the enterprise’s resources. The intelligent and expert resources management systems’ target is to support completely the managers in order to optimize the resources management of the enterprise. The project results in the implementation of the following PHDs: a) Intelligent and expert resources management systems in generative systems, b) Intelligent and expert human resources management systems, c) Re-design of business procedures for the introduction of resources management systems, d) Intelligent and expert resources management systems in buildings.

Provision of Technical Consultant Services for the project ‘Installation of Information Systems and Modernisation of Administrative Courts, Completed, Ministry of Justice - Greece. Project Objectives: The goal is to provide scientific, technical and management support for the implementation of the project “Installation of Information Systems and Modernisation of Administrative Courts” by the Ministry of Justice. Specifically, the main objectives are: Successful completion of the main project (“Installation of Information Systems and Modernisation of Administrative Courts”) and continued operation of the resulting infrastructures and products by:

• Evaluating progress information through auditing
• Submission of progress reports, identifying risks and suggesting courses of action
• Advising on management practices and project planning
• Successful fulfillment of all the client’s obligations as a beneficiary of the Information Society Programme by:

1. Assisting the client in composing and submitting all necessary documents and reports
2. Offering advice on directing the main project within the framework of the Information Society Programme

MedNet - Latin American Health Care Network, Completed, European Commission, (FP7) - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

The aim of this project is to design and develop a fully automated infrastructure to support the operation of a Latin America medical network that can address the problems of providing health care from a distance to people living in rural and underserved areas. The medical network will be supported by expert physician located in urban cities of Latin America. The medical applications will be vary from gynaecology, paediatric, cardiology to typical infectious diseases for the region such as malaria and tuberculosis. The project will empower medical doctors to constantly and remotely keep track of their patients with minimum effort, assisted by an intelligent automated infrastructure. A sophisticated Collaboration Model will manage the whole service and will be aware of each patient’s medical record, providing an information channel between the medical staff, the patients and their families.

Scientific services for the technical support in monitoring the finanial/cash flow of the projects and the data related to the projects' inclusion in community funded programmes. Completed, Ministry of Environment Planning & Public Works The objective of the project is to provide specialized scientific services for the support of the information system (“DELOS”) of Public Investment Programme (PIP), for the public works that the Ministry of Environment Planning & Public Works is responsible for, along with the planning of PIP, financing of public works, the annual economic reports, etc. The information system (“DELOS”) supports the monitoring of the financing process of co-financed projects as well as projects belonging to the operational programme "Road Axes, Ports and Urban Development" (OP-RAPUD) and the Cohesion Fund. The project includes scientific and technical support tasks for the development of applications that are responsible for entering all the necessary data related to decisions regarding the integration and implementation of co-financed projects, the monitoring of financing requests as well as the consumed projects expenses.

Joint Support Office for Enhancing Ukraine’s Integration in EU Research Area, Completed, European Commission, EuropeAid. The objective of the project is to support Ukraine’s integration into the European Research Area (ERA). More specifically, the project is structured into 4 components, each of which corresponds to a specific purpose, as follows:

Study for the development of an action plan for Digital Lakonia, Completed, Prefecture of Lakonia

The project’s purpose is the scientific support of the Prefecture of Lakonia for the determination of the optimal – in a cost-benefit perspective – actions for the exploitation of modern Information and Communication Technology towards: 1) the quality of life improvement for the citizens of the Prefecture and 2) the competitiveness enhancement of the local economy. In addition, the Prefecture of Lakonia will be supported for the creation of the organizational infrastructure necessary for the effective implementation of the aforementioned actions. The expected results consist of the following: 1) Determination of the Prefecture of Lakonia’s development directions that will be supported by modern Information and Communication Technology projects. 2) Determination of the relevant actions to be realized, after the evaluation and rating of the alternative solutions. 3) Development of an action plan for the implementation of the approved actions. 4) Evaluation of the Prefecture of Lakonia’s organizational structure and technical infrastructure sufficiency for the management and implementation of the chosen projects.

Integrated Plate-forme for the Management of Labour and the exploitation of Business Intelligence in a Collaborative Business Environment, Completed General Secretariat for Research and Technology, PEP Programme, Ministry of Development, Greece The goal of this research project is the development of an innovative integrated Plateform, operating in a network environment, in order to support the process of Developing Competitive Bids.The platform will support and will be a working tool for the Market Development personnel and the bidding project team members.The goal is to contribute to:

Development of an Intelligent Software for Production Management, Sceduling and Enterprise Resource Planning for Wood-Processing SMEs, Completed Greek Secretariat of Research and Development, Ministry of Development - Greeece

The aim of this project is to design and develop an intelligent for production management, scheduling and enterprise resource planning for wood-processing SMEs, using dynamic simulation techniques..

• Component A: Raise public awareness in Ukraine on Community R&D activities and technological areas and in particular on the 7th Framework Program (FP7)
• Component B: Increase the opportunities of the Ukrainian research and business communities for integration into the European networks that support innovation and commercialisation of R&D output and optimise the existing EU instruments for international mobility to/from Ukraine
• Component C: Assist the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science (MES) in the association of the country to the FP7 and support it in the implementation of the Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology (and its successor agreement) between the EC and Ukraine
• Component D: Encourage the participation of the Ukrainian R&D institutions and SMEs in the EU programmes in the field of innovation and technology transfer and support the MES in preparing the ground for the future accession of Ukraine to the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).
• Most of the assistance will be channelled through the Joint Support Office (JSO) in Ukraine. Project activities include training of the JSO staff to prepare them to deliver partner and information services to clients and to fulfil promotional activities (information days, seminars, conferences, newsletters). The project also includes study visits of Ukrainian researchers to EU members states (including Greece). Expected results: Under Component A:
• JSO experts trained to act as trainers in workshops and equipped with the capacity and expertise to provide support to Ukrainian researchers to prepare proposals on R&D and innovation support EC programmes
• Website and database developed and fully functional
• Quarterly electronic bulletin developed and distributed
• Information days organised
• Public awareness on FP7 and its specific programmes
• Consortia for research programmes built and successful partnerships established
• FP7 proposals with Ukrainian participation developed and submitted due to enhanced support by the JSO
• Regional participation in FP7 enhanced
• Capacity building workshops delivered
• Target groups trained
• Participation of Ukrainian industry and research community in FP7 increased.
• Under Component B:
• Knowledge on the “People and Capacities” specific programmes of FP7 and on mobility opportunities increased
• Contacts with the European R&D and innovation support networks established.
• Under Component C:
• Progress in the preparation process for Ukraine’s association to FP7 as a full member
• Support to the MES within the scope of work of the Joint Community-Ukraine Committee.
• Under Component D:
• Comprehensive overview of the existing EU programmes in the field of innovation and technology transfer and of the conditions for Ukrainian SME involvement
• Comprehensive overview of needs, actions and requirements for Ukraine’s accession to the CIP
• Opportunities and procedures for Ukraine’s integration into the CIP explored
• Relevant events organized and final results delivered to the Ukrainian R&D stakeholders.

Scientific services for the implementation of cost benefit analysis studies for projects of airports and public transport for inclusion in the 4th CSF, Completed, Ministry of Transport and Communications

The main objective of the proposed project is the development of an integrated methodology for the preparation of cost – benefit studies. The proposed methodology will be based on existing regulation of the European Union in conjunction with other field studies for the determination and acquisition of the appropriate financial indexes. The methodology will be applied on various public and aerial transport projects of the Third Programming Period which are included within the Operation Programme “Railway, Airports, Public Transport” (RAPT) as well as on the new projects in the Fourth Programming Period. Furthermore, an analytical encoding of the appropriate data for the completion of the Structural Funds Major Projects Request for Confirmation of the Rate of Assistance of various transport project of the RAPT.

Study on the modernization of the Administrative-Financial Application of the General Secretariat of Communication – General Secretariat of Information, Completed General Secretariat of Communication, General Secretariat of Information, Greek Ministry od Mass Media

The purpose of the project is the conduct of a study for the definition of the requirements/needs of the General Secretariat of Communication – General Secretariat of Information in Information and Communication Technologies aiming at their coverage through the provision and parameterization of an information system that will assist in the modernization and the update of the internal processes and the provided services.

Development of an Information System of Risk Analysis and support to the auditing control of the O.P ''Competitiveness'', Completed Ministry of development, Managing Authority of the O.P ''Competitiveness''

Management and technical consultancy to the Managing Authority of the Operational Program “Competitiveness” for the program risk analysis and the auditing control. Development of a Program Risk Analysis methodology for the auditing mechanism of the Managing Authority. Identification of the Program Risks, risk estimation and evaluation for all the identified risks of the projects of the Operational Program. Development of a methodology for the choice of the projects, which should be examined by the auditing mechanism of the Managing Authority. The choice of the sample of Projects is based on risk analysis and the constraints of the Managing Authority, which arise from the available resources, as well as the national and European legislation.Design and development of an advanced Information System, which: Implements the developed risk analysis and project sampling methodology.Supports the auditing control of the Operational Program

«Development of an intelligent adaptive software for production management and scheduling with the use of dynamic simulation techniques (ERP Scheduling)"PAVE - ERP Scheduling"» Completed General Secretariat for Reasearch and Technology, Ministry of Development, Programme Pave, (Singular SA)

The main aim of the project is the development of an innovative intelligent industrial software, for the solution of the basic problem of scheduling and optimum management of production systems, which will be adapted to a wide breadth of business/enterprises. Specifically, the project includes the design and implemebntation of an innovative subsytem which will be able to be connected to the product SEn.

Indicative ongoing and recently completed projects that EPU-NTUA runs or participates in, in the area "Research in ICT", include the following:

Cloud Teams: “Collaborative Software Development Framework based on Trusted, Secure Cloud-based Pool of Users”,

Ongoing, European Commission, Η2020 Partners: FIT (Coordinator), INNO, FZI, SILO, YASAD, BOOR, NTUA

Start date: 1/5/2015, Duration: 24 months

Visit the Project site: www.cloudteams.eu

CloudTeams will be a cloud-based platform transforming software development for cloud services into a much easier, faster and targeted process, by engaging communities of users who will participate in the product life cycle to help software teams develop better solutions for customers’ problems. CloudTeams is the intersection of three important fields: crowdsourcing platforms, collaborative software development tools and trusted cloud services delivery. This innovative combination of different tools and practices under a unique concept will be enhanced with a rewarding system to enable end-users to jump into the platform and support solutions they are interested in. In addition a testing and trust framework will validate the whole process based on proper analytics and qualitative feedback by the prospective customers. The final cloud-based solutions will be validated based on the CloudTeams methodology, and thus will find the proper market fit in a more quick and efficient way.

PSYMBIOSYS: “Product-Service sYMBIOtic SYStems”,

Ongoing, European Commission, Η2020 Partners: POLITECNICO DI MILANO (Coordinator), BIBA GMBH, TXT E-SOLUTIONS SPA, FRAUNHOFER E.V, IBM ISRAEL LTD, Fincons Spa, INNOVALIA, NTEROP-VLab, AGUSTAWESTLAND SPA, NECO S.A., FTI ENGINEERING NETWORK GMBH, AIDIMA

Start date: 1/2/2015, Duration: 36 months

Visit the Project site: www.psymbiosys.eu

Product-service solutions are not a novelty for manufacturing domain, in particular for Europe. Services are becoming more and more not just an optional adjunct to products, but they are integral part of manufacturing industries’ offer. There are still 5 main obstacles which are currently preventing service innovation to be pervasively adopted by all EU manufacturing industries, SMEs included: 1) How to preserve the specific characteristics of product and services in a value chain, without creating isolated and not interconnected walled gardens? 2) How to reconcile Real World and Digital World in PLM allowing multi-directional interoperability of the digital images of the same product between design-manufacturing? 3) How to consider both professional knowledge and crowd sentiments, trying to mediate extreme product-push and market-pull positions? 4) How to create a generic conceptual and implementation framework which could identify and implement the interoperability points between SOA and EDA in PLM value chain systems? 5) How to reconcile current profitable and competitive product-oriented business models with more intangible, risky, service-oriented and Internet-based businesses? PSYMBIOSYS aims at improving the competitiveness of European Manufacturing industries by developing an innovative product-service engineering environment by addressing the 5 above points, and able to dramatically reduce the time-to-market of more attractive and sustainable product-service solutions.

ISA PWC: “Measuring mechanism for the cost and benefit of interoperability”,

Completed, European Commission, Η2020

Start date: 10/12/2014, Duration: 10 months

The scope of the project is to promote research in the context of defining a comprehensive and systematic mechanism for measuring and quantifying the benefits of Interoperability (IoP) actions. The project includes the following tasks:

• The analysis of the existing status on mechanisms for measuring the direct and indirect costs and benefits of interoperability actions, including best practices, models and methods in use in the EU and elsewhere in the world.
• The identification of the indirect benefits of interoperability (externalities) towards other domains of application (social, human, educational), in a way that covers the majority of interoperability solutions in the EU.
• Anticipated results for ICCS-NTUA include the advancement of knowledge in the scientific field of interoperability, in which the institute already possesses significant know-how, the close monitoring of relevant developments and efforts in the European Union for assessing the cost and benefits of IoP actions as well as the actual and active contribution to the development of a consistent and robust IoP benefit mechanism.

FutureEnterprise: “Road mapping, Research Coordination and Policy activities supporting Future Internet based Enterprise Innovation”,

Ongoing, European Commission, FP7 Call 10, Objective 1.3 (Digital Enterprise) Partners: National Technical University of Athens (Greece) (Coordinator); The University of Warwick (UK); Intrasoft International SA (Luxembourg); EPFL (Switzerland); European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs (Belgium)

Start date: 1/10/2013, Duration: 24 months

Visit the project site: www.futureenterprise.eu

FutureEnterprise aims at opening new avenues for Internet-based Enterprise innovation by supporting and coordinating the research activities in Future Internet from the perspective and for the benefit of enterprises on the basis of an open mentality to bridge the past (FP7) with the future (Horizon 2020). Combining a community-driven approach with Web 2.0 collaboration tools, FutureEnterprise will fully align the scope of its activities to the priorities of DG CONNECT Unit E3: Net Innovation. In FutureEnterprise, bridging research with entrepreneurship plays a pivotal role, which is driven by the consolidation of research results produced by the FP7 projects of the domain and their provision as digital innovation elements / entrepreneurship ‘seeds’. With regard to the roadmapping activities, FutureEnterprise will deliver crowdsourcing-driven, iterative and live versions of a research roadmap on new forms of Internet-based Enterprise innovation. Taking into account the transition to new EU-funded programmes, FutureEnterprise will also provide concrete recommendations toward Horizon 2020 for policy makers and the EC, treating Digital Enterprise, Web Entrepreneurship, Future Internet PPP and CAPS under a common perspective.

LinDA, “Enabling Linked Data and Analytics for SMEs by renovating public sector informations”, Completed, European Commission, FP7 Call 10, Objective 4.3 (SME initiative on analytics) Partners: DSS Lab, National Technical University Of Athens (Greece) – Coordinator; Fraunhofer FOKUS (Germany); UBITECH (Greece); University Of Bonn (Germany); Piksel (Italy); Critical Publics (United Kingdom); Hyperborea (Italy); TTNews24 (Italy)

Start date: 1/12/2013, Duration: 24 months

Visit the project site: www.linda-project.eu

The LinDA project aims to assist SMEs and data providers in renovating public sector information as well as analyzing and interlinking them with enterprise data, by providing Open Data renovation and Consumption application libraries that are based on the Linked Data paradigm but with a strong business, rather than academic, focus.The LinDA project aims to develop: a) A rule-based system for renovating and converting a wide range of supported data structures into arbitrary RDF graphs, b) A repository for accessing and sharing Linked-Data vocabularies and metadata amongst SMEs’, c) An ecosystem of Linked Data publication and consumption apps (visualization, exploration, data mining), which can be bound together in a dynamic manner, leading to new, unpredicted insights. Comprising 8 partners (4 SMEs), LinDA project will develop linked data apps that will be tested and exploited through the establishment of three pilots in the domains of Business Intelligence, Environment and News / Media.

Policy Compass

Ongoing, European Commission, FP7 Call 10, Objective 5.4 (ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling) Partners: Fraunhofer FOKUS, (Germany) –Coordinator; Brunel University (UK); ATOS S.A. (Spain); Liquid Democracy E.V. (Germany); DSS Lab, National Technical University of Athens (Greece); St. Petersburg National Research University (Russian Federation); Cambridgeshire County Council (UK)

Start date: 1/10/2013, Duration: 36 months

Visit the project site: project.policycompass.eu

The main goal of Policy Compass is to develop a research prototype of an easy-to-use, highly visual and intuitive tool for social networks and eParticipation platforms, enabling citizens and public officials to easily create, apply, share, embed, annotate and discuss causal models, charts and graphs of historical data from trusted open data sources. The aim is to develop methods and tools that facilitate more factual, evidence-based, transparent and accountable policy evaluation and analysis. The research question the Policy Compass project will address is whether and how open public data, social media, eParticipation platforms, fuzzy cognitive maps and argumentation technology can be integrated and applied to provide better tools on the World Wide Web for constructing, sharing, visualising and debating progress metrics and causal models of policies. The aim is to provide easy-to-use tools for both the lay public, on social networks, as well as professional policy makers, to improve the quality and transparency of the policy analysis and monitoring phases of the policy life-cycle.Policy Compass will make use of Europe's increasing amount of public sector open and structured data resources to develop and integrate tools for, Constructing prosperity and other policy metrics with an easy-to-use visual language for defining variables and functions over open data sources, Providing graphs and charts visualising metrics for selected geographical regions (e.g. cities or countries) and time periods, Annotating graphs and charts with political or policy events, such as the election of a new government or reduction of the tax rate, Offering to policy makers and the general public causal models with an easy-to-use visual tool for Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM), Sharing and debating prosperity graphs and FCM causal models via widgets for popular social media platforms, Summarising and visualising the debates in argument maps and conducting structured surveys about the policy issues, applying results from the European IMPACT governance and policy-modelling project, Aggregating opinions on policy issues, to formulate a common position in a party or interest group, using delegated voting via the eParticipation platform Adhocracy. By integrating these tools into an easy-to-use system, Policy Compass will make better use of Europe's open public data resources and empower policy-makers and citizens (especially the younger generation) to better assess government policies in the policy analysis and monitoring phases of the policy cycle.

OPTIMUS, “OPTIMising the energy USe in cities with smart decision support system”

Ongoing, FP7 SMARTCITIES- Objective ICT-2013.6.4 Optimising Energy Systems in Smart Cities Partners: DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens (Co-ordinator), La Salle, ICLEI Euro, TECNALIA, POLITO, D'APPOLONI, UNIGE, Comune di Savona, SENSE, Gemeente Zaanstad, Ajuntament sant cugat del valles Visit the project site: www.optimus-smartcity.eu The overall vision of the project “OPTIMising the energy USe in cities with smart decision support systems (OPTIMUS)” is the design, development and implementation of a Decision Support System (DSS) addressed to city authorities, in order to assist them to optimize the energy use in their premises and reduce CO2 emissions. OPTIMUS will provide an integrated ICT platform that will collect and structure open data from five domains (namely: weather conditions, social mining, buildings’ energy profiles, energy prices, energy production) and then it will use semantic technologies so as to integrate them and intelligent rules so as to propose energy optimization plans. The resulting web-based DSS will be validated in three different cities: Savona (Italy), Sant Cugat del Vallès (Spain) and Zaanstad (The Netherlands).

FORTISSIMO “Factories of the Future Resources, Technology, Infrastructure and Services for Simulation and Modelling”,

Ongoing, European Commission, FP7, ICT Collaborative project Partners: UEDIN, SCAPOS, BULL, GENCI, INRIA, USTUTT, SICOS, CINECA, VANCIS, SARA, XLAB, ARCTUR, CESGA, GOMPUTE, INTEL, NAG, RWTH, DSS LAB/ NTUA, IES, PIPISTREL, ERGOLINES, MIKROSAM, IMR, AIMEN, TEXAS, KEW, NOESIS, SCAI, SDI, SCILAB, NUMTECH, CERC, PRINCIPIA, SIMPOE, DISTENE, ESI, GESTAMP, AVL, POWERSYS, THET, LONZA, PRYSMIAN, VORTECH, BINKZ, SCM, ENGINSOFT, ICONCFD, KOENIGSEGG

Start: 1/7/2013

Visit the project site: www.fortissimo-project.eu

The principal objective of Fortissimo is to enable European manufacturing, particularly SMEs, to benefit from the efficiency and competitive advantage inherent in the use of simulation through the provision of simulation services running on an HPC-based cloud infrastructure. Fortissimo will make advanced simulation accessible to industrial users, particularly SMEs, through the realisation of a “one-stop shop” where hardware, expertise, applications, visualisation and tools will be easily available and affordable on a pay-per-use basis.

OPENi - Open-source, web-based, framework for integrating applications with social media serivces and personal cloudlets, Completed, European Commission, FP7 - ICT-2011.1.2 Cloud Computing, Internet of Services & Advanced Software Engineering, FP7-ICT-2011-8 Partners: Waterford Institute of Technology – (TSSG), DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS), Logica, Ambisense Ltd, Velti, Betapond.

Visit the project site: www.openi-ict.eu

OPENi will define and deliver an open-source web platform that will enable applications to access and use a broad spectrum of existing cloud-based functionality and content, consistently across different devices and platforms, in a way that enables a user-centric application experience. Targeting the needs of both application Developers and Users, OPENi will realize its vision for user-centric, cloud-connected applications by providing: To Developers: a platform-independent technology framework to build applications that can seamlessly integrate publicly available cloud-based functionality and content. To Users: the necessary cloud solutions to realize a novel application experience, by being able to keep their user generated content and data in the cloud and further make it available across different applications on different devices. To enable this OPENi will realize a series of innovations in accessing and using cloud-based functionality, binding dynamically to publicly available cloud-based APIs, sourcing and rendering cloud-based content across different device types and underlying operating systems and establishing a framework for web security and authorization in accessing cloud-based resources. OPENi will be a significant catalyzing factor, boosting EU software industry – which already counts a considerable number of highly skilled SME software firms to take further advantage of the thriving market of mobile applications, through a framework of open technologies that will be readily available and require almost no additional skill to take up.

Fitman - Future Internet Technologies for MANufacturing (FITMAN), Completed, European Commission, FP7, Future Internet PPP Programme (FI-PPP). FI.ICT-2011.1.8 Use Case Scenarios and early trials Partners: TXT e-Solutions SPA, Laboratoire Virtuel Europeen dans le Domaine de l‘Interoperabilite des Entreprises Aisbl (Interop V-lab), Portugal Telecom Inovacao SA, Engineering - Ingegneria Informatica SPA, Politecnico di Milano, Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus VTT, University of Southampton, Atos Spain SA, DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens, Asociacion de Empresas Tecnologicas Innovalia.

Visit the project site: www.fitman-fi.eu

The mission of the FITMAN (Future Internet Technologies for MANufacturing industries) project is to provide the FI PPP (Future Internet Public-Private Partnership Programme) with a set of industry-led use case trials in the Smart, Digital and Virtual Factories of the Future domains, in order to test and assess the suitability, openness and flexibility of the FI-WARE Generic Enablers, this way contributing to the social-technological-economical-environmental-political sustainability of EU Manufacturing Industries.

ENGAGE - An Infrastructure for Open, Linked Governmental Data Provision towards Research Communities and Citizens, Completed, European Commission , Infrastructures – 2011 - 2 - Combination of CP & CSA. Partners: Decision Support Systems Laboratory - National Technical University of Athens (Coordinator), Fraunhofer FOKUS, Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), University of the Aegean, TU DELFT, IBM Israel, Microsoft Innovation Center Greece, INTRASOFT International, EUROCris.

Visit the project site: www.engage-project.eu/engage/wp/

Information and Communication Technologies have an unprecedented potential to improve the responsiveness of governments to the needs of citizens and have long been recognized as a key strategic tool to enable reforms in the public sector. During the last years, this potential of ICT has started to be dealt with in a multi-disciplinary way, giving birth to new research communities dealing with governance and policy modelling, modelling and simulation of complex systems, public administration information systems, open governance and social media. However, this potential is to this day non-systematically exploited, as there are significant barriers that hinder the effective exploration, management and distribution of the vast amounts of available public sector data towards the research communities. The main goal of ENGAGE project is the deployment and use of an advanced service infrastructure, incorporating distributed and diverse public sector information resources as well as data curation, semantic annotation and visualisation tools, capable of supporting scientific collaboration and governance-related research from multi-disciplinary scientific communities, while also empowering the deployment of open governmental data towards citizens. Following on Open Data initiatives throughout Europe, ENGAGE has established links with numerous National and International public sector organisations, research communities, open data experts and standardisation fora. The project is supported by the Greek NREN and NGI node GRNET, providing the infrastructure for service provision.

IMAGINE - Innovative end-to-end Management of Dynamic Manufacturing Networks, Completed, European Commission, FP7 - Factories of the Future-ICT-2011.7.3. Partners: INTRASOFT International S.A., SOFTWARE AG, Santer REPLY S.p.A., LOGO Elektronik Ticaret Hizmetleri A.S., European Aeronautic Defence Space Company EADS France SAS, Centro Riserche FIAT S.C.p.A., AIDIMA Instituto Technologico, DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens, Scientific Academy for Service Technology e.V., UNINOVA – Instituto de Desenvolimento de Novas Tecnologias, University of Patras – Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing, The University of Warwick.

Visit the project site: www.imagine-futurefactory.eu

IMAGINE is a Research & Development project, funded by the European Commission under the “Virtual Factories and Enterprises” theme of the 7th Framework Programme (FoF-ICT-2011.7.3, Grant Agreement No: 285132). The project targets the development and delivery of a novel comprehensive methodology and the respective platform for effective end-to-end management of dynamic manufacturing networks in an innovative plug and produce approach, and aims at supporting the emergence of a powerful new production model, based on community, collaboration, self-organisation and openness rather than on hierarchy and centralised control.

Secure WebOS Application Delivery Environment, Completed, European Commission, FP7 ICT Programme - Objective 9.4 Strengthening Cooperation in ICT R&D in an Enlarged Europe Visit the project site: webinos.org Webinos Public Report Partners: Agora Media (UK), AmbieSense Ltd (UK), Antenna Software (UK), BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH (DE), Cloud Friends (B), Data Driven Standardization Consulting (AU), Deutsche Telekom (DE), DOCOMO Communications Laboratories Europe (GmbH), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (DE), futuretext (UK), iMinds (B), Impleo (UK), KT (KR), Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (I), DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens (GR), Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NL), Nitobi (CA), Politecnico di Torino (I), Present Technologies (PT), Samsung Electronics (UK) Ltd, Silver Probe Consluting Ltd (UK), Sony Mobile Communications AB (S), Technische Universität München (DE), Telecom Italia S.p.A. (I), Telecom Paristech (FR), Telefonica (ES), Università degli Studi di Catania (I), University of Oxford (UK), VisionMobile Ltd. (UK), W3C (F) The WEBINOS project will define and deliver an Open Source Platform and specific components, exploiting Future Internet technologies, that will enable applications and services to be used and shared consistently and securely over a broad spectrum of converged, connected multi-devices, including mobile, PC, home media (TV) or automotive taking also into consideration the important dimension of the users social context.Promoting a “single service for every device” vision, WAX will move the existing baseline from ad-hoc software to services, ensuring that the technologies for describing, negotiating and adapting to context are fit for purpose. Innovations in contextual description will be broad covering device capability, network access, user identity and preferences, location, behaviourally induced properties and finally the more complex issue of the users’ social network context.

PLUG IN - Information System orchestrating and offering Plug-n’-Play Interoperability Services to SMEs, Completed, General Secretariat of Research and Technology. Partners: Singular Logic, DSS Lab - Institute of Communication and Computer Systems/ NTUA, Economic University of Athens, University of Aegean, ΕΒΕΑ (subcontractor), Electron PLUG-IN project aims to constitute a major implementation arm for the "plug n' play" interoperability concept by designing, developing and piloting a utility software component that will offer the necessary set of services to deliver and sustain interoperability to its enterprises/users across similar as well as differing business domains. The PLUG-IN Interoperability Service Utility will be primarily oriented towards facilitating the needs of SMEs by providing them with a technology infrastructure that will be layered upon their existing systems and knowledge sources and enabling them to exchange computer-meaningful information with others using the principle of end-to-end interconnection. The PLUG-IN infrastructure will be further customizable by its users in order to provide them with specific value-added services according to their business situation (business domain or business event).

The Virtual Youth Space, Completed, European Commission, FP7 Partners: ATC, GOOGLE, DUK, DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens, 21c Consultancy, POLITECH INSTITUTE, CAFEBABEL.COM, PARTCIPACE, UKYP

Visit the site: www.ep-ourspace.eu

OurSpace will be based on the concept that the active involvement of young people in the process of sociopolitical decision‐making can play a very important role in our societies. To this end, OurSpace, aims to contribute towards bringing the EU closer to the youth by improving their role within the democratic system of the EC through the use of ICT. In this aspect, the proposed project aims to create a unique online collaboration space designed to actively engage young European citizens in the molding of their future society.OurSpace will be tailored entirely to the needs of the young European citizens. It will provide a common Social Networking space to support the active participation and real‐time collaboration among the European youngsters. The web based platform will include different national and cross‐national thematic clusters and the services to be offered include typical social networking features as well as typical eParticipation features, including also the necessary content and informative material. During the project, 3 pilot sites will be deployed at national level, whereas a pan-European pilot will also be there, directly fed by the national pilots, for leveraging important issues to a pan-European dimension, seeking broader participation from youngsters.

CAP - Community Airport Portal, Completed, National Research Programme - Cooperation Partners: Athens International Airport, Velti Software Services and Products S.A., Research Centre Athena, Athens University of Economics / Department of Electronic Commerce and Electronic Business, DSS Lab - Institute of Communication and Computer Systems/ NTUA

Visit the project site: www.airpoint.gr

The main objective of the project “CAP” is the development of a dynamic web platform that offers out-of-the-box facilities for the design, administration and provision of services relevant to the airport community, utilized by companies at the airport for its passengers. The project aims to provide personalization capabilities for the travelers and to facilitate the availability and quality of services offered by the airport and enterprises operating in the airport.The main results of the project will be a platform that offers user-friendly modules for the creation, provision and integration of services in the context of the airport environment. The system will allow the design and development of services from third-parties and will facilitate its provision to members of the airport community (passengers, airport staff, visitors, enterprises, etc.). The platform will provide content management capabilities, a personalization and a recommendation system. Lastly the project will contribute to the development of advanced business models, processes and decision support mechanisms that will support the design and creation of a new airport service and thus it aims to significantly improve the competiveness of the enterprises operating in the airport as well as the quality of their services and products.

Envisioning, Supporting and Promoting Future Internet Enterprise Systems Research through Scientific Collaboration, Completed, European Commission, FP7 WorkProgramme 2009/10 Objective: 1.3 Internet of Things and Enterprise Environments Partners: Decision Support Systems Laboratory - National Technical University of Athens (Coordinator), INTRASOFT International SA, Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, Coventry University, UNINOVA - Instituto De Desenvolvimento De Novas Tecnologias Future Internet Enterprise Systems play an important role in the quest of European enterprises (typically SME's) to become more competitive, to enlarge their markets and overall potential while transforming towards new business models and developing innovative products and services. In this context, the ENSEMBLE project is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA), that combines systemic approaches, scientific multi-disciplinarity, innovative Web 2.0 collaboration tools with a community-driven mentality, to significantly increase the impact of the Future Internet Enterprise Systems (FInES) domain.ENSEMBLE aims at enlarging and supporting the FInES research community (research projects, key experts, wider audience) through establishing and maintaining specifically designed electronic collaborative tools and performing specialized workshops and consultations. Utilising the power of the community combined with key experts from neighbouring scientific domains, ENSEMBLE project also aims at a major contribution towards the establishment of a scientific base for Enterprise Interoperability - a grand challenge of the FInES research. Furthermore, ENSEMBLE activities will provide solid support for the ICT research roadmap development in the area of Future Internet, interacting with the research projects and key experts of the area, delivering policy support and research alignment recommendations. The roadmap and the various research objectives and evolving achievements will be presented as a self-standing report and as an online, dynamic, evolving knowledge base.

Policy Gadgets Mashing Underlying Group Knowledge in Web 2.0 Media (PADGETS), Completed, European Commission, FP7. Partners: AEGEAN University, WHL, DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens, ATC, GOOGLE, UREG, POLITO, T4I2, PIED, CEGD, FRAUNHOFER

Visit the project site: www.padgets.eu

The project aims at bringing together two well established domains, the mashup architectural approach of web 2.0 for creating web applications (gadgets) and the methodology of system dynamics in analyzing complex system behavior. The objective is to design, develop and deploy a prototype toolset that will allow policy makers to graphically create web applications that will be deployed in the environment of underlying knowledge in Web 2.0 media. For this reason, the project introduces the concept of Policy Gadget (Padget) – similarly to the approach of gadget applications in web 2.0 – to represent a micro web application that combines a policy message with underlying group knowledge in social media (in the form of content and user activities) and interacts with end users in popular locations (such as social networks, blogs, forums, news sites, etc) in order to get and convey their input to policy makers. Through the proposed platform any policy can become a reusable and communicable web application to be used in relation to underlying content and social activities over the web. Policy makers will be able to set up such applications on their own and use them to communicate their policies to the public. People can use these applications as they use everyday services and policy makers can track the results of this interaction back to their policy making process to assist them in reaching solid decisions that represent society’s input and aspirations.

The Greek Interoperability Centre: Enabling Research in the Interoperability Domain, "G.I.C." Completed, European Commission, 7th Framework Programme

Visit the project site: http://www.iocenter.eu

Interoperability has been recognized as the key issue for achieving high productivity of Enterprises (especially SME’s) and their information systems but also as the main driver for delivering effective pan-european electronic government services towards citizens and businesses. The main goal of the proposed project is to set up all the necessary infrastructure within the Decision Support System Laboratory of the National Τechnical University of Athens, which will enable the Lab to act also as a new research centre targeting e-Government and e-Business Interoperability Research. The Greek Interoperability Centre (G.I.C.) aims at becoming a premium research centre in the field of Interoperability in Greece, cooperating with local universities across the Greek regions but also institutions from the Balkans and the Mediterranean – thus forming a strong regional pole of research and technology.

Citizens Collaboration and Co-Creation in Public Service Delivery (COCKPIT), Completed, European Commission, FP7. Partners: INTRASOFT, IBM Research India, ATOS, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.P.A, DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, ATC SA, City of Venice, The Hellenic Ministry of Interior (YPES), City of Tilburg, University of Tilburg The fundamental idea of COCKPIT is that Web 2.0 social media constitute the emerging and de facto mass collaboration and cooperation platform between citizens themselves, and between citizens and public administrations. Therefore, Web 2.0 social media will have very soon established themselves as a very effective means for creating, sharing and tracking knowledge about citizens’ opinions and wishes on public service delivery. COCKPIT adopts a highly synergetic approach towards the definition of a new governance model for the next-generation public service delivery decision making process by combining the research areas of citizens’ opinion mining in the context of Web 2.0, Service Science Management and Engineering in the context of the public sector, and deliberative engagement of citizens for forming informed judgements on public services’ delivery. COCKPIT supports the notion of open Public Administrations with which citizens have higher confidence and trust among each other and with the Public Administration, resulting in better governance, lower disputes on services’ delivery priority setting, higher degrees of public service adoption, lower public service delivery costs, better service innovation, and citizens loyalty to the public services.

CROSSOVER - Researching and Drafting of Four Case Studies on applications of ICT solutions for governance and policy modeling, Study sub-contracted by IPTS-JRC in the context of the CROSSOVER project Completed, Information Society Unit of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies / Joint Research Center of European Commission. Visit the project site: crossover-project.eu The major aim of the Study "Researching and Drafting of Four Case Studies on Applications of ICT solutions for governance and policy modelling" is to collect and analyse a representative set of paradigmatic case studies in Policy-making 2.0 that will contribute to drawing conclusions for future research directions in ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling. This way, the project will assist the FP7 project CROSSOVER in identifying successful case studies in the domain of Governance and Policy Modelling, which will be used to verify the results of CROSSOVER.The expected results of the project "Researching and Drafting of Four Case Studies on Applications of ICT solutions for governance and policy modelling" will be the extensive and detailed documentation of 4 case studies which will be analysed based on specific criteria that are suitable in order to format these cases in an appropriate way to be further processed during the CROSSOVER project.

A participative Roadmap for ICT Research in Electronic Governance and Policy modelling, Completed, European Commission, FP7. Partners: DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens, TECH4I2, EPMA, UKL, JRC CROSSROAD will deliver a research roadmap on ICT for governance and policy modelling, in order to orient towards a common goal the different communities of research actors, domains and sectors. It will create a shared vision and an operational tool to support research policy and research implementation in this field. The roadmap will be based on a cross-analysis of present research directions and future scenarios of collaborative governance, including possibilities for disruptive scenarios of extreme collaboration. It will be presented as a self-standing report and as an online, dynamic knowledge base.

Taxonomy, Completed, Ministry of Interrior, Decentralization and E-Government - Hellenic Republic. Partners: ITMC, DSS Lab - National Technical University of Athens The aim of this project is to establish a semantic - conceptual model that will achieve the elimination or reduction of diversity which exist in the organizational, operational and conceptual models used by the operators of Public Administration. This model will support all activities related to portraying, organizing and codifying knowledge, making it accessible and reusable.

Municipality Portal for the Citizen Service, Completed, Municipality of Nea Ionia The project’s main objective is the creation of a model municipality portal for providing electronic services to the citizens of the Municipality of Nea Ionia and the enterprises that are activated in the region of the municipality. The project team will carry out model mapping and modelling of extrovert services that are provided by the municipality of Nea Ionia, using multiple aspect techniques of categorisation and process modelling techniques. In accordance with the mapped services that are provided to citizens and enterprises, the project team will develop a model architecture and technical design for the municipality’s e-Government Information System that will be the foothold for the portal implementation. The project will lead to the following results:

• Creation of a framework for providing services to the citizens and enterprises of the Municipality of Nea Ionia, via internet and interactive voice response.
• Improvement of the quality of the provided services and reinforcement of productivity of public administration.
• Enlightenment of citizens and enterprises about Electronic Government and attracting of future users for the system
• Simplification of relative operational processes of the Municipality and more rapid transaction of transactions with the Municipality.
• Provision of specialised services for the satisfaction of special demographic teams that require particular treatment (eg foreigners, disadvantaged groups, old people, etc).
• Upgrade and improvement of infrastructures and know-how of the Municipality through the development of infrastructures and the supply of services of information technologies.

Empowering citizens to influence the decision making and policy formulation on environmental issues, Completed, European Commission, E-PARTICIPATION 2008. The main objective of the eMPOWER project is to motivate and strengthen the involvement of NGOs and citizens in the decision-making process on environmental issues at a National and European level by providing method and tools for supporting citizens’ participation to promote relevant public initiatives and demands of civil society. The proposed project will integrate and test state-of-the-art Web 2.0 social networking, ICT based tools and solutions in a socially purposeful way in concrete legislative and decision making processes and more specifically will look to engage Citizens in the formation of EU environmental legislation at a National and European level. In this context, the eMPOWER project will enable transparent, interactive and democratic communication processes, the results of which will be joint proposals, initiatives and viewpoints of Citizens regarding environmental issues relating to global climate change, national parks and forests, oceans and biodiversity, water pollution and management, green taxation, and more.

Federated e-Participation Systems for Cross-Societal Deliberation on Environmental and Energy Issues, "FEED", Proposal No: EP-07-01-032 Completed, European Commission, Programme: e-participation The main objective of FEED Pilot Project is to apply a new concept in e-Participation by allowing users to have seamless access to existing federated content that matches their needs for information on the several aspects of a debated issue as well as to informative material about the specificities of the deliberation procedure in the scope of which an issue is considered. This way the level of knowledge for FEED users is enhanced both around the essence of issue at hand as well as of the procedural aspects of the deliberation process. Through FEED, federated content is contextually annotated according to the debated issue and legislative process specifics allowing the platform users to perceive it as a coherent body of information to be used in the various stages of a deliberation procedure.

Greek Framework of eGovernment Services Provision, Completed Information Society SA,

Visit the project site: http://www.e-gif.gov.gr/

The main objective of the Greek e-Government Service Provision and Interoperability Framework is to effectively support the provision of e-Government Services at Central, Local and Municipal level and to contribute to achieve interoperability in terms of information systems, processes and data. As the Project’s Platform is deployed, the information required from the involved parties is gathered and the technical policies, the (data and metadata) standards and the specifications traversing the Greek Public Administration are issued, accompanied by relevant training material

LEX-IS: Enabling Participation of the Youth in the Public Debate of Legislation among Parliaments, Citizens and Businesses in the European Union, Completed, European Commission, 6th Framework Programme, IST, eParticipation Preparatory Action

Visit the project site: http://www.lex-is.eu/

The main objective of the LEX-IS Project is to improve the legislative process in National Parliaments through enhancing public participation in the preparatory stages (the legislation proposal formation stage and the debate on draft legislation in Parliaments) with the use of state-of-the-art information technology tools and methodologies. As the LEX-IS platform will be deployed, some initial results supporting the implementation level and the legislation monitoring phases are also going to be extracted. LEX-IS trials are going to be executed within the operational framework and with selected, real processes of three European Parliamentarian institutions, which are: the Austrian Parliament, the Lithuanian Parliament and the Model European Parliament (MEP). The LEX-IS Consortium represents a balanced mix of Parliaments, IT Providers and Academic Institutions and consists of 7 partners coming from five EU Member States: Greece, Lithuania, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

Monitoring, Coordinating and Promoting the European Union eParticipation Projects and Initiatives, "MOMENTUM" - Completed, European Commission, Programme: e Participation

Visit the project site: http://www.ep-momentum.eu

The MOMENTUM project aims to monitor the existing and on coming eParticipation projects co-funded by European Commission, to consolidate their results and provide feedback to them and to the respective EC bodies and other designated stakeholders, advancing the high-level political, and industrial engagement.

WEB.DEP - Western Balkans Democratic Participation, "EB-DEP", Completed European Commission, Programme: Specific Support Action, Research Directorate General

Visit the project site: http://www.web-dep.eu/

The project's primary aim is to establish an important communication and information management network posted by the National News Agencies of the Western Balkan countries. The project will involve policy makers and stakeholders from Western Balkans such as relevant Governmental Organizations (Ministries), Public News Agencies and citizens into the e-Democracy processes, supported through a unified environment, under a set of specified procedures and a common code of ethics. The project brings together 8 partners representing three Western Balkan Countries (Albania, Serbia and FYROM) as well as two Member States (Greece and United Kingdom).

Enable European-wide discussion between elected representatives and civil society, "DEMOS@WORK", Completed, European Commission Programme: e-Participation

Visit the project site: http://www.demosatwork.org

The purpose of the Demos@Work Pilot Project is to put to the test already-created ICT-based eParticipation and eGovernment tools in a real-life implementation, on a significant issue of public interest and in concrete legislative processes. The Demos@Work overarching objective is to facilitate European-wide discussion between elected representatives and civil society on emerging policy issues that have a potential impact on all countries within the European Union. The issue selected for this trial project is in the field of public health, more specifically, the harmful effects of smoking. This will be achieved by configuring and piloting a secure, mobile environment through which elected representatives are able not only to engage with citizens on policy issues using a semantically enriched user-interface, but also to communicate and collaborate with their peers.

Methodologies and Technologies for Business Models of Automated Business to Business Transactions, Completed, GSRT. The subject of the research project is the development of a “knowledge framework” which can support the enterprises in their brainstorming for fully automated business to business transactions. Totally, the project is composed by four main keynotes, the review of the knowledge level, the development of the business model, the re-design of the procedures and the creation of the evaluation and transition methodology and results in the implementation of the following PHDs: a) Development of a business model for the implementation of automated business to business transactions in e-business environment, b) Re-design of business procedures and design of a procedure model group for the implementation of automated business to business transactions in e-business environment, in a particular business model framework, c) Methodologies for the evaluation of the potential for the implementation of business automated transactions and the support of the transition in e-business electronic model.

Enterprise Application Interoperability – Integration for SMEs, Governmental Organizations and Intermediaries in the New European Union, "GENESIS" Completed, European Commission, 6th Framework Programme, IST, Specific Targeted Research Project

Visit the Project site: http://www.genesis-ist.eu/

The main goal of the project “GENESIS: Enterprise Application Interoperability via Internet-Integration for SMEs, Governmental Organisations and Intermediaries in the New European Union” is the research, development and pilot application of the needed methodologies, infrastructure and software components that will allow the typical, usually small and medium, European enterprise to conduct its Business transactions over Internet, by interconnecting its main transactional software applications and systems with those of collaborating enterprises, governmental bodies, banking and insurance institutions with respect to the EC current legal and regulatory status and the existing one in the new EU, candidate and associate countries.

SONNETS: “Societal Needs analysis and Emerging Technologies in the public Sector” Ongoing, European Commission, H2020 Partners: ATOS (Coordinator), NTUA, FhG, ISMB

Start date: 1/3/2016, Duration: 18 months

Visit the Project site: http://www.sonnets-project.eu

SONNETS’ aims at renovating the way the public sector operates by suggesting a concrete set of actions that will place the public sector in the front line of tackling societal challenges, armoured with the right ammunition and with the right people that could take over the necessary tasks and activities. SONNETS’s concept for delivering its roadmap is based on the following major sub-concepts, which are all closely related and can be witnessed as a quadruple helix:

• Needs Identification through evidence-based research approaches and methods
• Innovations Identification and Gap Analysis
• Impact generation through Community Building and Intense Networking
• Innovation Transfer through best practice identification in multidisciplinary areas and impact assessment

Indicative ongoing and recently completed projects of EPU-NTUA in the area "Energy and Environment" include the following:

C-Track 50: “Putting regions on track for carbon neutrality”, Ongoing, European Commission, Η2020 Partners: NTUA, EPTA, AURA-EE, ICLEI EURO, FAEN, AREAM, REA North, WOJEWODZTWO, LENERG, RIGA PL REG, AMEMM, EAO, FEDARENE Start date: 01/03/2018, Duration: 36 months Visit the project site: www.c-track50.eu C-Track 50 aims to mobilize and guide public authorities in defining long-term energy policy priorities, promote multi-level governance and support regional and local authorities in developing, financing and implementing ambitious integrated sustainable energy and climate policy action plans in order to achieve climate resilience and carbon neutrality by 2050. Emphasis will be placed on fostering local integrated energy, transport mobility and land-use planning, as well as multi-level governance, linking up national and sub-national levels for delivering integrated sustainable energy planning and projects to achieve synergies and economies of scale. The C-Track 50 services to achieve the above mentioned spread across the following five pillars:

• Identification of strategic policy priorities at a national/regional/local level.
• Capacity building at local/regional level.
• Technical support for the development of sustainable energy and climate policy action plans for 2050 at the local and regional level.
• Technical support for the development of funding proposals for implementing sustainable energy and climate actions/projects.
• Targeted promotion of the concept of carbon neutrality to relevant stakeholders across Europe.

SET-Nav: “Navigating the Roadmap for Clean, Secure and Efficient Energy Innovation”, Ongoing, European Commission, Η2020 Partners: TU Wien, Fraunhofer, DIW Berlin, NTNU, Sintef, Seureco, Comillas, NTUA, REKK, CEPS, UEA, ETH, Axpo, GE, IIASA

Start date: 1/4/2016, Duration: 36 months

Visit the project site: set-nav.eu

SET-Nav will support strategic decision making in Europe’s energy sector, enhancing innovation towards a clean, secure and efficient energy system. Our research will enable the EC, national governments and regulators to facilitate the development of optimal technology portfolios by market actors. We will comprehensively address critical uncertainties and derive appropriate policy and market responses. Our findings will support the further development of the SET-Plan and its implementation by continuous stakeholder involvement. These contributions of the SET-Nav project rest on three pillars: The wide range of objectives and analytical challenges set out by the call for proposals can only be met by developing a broad and technically-advanced modelling portfolio. Advancing this portfolio and enabling knowledge exchange via a modelling forum is our first pillar. The EU’s energy, innovation and climate challenges define the direction of a future EU energy system, but the specific technology pathways are policy sensitive and need careful comparative evaluation. This is our second pillar. Using our strengthened modelling capabilities in an integrated modelling hierarchy, we will analyse multiple dimensions of impact of future pathways: sustainability, reliability and supply security, global competitiveness and efficiency. This analysis will combine bottom-up ‘case studies’ linked to the full range of SET-Plan themes with holistic ‘transformation pathways’. Stakeholder dialogue and dissemination is the third pillar of SET-Nav. We have prepared for a lively stakeholder dialogue through a series of events on critical SET-Plan themes. The active involvement of stakeholders in a two-way feedback process will provide a reality check on our modelling assumptions and approaches, and ensure high policy relevance. Our aim is to ensure policy and market actors alike can navigate effectively through the diverse options available on energy innovation and system transformation.

TRANSrisk: “Transitions pathways and risk analysis for climate change mitigation and adaption strategies”, Ongoing, European Commission, Η2020 Partners: UOS (Coordinator), BC3, CE, ECN, IBS, ETH Zurich, JIN, SEI, UNI GRAZ, UPRC, CLAPESUC

Start date: 1/9/2015, Duration: 36 months

Visit the project site: transrisk-project.eu

Both the models concerning the future climate evolution and its impacts, as well as the models assessing the costs and benefits associated with different mitigation pathways face a high degree of uncertainty. There is an urgent need to not only understand the costs and risks associated with climate change but also the risks, uncertainties and co-effects related to different mitigation pathways as well as public acceptance (or lack thereof) of low-carbon (technology) options. The main aims of TRANSrisk are: (a) To create a novel assessment framework for analysing costs and benefits of transition pathways; and (b) to design decision support tools to help policymakers better understand uncertainties and risks and enable them to include risk assessments into more robust policy design. Uncertainties are pervasive in climate change, and this includes the under-researched area of climate change policy. In order to help policy-makers manage irreducible uncertainties, TRANSrisk not only employs a range of different models to explore scenarios and pathways, but also engages a wide range of stakeholders to help develop plausible pathways in the light of potential difficulties in public acceptance, and the risk of policy failures. This unique approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative analysis, offers policy-makers help in a situation where ‘optimal’ policies are rarely feasible, recognising the critical importance of innovation in achieving climate change targets. In addition TRANSrisk provides country case study of ways that the framework and tools developed in the project can produce useful empirical results for policy-makers. Climate change and policy are of global concern, so while several of these case studies focus on EU countries, we provide examples from climate-critical countries such as India and China.

Towards2030-dialogue: “Dialogue on a RES policy framework for 2030”, Ongoing, European Commission, Intelligent Energy - Europe II Partners: TU Wien, Fraunhofer ISI, ECN, CEPS, CSIC, Ecofys, REKK ET, EUI

Start date: 1/4/2015, Duration: 24 months

Visit the project site: towards2030.eu

The aim of this proposed action to facilitate and guide the RES policy dialogue for the period towards 2030. This strategic initiative aims for an intense stakeholder dialogue that establishes a European vision of a joint future RES policy framework. The dialogue process will be coupled with in-depth and continuous analysis of relevant topics that include RES in all energy sectors but with more detailed analyses for renewable electricity. The work will be based on results from the IEE project beyond2020, where policy pathways with different degrees of harmonisation have been analysed for the post 2020 period. Towards2030-dialogue will directly build on these outcomes: complement, adapt and extend the assessment to the evolving policy process in Europe. The added value of Towards2030-dialogue includes the analysis of alternative policy pathways for 2030, such as the (partial) opening of national support schemes, the clustering of regional support schemes as well as options to coordinate and align national schemes. Additionally, this project offers also an impact assessment of different target setting options for 2030, discussing advanced concepts for related effort sharing.

ESCOCITY: “ESCO Smart City Energy Plan”, Ongoing, Hellenic Republic - Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs - General Secretariat for Research and Technology - Special Service for Management and Action Implementation on the fields of Research , Technological Development and Innovation Partners: JEPA LTD (Coordinator), STIRIXIS, ASG, MILTEL

Start date: 24/6/2014, Duration: 15 months

Visit the project site: escocity.eu

ESCO Smart City Energy Plan (ESCOCITY)” aims at the design, development and implementation of an integrated Web Portal, addressed to city authorities. ESCOCITY Web Portal integrates advanced ICT technologies in a single electronic web-based platform to provide energy management services for public building, facilities, venues, etc, based on respective state-of-the art methodologies and techniques. It will enable the city administration to collect data for energy management, real-time monitoring and billing purposes from city’s infrastructure, sensors, meters and other energy sources and react to critical incidents or systems failure in an urban (city) environment. The data collection will be realized for the following energy consuming categories: Buildings, Pillars, Poles and Electric Vehicles’ Stations.

SISSAF: “Technical Assistance of the Support Programme for Infrastructure Sector Strategies and Alternative Financing”, Ongoing, European Union Partners: Hulla & Co Human Dynamics KG Start date: 26/9/2013, Duration: 36 months Visit the project site: sissaf-lebanon.eu The purpose of the contract is to provide support to the Lebanese authorities in their sector policy management in the water, energy and transport sectors. The technical assistance mainly aims at improving the coherence of project approaches, by supporting the development and implementation of a programme-based approach (PBA) in these 3 main infrastructure sectors. The contract aims at achieving the project purpose through 33 months' technical assistance and training, mainly directed at the following target groups: 2 line ministries (Ministry of Energy and Water, Ministry of Public Works and Transport) and other central and local institutions involved in the management of infrastructure projects of the energy, water and land transport sectors.

EU GCC Relations: “Promoting Deeper EU-GCC Relations”, Ongoing, European Commission Partners: Gulf Research Center (GRC) - the Coordinator, (2) Fundacion par alas Relaciones Internacionales y el Dialogo Exterior (FRIDE), (3) Institute for European Studies (IES), Virje University, Brussels

Start date: 31/12/2013, Duration: 24 months

Promoting Deeper EU-GCC Relations” is an action funded by the European Commission, Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, suggesting specific steps to reinforce cooperation between EU and GCC in a number of key strategic areas of mutual interest. More specifically, the action’s objectives comprise the:

• Recommendations on national, as well as on regional and local energy priorities in 11 countries, engaging their representatives in roundtables;
• Development of at least 116 sustainable energy and climate policy action plans for 2050 at the local and regional level;
• Guidebook for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050;
• Development of at least 105 funding proposals for implementing sustainable energy and climate actions/projects;
• Capacity building at local/regional level through workshops, webinars, info days and conferences; Support EU policies and initiatives, such as the Global Covenant of Mayors on Energy and Climate.
  • A baseline of the current situation of the sector in the process towards a Programme Based Approach is established
  • Comprehensive sector policy and strategy documents are drafted
  • A sector budget and its medium term expenditure framework are established
  • A (sector and donors) coordination framework is in place and operational
  • A sector performance monitoring system is set up and operational
  • A list of priority projects is established and presented to the project’s Steering Committee
  • For priority projects approved by the project’s Steering Committee, all necessary contractual documents are being prepared and approved by the SC
  • A study tour for a team of five civil servants is implemented, in order to enhance a transfer of know-how and capacity building
  • A final monitoring survey is achieved on the progress of Lebanon in implementing the Programme Based Approach for each sector
  • Building and widening of existing networks of persons dedicated to the promotion of EU-GCC relations;
  • Provision of concrete policy recommendations on ways towards expansion and improvement on current areas of cooperation;
  • Public engagement into discussions regarding the status of relations through its various dissemination activities ;

Contribution to research regarding the ways that current cooperation levels can be enhanced and obstacles can be overcome.The main results which are expected to arise from the implementation of the action include:

DIA-CORE - Policy Dialogue on the assessment and convergence of RES policy in EU Member States, Ongoing, European Commission Intelligent Energy – Europe II

Visit the project site: www.diacore.eu

With Directive 2009/28/EC the European Parliament and Council have laid the grounds for the policy framework for renewable energy sources (RES) until 2020. The aim of the “Policy Dialogue on the assessment and convergence of RES policy in EU Member States – DIA-CORE” project is to ensure a continuous assessment of the existing policy mechanisms and to establish a fruitful stakeholder dialogue on future policy needs for renewable electricity (RES-E), heating & cooling (RES-H), and transport (RES-T). Thus, DIA-CORE shall facilitate convergence in RES support across the EU and enhance investments, cooperation and coordination. This project shall complement the Commission’s monitoring activities of Member States (MSs) success in meeting 2020 RES targets and builds on the approaches developed and successfully applied in the previous IEE projects OPTRES, FUTURES-E and RE-Shaping. To facilitate decision-making DIA-CORE offers detailed cross-country policy evaluations, presented in an interactive web-based RES policy assessment database. This policy assessment database will be linked to (and build on the information provided by) the RES-Legal database currently developed for DG ENER. Indicators on effectiveness and efficiency of existing policies for RES in all sectors will be extended and updated, complemented by an analysis of costs and benefits of RES on MS level. Future consequences of policy choices will be analysed in detail using the Green-X model, highlighting possible additional policy needs for 2020 target achievement and contributing to upcoming 2030-related discussions. In general, the optimisation of the design of the individual RES policies, namely feed-in tariffs, premiums, investment incentives etc in line with future policy needs is a key focus of the project. In the course of DIA-CORE, an intense and continuous stakeholder dialogue will be established based on a series of workshops and continuous involvement of national and European key decision makers. To ensure the use of the project findings and recommendations in future policy making, intensified experience exchange forms an overarching component of this project. Complementary to the comprehensive interactive web-based RES policy database, this exchange will be organised by way of workshops/conferences, online meetings, presentations at external events and through the use of social media.

Modeling and Development of an Optimization Integrated Information System (OIIS) for the Public Gas Corporation (PGC), Ongoing, Public Gas Corporation S.A. The project "Modeling and Development of an Optimization Integrated Information System (OIIS) for the Public Gas Corporation (PGC)" has as general purpose the modeling, design and development of an OIIS which will support the executives of PGC in the decision making procedure on issues such as: Natural Gas (NG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supply and demand meet in an organized and systematic manner. The OIIS to be developed under the project will create a competitive advantage for PGC as it will encompass all the parameters involved in the decision-making procedure of NG/LNG supply in the modern conditions of the liberalized market established and it will give the enterprise the possibility to make decisions that optimize as much as possible its financial results.The expected outcome of the project is an Optimization Integrated Information System (OIIS) in which the problem of decision-making on the supply of Natural Gas (NG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will be modeled as a Mixed/Integer Linear Programming problem. The implementation of such a system will support the various actions that the enterprise’s executives carry out, concerning the decision making procedure on supplies, through the following specific features provided:Possibility to execute, process and store different supply scenarios, by altering various parameters of the problem; Gradual optimization of the accuracy of the proposed by the system decisions, through the continuously update and incorporation of history data; Production of reports on the data concerning the overall process of supplies.

EU GCC Clean Energy Network, Completed, European Commission, Directorate Middle East, Southern Mediterranean. The specific objective of the project is to create and facilitate the operation of an EU-GCC Clean Energy Network.The EU-GCC Clean Energy Network aims to act as a catalyst and element of coordination for development of cooperation on clean energy, including the related policy and technology aspects among various stakeholders in the EU and GCC countries. The overall objective of this Network is to enhance EU-GCC energy relations by developing the appropriate structures and instruments for practical cooperation activities of mutual interest in the area of clean energy technologiesThe activities of the network in the area of clean energy will include, inter alia, the exchange of experience and know-how, the coordination and promotion of joint actions between the EU and GCC stakeholders, facilitating joint research, demonstration and development, including through joint projects, of clean energy technologies in the GCC countries and providing policy support to promote and accompany these actions.The stakeholders participating in the network will include, inter alia, energy-related research entities, universities, administrations, utilities and industry.

Decision Support on the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Rational Use of Energy in the Framework of the new Environment in the Greek Energy Market, Ongoing, GSRT. The objective of the project is the development of coherent methodologies and appropriate decision support systems for the promotion of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Energy Efficiency (EΝEF). The implementation of this project is related to the study and analysis of the subjects of the three decision centres (state, energy companies, consumers) regarding RES and EΝEF, taking into consideration the impact of the energy market’s deregulation and the climate change. The analysis will result in the implementation of the two following PHDs: a) Decision support systems for the promotion of Renewable Energy Sources in the new framework of the Greek energy market, b) Decision support systems for the promotion of Energy Efficiency in the new framework of the Greek energy market. The project’s ultimate goal is the decision support of the three involved decision centres regarding RES and ENEF.

Cooperation on clean coal technology (CCT) and carbon capture and storage (CCS) with coal-dependent developing and emerging country partners – ‘inventory of methods’ & ‘capacity building activities’, a project within the EC Framework Contract EuropeAid/119860/C/SV/multi, Completed, European Commission, EUROPEAID. This project is implemented in the framework of the contract-frame with the European Commission in the sector of energy (Framework Contract, Lot-4), that aims at the rapid benefit of technical aid in third countries in the above sectors. The aim of particular work is the scientific support to the European Commission, for the design of the Global Action on “Cooperation on Clean coal technologies and carbon capture and storage with coal dependent developing and emerging country partners”. The project will also support engaged authorities on administrative and managerial issues. Expected Results:

Preparation of a Study on the Implementation of the New Renewable Energy Directive in the Energy Community and a workshop, Completed, Energy Community. The objective of the study is to analyse the conditions and modalities for the development of renewable energy resources in the context of the implementation of the new EU Renewable Energy Directive in the Contracting Parties of the Treaty establishing the Energy Community (ECT). The scope the study includes also Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey (as "candidate Contracting Parties"). EPU-ICCS participates in the study in a consortium led by IPA. The work comprises four tasks: Review of the current state of development of renewable energy in each of the Contracting Parties (CP) and candidate Contracting Parties (CCP). Includes an assessment for each CP and CCP of the 2020 forecast of total gross final energy consumption (Analysis must be consistent with that of the European Commission's as represented in the publication "European Energy and transport: trends to 2030") . Analysis of the impact that the new requirements of the Renewable Energy Directive have on the Contracting Parties and Candidate Contracting Parties, considering the available renewable energy potential and the provisions for cooperation among EU Member States and Contracting Parties as foreseen in the New EU Renewable Energy Directiv. Calculation of mandatory targets for the Contracting Parties, to be achieved by 2020, based on the methodology prepared by the EC. Evaluation of the costs associated with the fulfilment of the mandatory targets, assessment of the investment opportunities, the associated employment possibilities, GHG savings and reduction in fossil fuel consumption

Best Practise of Rural Electrification Funds in Africa, a project within the EC Framework Contract EuropeAid/119860/C/SV/multi, Completed, European Commission, fwc benef lot no 4, EuropeAid. This project is implemented in the framework of the contract-frame with the European Commission in the sector of energy (Framework Contract, Lot-4), that aims at the rapid benefit of technical aid in third countries in the above sectors.The aim of particular work is the scientific support to the European Commission, to analyse the role played and methods applied by Rural Electrification Funds in the electrification of rural areas in Africa, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. As part of the assignment, the Consultants are requested to provide a set of recommendations on best practice that may be applied by Rural Electrification Funds and/or other similar funding arrangements. The project will also support local authorities on administrative and managerial issues

Identification mission for the ‘Energy Saving Initiative in the Building Sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia’, a project within the EC Framework Contract EuropeAid/119860/C/SV/multi, Completed, European Commission, fwc benef lot no 4, EuropeAid. This project is implemented in the framework of the contract-frame with the European Commission in the sector of energy (Framework Contract, Lot-4), that aims at the rapid benefit of technical aid in third countries in the above sectors. The aim of particular work is the scientific support to the European Commission, to assist the INOGATE Partner Countries in ensuring improved control of their energy consumption in the building sector by promoting and developing EE, as well as the use of RE where applicable, in this particular area. The project will also support local authorities on administrative and managerial issues.

Sector Policy Support Program (SPSP) identification and formulation study (Energy), a project within the EC Framework Contract EuropeAid/119860/C/SV/multi, Completed, EU Representation in Moldova. This project is implemented in the framework of the contract-frame with the European Commission in the sector of energy (Framework Contract, Lot-4), that aims at the rapid benefit of technical aid in third countries in the above sectors. The aim of particular work is the scientific support to the European Commission, to assist the Republic of Moldova in the preparation of the Sector Budget Support Programme for energy under the National Action Programme 2009.The project will support local authorities on administrative and managerial issues. It will provide also support and technical assistance to produce an analysis of the situation in the energy sector at this point in time in the Republic of Moldova.Under the identification phase:

Federated e-Participation Systems for Cross-Societal Deliberation on Environmental and Energy Issues, "FEED", Proposal No: EP-07-01-032 Completed, European Commission, Programme: e-participation The main objective of FEED Pilot Project is to apply a new concept in e-Participation by allowing users to have seamless access to existing federated content that matches their needs for information on the several aspects of a debated issue as well as to informative material about the specificities of the deliberation procedure in the scope of which an issue is considered. This way the level of knowledge for FEED users is enhanced both around the essence of issue at hand as well as of the procedural aspects of the deliberation process. Through FEED, federated content is contextually annotated according to the debated issue and legislative process specifics allowing the platform users to perceive it as a coherent body of information to be used in the various stages of a deliberation procedure.

RES and RUE Stimulation in Mountainous - Agricultural Communities towards Sustainable Development, "MOUNTAIN RES-RUE", Completed European Commission, EACI, intelligent Energy Programme http://sustainablemountains.epu.ntua.gr The mountainous – agricultural communities could benefit from Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Rational Use of Energy (RUE) applications based on their high RES potential as well as the increased energy and electricity consumption, as an inevitable outcome of their economical development. Scope of this project is the RES and RUE stimulation of four local communities of the European Union (EU), in a way that will ensure both the integrated and balanced evolution in the economical – employment, environmental, social and technological dimension of the sustainable development. The project’s primary objectives set as the identification of specific RES and RUE needs and preparation of viable and socially matured development opportunities along with the formulation of the first European “sustainable energy network in mountainous - agricultural communities”.

Scientific reference System on new energy technologies, energy end-use efficiency and energy RTD, Completed European Commission, FP6 The current project will develop a Scientific Reference System that will be set up to enhance availability quality, completeness of information and data on new energy technologies and energy end-use efficiency options. This project will produce unbiased, validated, organised and scientifically agreed technical and economic information on renewable energy and end-use efficient energy technology. Moreover, comparisons with other clean energy technologies of comparable importance for sustainable development e.g., Fuel Cells, H2-vectors and Heat Pumps, will be done. In order to underpin sustainable energy R&TD-strategies, all energy‑technologies (incl. fossil, nuclear) will be covered in collecting all historical European energy R&TD expenditure data since the 1960s.

Procedures for accounting and baselines for projects under joint implementation and the clean development mechanism, Completed European Commission, DG Research, FP5 The Kyoto Protocol sets legally binding emission targets for GHGs, which apply to industrialised countries. To reach the targets, countries may a.o. use JI and CDM to acquiring emission rights through investment in projects abroad. The political process of designing JI and CDM will require continuous input from science and practice. A crucial issue is the calculation of GHG abatement achieved via JI or CDM. For this a baseline has to be determined of what the GHG emissions would have amounted to if the project and not taken place. The proposed project will develop operational procedures for JI and CDM, which ensure environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency. These procedures provide an indispensable input for the EU negotiating position at the international climate negotiations, and contributes towards capacity building in EIT and developing countries

• Inventory of existing methods and available CCT and CCS technologies.
• Production/submission of overview of the current government and private sector positions on CCT/CCS in developing countries with high dependence on coal.
• Cooperative activities between interested groups of such developing countries and of groups working on CCS plants in Europe.
• Preparation of an 'identification study' for the energy sector.
• Provision of a detailed analysis of the institutional and financing arrangements through which different central and local authorities in the Republic of Moldova manage energetic resources in the Republic of Moldova as well as initiatives for reform.
• Provision of a detailed overview of needs and proposed interventions in the towns and villages of
• Moldova in the energy sector and proposal of a number of recommendations on possible future technical assistance.
• Under the implementation phase:
• Preparation of a full SPSP study.

LOT 3 Τechnical assistance: energy - Multiple Framework Contract with reopening of competition for the provision of services of technical assistance in the field of energy, Ongoing, European Commission DG for Mobility and Transport & DG for Energy, Shared Resource Directorate. The purpose of the multiple framework contracts is to provide at short notice the contracting authority with highly qualified external expertise to support with objectivity the contracting authority in the design, preparation and implementation of EU policies and initiatives and legislative proposals. The above short sentence clearly pinpoints the key requirements of a successful framework contract, which are: • provision of qualified external expertise, covering a wide range of subjects in the fields of energy ; • response at short notice, i.e. within a period of 20-40 days; • Support with objectivity, which requires a high level expert view, unaffiliated with and unaffected by industrial, professional or other specific interests. Type of services provided The required services are of intellectual nature in the area of technical assistance in the field of energy (Lot3) and may take the following forms: 1. Measures aimed at improving the operation of the internal energy market 2. Studies and projects in the context of: a. “TENs”, CEF, and projects of common interest (PCI) b. includes market monitoring activities and studies 3. Research Programmes: FP, Horizon 2020 4. Energy Framework Programme, including: a. Intelligent Energy Europe 5. Regional Energy Management Agencies 6. Specific programme for Non-nuclear energy (existing contracts) 7. Energy demand and efficiency technologies: a. Environmental issues b. Safety issues c. Standardization issues d. market penetration issues 8. Energy Dialogue with Third Countries and extensions of the internal energy market 9. Standardization of equipment (cost/benefit studies and analyses) 10. Measures in the fields of: a. energy security b. Safety c. protection of environment 11. Risk management: a. Emergency preparedness and crisis management b. inventory of organizational and operational resources c. decision-making models d. qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, risk control options

Evaluation of the Operational Program "Accessibility Improvement", Ongoing, Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks. The project refers to the provision of technical scientific services for the evaluation of the Operational Program "Accessibility Improvement". The evaluations made during the implementation period, will include the gathering and presentation of data and information concerning the following topics: - The progress of the operational program; - The results achieved through the implementation process; - The detection of deviations in the up to date flows and results, in comparison to the primary stated targets, as well as the fundamental reasons for this deviations; -The recording of targets for which a low degree of achievement is expected until the end of the Operational Program’s period, and the formulation of suggestions for corrective interventions, in order to avoid the upcoming risks; -The assessment of the targets set in the Operational Program, in comparison to the current social and economical conditions; - The ways that the target setting and the programming can be improved; - The detection of cases that budget is over exceeded; - The evaluation of the monitoring, management and control mechanisms; Relative suggestions, evaluations and estimations will also be made for the projects of the Regional Operational Programs that are being handled by the Accessibility Improvement Authority and the Middle Administration Authority. Moreover an assessment on the strategic correctness will be made, taking into consideration the current changes in the economical and social environment, which apparently alter the SWOT analysis based on which the operational program has been elaborated. Also, there will be an evaluation of the topicality of the strategic and operational goals, compared to the current situation, as well as the compatibility of the selected Priority Axes compared to the goals of the Operational Program. Finally, there will be an estimation of the repercussions of the Operational Program “Accessibility Improvement” in the level of NSRF. The evaluations will result to the provision to the managing authorities and the institutions involved, of accurate information and arguing estimations concerning the implementation progress of the Operational Program. This will help the above mentioned authorities to align their implemented interventions to the General Program’s Strategy, and to become aware of the level of achievement of their quantitative indicators and the level of effectiveness of the up to date implementation of the Program in general. Moreover through the evaluation process, conclusions and realistic proposals will be presented who, if adopted, can lead to the application of correcting processes, as well as to the revision of the Program, hence to the improvement of the effectiveness of the Operational Program’s implementation procedures

Evaluation of Detailed Proposals of the Energy Facility Call for Proposals, Ongoing, European Commission, EuropeAid. This project is carried out in the context of the ACP-EU Energy Facility, launched by the European Commission, whose chief aim is to increase access to energy services for rural and peri-urban poor, in a perspective of combating climate change. The Facility comprises two components: Access to modern, affordable and sustainable energy services, focusing on renewable energy solutions and energy efficiency measure. Improvement of governance in the energy sector at regional, national and local levels.The project concerns the evaluation of detailed proposals that have been submitted in response to ACP-EU Call for Proposals No. 2. The project is implemented by a consortium, headed by Resources & Logistics.Evaluation of the detailed proposals that will be allocated to ICCS-NTUA, according to the set procedures and with the use of a special form.

Results-oriented monitoring of operations financed by the European Community under the Facility for rapid response to soaring food prices in developing countries (Food Facility), Completed, European Commission, Thematic Operations. The overall project objective is to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the European Commission’s Food Facility instrument. The Project Purpose is to ascertain whether the objectives of the Food Facility have been met and to formulate recommendations with a view to improving relevant future development cooperation operations.Clear, objective, well-targeted, consistent and user friendly information on project/ programme implementation and recommendations for improvement, provided to EC Management (Food Facility Task Force –FFTF-) in standard templates. Information (including statistics and customised analyses) provided through Special Reports to EC Management on: best practices/ common mistakes; recommendations for improvement; performance of the Portfolio managed by the FFTF; cross-cutting issues (as in the European Consensus); (if so required) regions / countries, sectors, specific topics. The ROM results disseminated through seminars and the effective/ efficient use of the ROM outputs enhanced through hands-on assistance to their recipients and to other donors and/or stakeholders in the regions/ countries where the Food Facility projects are implemented (by order/approval of the FFTF). The competent EC Services supported in further developing the ROM system and/or of specific methodologies/tools for improving the effectiveness of the ROM system in the area of Food Security.

Monitoring and Evaluation of the project: 'Modernization of Vocational Education and Training, "Syria M&E VET", Completed, EC Delecation in Syria The project: "Monitoring and Evaluation of the project: "Modernization of Vocational Education and Training" - (M&E-MVET)" is implemented under the EC MEDA programme in Syria and aims at providing scientific services for external and independent monitoring and evaluation of the project "Modernization of Vocational Education and Training". The latter is part of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Programme, implemented in Syria. The project support is effected through a monitoring and evaluation team which is activated in parallel with the working team of the project "Modernisation of the Vocational Education and Training" and supplies EU with information regarding the implementation of the programme, possible difficulties and proposals to overcome such implementation problems.

Service contract for a Results-Oriented Monitoring system of the implementation of Projects & Programmes of External Cooperation financed by the EC – Lot 6 (Western Balkans and Turkey), Completed, EC-DG Enlargement The overall project objective is to contribute to the promotion of the Aquis Communaitaire in the Western Balkan countries and Turkey, through the implementation of appropriate programmes / projects with sustainable impacts / results. The contract purpose is: a) provision of clear, objective, well-targeted, consistent, user friendly information on programmes’ / projects’ implementation and of recommendations for improvements; b) provision of information (including statistics and customized analyses) on: best practices/common mistakes, recommendations for improvement, performance of the EC-managed project portfolio, cross-cutting issues (as in the European Consensus), other if/as required; c) dissemination of ROM results through seminars, enhancement of effective use of ROM outputs through hands-on assistance to their recipients and, by approval of EC, to other stakeholders); d provision of support to the competent EC Services for further development of the ROM and/or of specific methodologies/ tools for improving the effectiveness of the ROM system.

Service contract for a Results-Oriented Monitoring system of the implementation of Projects & Programmes of External Cooperation financed by the EC – Lot 5 (Centrally Managed Thematic Projects), Completed, EC-AIDCO/F The overall project objective is the promotion of the EU Specific strategic themes and related instruments, through the implementation of appropriate EC programmes/ projects with sustainable impacts/ results. The contract purpose is summarised as follows: a) provision (through MRs/BCSs) of clear, objective, well-targeted, consistent, user friendly information on project implementation and recommendations for improvements; b) provision (through Special Reports) of information (statistics, customized analyses) on: best practices, common mistakes and recommendations; performance of the EC project portfolio; crosscutting issues (as in the European Consensus); other if/as required; c) dissemination of ROM results through seminars; enhancement of effective use of ROM outputs through hands-on assistance to their recipients and, by approval of EC, to other stakeholders); d) provision of support to the competent EC Services for further development of the ROM and/or of specific methodologies/ tools for improving the effectiveness of the ROM system.

Service contract for a Results-Oriented Monitoring system of the implementation of Projects & Programmes of External Cooperation financed by the EC – Lot 1 (European Neighbourhood Countries), Completed, EC AIDCO/A The overall objective is to contribute to the increase and accountability of the EC external assistance. The project purpose is to ensure that ROM acts as an independent early warning system supporting EC project management with useful recommendations.

EC Results-Oriented Monitoring System of the implementation of projects and programmes of External Assistance financed by the EU (Lot 5: MED region), Completed, EC (MEDA) Project monitoring provides a regular reporting mechanism for the preparation and submission of analytical assessments to management and other involved parties, thus enabling focused management decisions to be taken in order to (a) ensure that projects remain on course to reach their objectives, with any adjustments being made with minimal disruption; (b) support regular reporting mechanisms incl. to the Member States, the European Parliament, the Council; and (c) ensure early feedback from project implementation to subsequent project design, in advance of conclusions from ex-post evaluation. The objective of the monitoring is to maintain and where possible improve the quality of programmes and projects in external co-operation through timely, independent, well-targeted information on project implementation. This information will mainly be provided through appropriate high-quality reports on technical and managerial aspects of project implementation. Monitoring reports follow a standard format allowing ready aggregation of data at the programme level on implementation of individual projects. The basis of project monitoring and subsequent reporting is the logical framework prepared for the project. An initial logical framework is systematically prepared together with the Financing Proposal for all new projects. This draft is likely to be updated by project authorities for individual projects both in their technical proposals and periodically thereafter. The monitors for any project will be encouraged to make proposals for refining or adapting the logical framework for that project, however all revisions to the logical framework for a project will remain the remit of project authorities. The monitors are responsible for reporting on project implementation against the agreed logical framework at the time of the visit.

Technical Assistance to Government Planning, monitoring and Evaluation Functions, Uganda, Completed, EC-AIDCO The purpose of this programme is to enhance the capacity of public institutions to make a more efficient and more intensive use of empirical evidence when formulating national and local policies and for the purpose of allocating public resources. The overall objectives are to (A) Strengthen the link between the GoU’s poverty reduction strategy (PEAP) objectives and outcomes and the allocation of budget resources; (B) Support the operationalisation and implementation of the NIMES initiative; including the establishment of Annual PEAP Implementation Reviews, functioning PEAP M&E plan and Local Government performance assessment framework; (C) Strengthen the capacity of district officials and other stakeholders to collect and manipulate data for planning and monitoring purposes.

Technical assistance services for the supervision and monitoring of all the projects of development and installation of integrated Information Technology and Communication (ITC) systems in the Prefectoral Self-governments in the Regions of: a) Thessaly, Central Greece and Ionian Islands. b) Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Central Macedonia and Northern Aegean. c) Regions of Peloponnesus, Western Greece, Crete and Southern Aegean, Completed, Info society s.a The scope of the project is the provision of scientific and technical assistance services for the supervision and monitoring of all the projects of development and installation of integrated Information Technology and Communication (ITC) systems in the Prefectoral Self-governments in the three Regions, These projects are financed by the Operational Program "Information Society", Measure 2.2 "Electronic Government in the Citizen’s Service".

Tnterim Evaluation of the EU Pre-Accession Programmes in Croatia and Turkey and Central Office Activities, Completed, Evaluation Unit of DG ELARG of the EC The overall objective of the Interim Evaluation (IE) facility is to help enhance the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and accountability of pre-accession assistance. The immediate objectives of the IE facility are: (1) to provide stakeholders in DG Enlargement and candidate countries with independent evaluation findings; (2) to provide a quality management tool and early warning system for programme implementation; (3) provide input for decision making at JMC meetings; (4) provide advisory services by drawing out lessons learned and feeding them as recommendations into the design of future programmes; and (5) to help develop monitoring and evaluation capacities in the candidate countries.

Ex ante evaluation of the Operational Programme for Competitiveness 2007 - 2013, Completed, Special Secretariat for Competitiveness, Ministry of Development The specific aim of the evaluation consultant is to assist the programming and assessing of the new Operational Programme for Competitiveness (O.P.C.) and support the Administrative Office in its consultancy with the Ministry of Economics and the European Commission till its approval.

EC DG Budget Evaluation, Completed, EC DG Budget/B05, Evaluation Unit This framework contract concerns the carrying out of all types of evaluation projects including ex ante evaluations, impact assessments, interim and ex post evaluations and covers a wide variety of Community policy fields. These fields are listed in the reply form and are based on the following preliminary breakdown by policy area.

Mid-Term Evaluation of the Operational Programme “Road Axes, Ports, Urban Development” of the CSF III and Update of the Mid-Term Evaluation of the Operational Programme “Road Axes, Ports, Urban Development” of the CSF, Completed, Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Public Works The project’s purpose is to carry out the Mid-Term Evaluation of the Operational Programme "Road Axes, Ports and Urban Development" (OP-RAPUD) of the General Secretariat for Public Works of the Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works. RAPUD is one of the 11 Sectoral Operational Programmes of the Third Community Support Framework (3rd CSF) 2000-2006. The Mid-term evaluation aims at improving the quality and relevance of programming of the Operational Programmes (OPs), under the Community Initiatives. The legal Basis for the Mid-Term Evaluation Article 42 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999 of 21 June 1999 laying down general provisions on the Structural Funds. It provides an opportunity to identify reorientations to the programming, which may be needed to ensure the achievement of the original objectives. It is the essential input into the mid term review and is inter-linked with the performance reserve.

Monitoring of Tacis projects: Monitoring Team Kiev, Completed, EC (Tacis) Tacis Monitoring was defined as a regular reporting mechanism for the preparation and submission of analytical assessments to management and other involved parties, thus enabling focused management decisions to be taken in order to (a) ensure that projects remain on course to reach their objectives, with any adjustments being made with minimal disruption; (b) allow adjustments to be made with minimal disruption.

Monitoring & Evaluation of Tacis Projects in Central Asia/Mongolia, Completed, European Commission (Tacis) Implementation of a regular reporting mechanism which provides analytical assessment of the Tacis Programme and individual projects implemented in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Tadjikistan (until the suspension of Tacis) in all sectors, thus allowing all involved parties to make promptly the necessary adjustments to ensure that the projects remain on course and reach their objectives and to evaluate whether the Tacis Programme achieves its objectives. The services include programming and implementation of monitoring visits, utilisation of varied expertise, multi-sector-multi-country-multi-site planning and co-ordination, use of LFA and indicators, production of monitoring and of evaluation reports, production of sectoral & country reviews, establishment of quality assurance mechanism, organisation of training seminars for the EU and local experts, evaluation of the Tacis programme as a whole for the European Parliament.

Further Development, Operation & Maintenance of the Integrated Monitoring & Evaluation System IMES, Completed, EC (Tacis) Specific objectives: a) development of an integrated web-based information system to support the EC management of Tacis projects, b) updating the system database on a monthly basis with Monitoring & Evaluation reports produced by the Monitoring Teams in the regions, c) maintenance of the system. Training on the use of the system, preparation of manuals.

Indicative ongoing and recently completed projects of EPU-NTUA in the area "Training and Human Resource Development" include the following:

UPSWING: “UPgrading the construction Sector Workforce traINing and qualification in Greece”, Ongoing, European Commission, Intelligent Energy - Europe II Partners: CRES (coordinator), TUC, IME GSEVEE, INE GSEE, TCG, EOPPEP

Start date: 1/9/2014, Duration: 36 months

According to the National Roadmap for Greece developed by the BUS-GR project (Pillar I of BUILD UP Skills), which addresses the specific Greek construction sector needs and proposes strategic measures and actions to strengthen the continuing training and qualification of on-site building workers, craftsmen and systems installers in Greece, three professions with substantiated great impact on the energy upgrading of buildings – so, on the achievement of the energy targets of Greece for 2020 - are: (i) insulation technicians, (ii) aluminium and metal constructions craftsmen, (iii) installers-maintainers of burners. UPSWING proposes the development of three large scale fully functional training schemes for the above professions, in full accordance with the priorities and Action Plan of the Greek Qualification Roadmap. Initially, the specific training and qualification schemes will be designed according to the identified needs. The occupational profiles will be updated and validated. A cross craft introductory session, addressing all professions in the sector, is also proposed. Next, the training materials and guidelines (including practical training), as well as the assessment criteria and tools (for the exams leading to certification of trainees) will be developed, while the “train the trainers” courses will be designed and piloted. Following these steps, the schemes will be tested in pilot courses, to be evaluated and revised before launching to a fully functional large-scale level. As UPSWING vision is the sustainability and enhancement of the training schemes after the project’s end, a number of accompanying measures supporting the coordination and operation of the developed schemes are further proposed, such as: • provision of incentives to boost the interest and demand for highly qualified workers, • formation of an observatory for systematic monitoring of new building skills, • proposition of funding mechanisms, • communication activities for public awareness.

EuropeAid/123483/C/SER/Multi, Regional Capacity Building Initiative II (RCBI-II) for the ENPI Cross-Border Cooperation Programmes, 2006/132273, 2006/132718, Completed, European Commission. Τhe project aims to build up the capacity of local and regional authorities in project development and management terms in the eligible ENPI regions (western border areas of Belarus, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine, Moldova, the three South Caucasus countries Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and northern as well as western border areas of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria). The assistance will be given in the form of open workshops and consultation with experts at the request of potential beneficiaries and where considered necessary. Expected Results The project will support the ENPI partner countries with a view to achieving the following results: equal representation of programme partners at all levels; the programme reflects the needs and addresses the priorities of the targeted region; the management and control structures and systems are identified in compliance with the principles of sound financial management; increased level of awareness of the possibilities of cross-border and regional cooperation in the beneficiary regions; increased capacity of partners in the beneficiary countries to identify and prepare good quality development projects; a sufficient number of good quality development projects prepared and approved for implementation.

Web based system for the evaluation, management and certification of professional skills/ capabilities in the human resources labour market, Completed, General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greek Minsitry of Development, Programme PAVET - NE The aim of this project is to design and develop an innovative Methodology and a web based system for the specification, quantification and management of information, regarding professional skills/ capabilities of human resources. The system will provide the following services:

• Detailed Analysis, Evaluation and Certification of the professional skills of individuals / professionals, based on an advanced evaluation methodology, using analytical evaluation procedures.
• The creation and maintenance of a Knowledge Base that offers the available skills/capabilities of the total of the evaluated personnel. This Knowledge Base can be accessed and used by organizations and business that are interested in finding specific professional skills.
• Evaluation of the existing personnel and assessment of their skill, based on pre-defined criteria, concerning performance/productivity.

Manager’s Training Program NIS MTP III, Completed, European Commission, Programme TACIS, ΕuropeAid Co-operation Office The project‘s overall objective was to strengthen management quality and efficiency in the partner countries’ companies and to provide comprehensive support to sustainable management development in these countries. In order of priority, the project had the following immediate objectives for the partner countries (PC):

• Individual managers objective: to develop their managerial know-how, competence and personality, to broaden their view as regards management and its scope, to apply and disseminate the learning in their respective companies;
• PC company objective: to strengthen management quality and/or initiate management development processes; to make effective use of training to achieve company goals; to make effective use of the learning from MTP participants;
• Training objective: to support sustainable development of PC management training and development capacity (esp. in Russia and Ukraine); and
• Business development objective: to enhance business links and co-operation between companies in the EU and the PC, and between PC companies and public authorities.

Development of a System of Continuing Education at Workplace, Ukraine, Completed, EC (TACIS), Government of Ukraine The project‘s overall objective is the development of a System of Continuing Vocational Training as part of lifelong learning recognized and used by enterprises and policy makers. The project aims at developing comprehensive and sustainable policy and strategy on Continuing Vocational Training in Ukraine in order to address the skills shortages and lack of qualified workforce in enterprises through updating and modernizing regulatory framework regarding CVT, implementing pilot projects in the regions, creating national and regional capacity to provide information and methodological support for a variety of clientele. These pilot projects will be implemented as cooperation schemes between various types of enterprises and training providers. They will serve as evidence, which will be a basis for further elaboration and modification of national policy and strategy. More specifically, the project aims to: a) modernise and adopt at the national level a CVT policy and regulatory framework to stimulate in-company training and investments into continuous skills upgrading, b) strengthen the capacity of policy makers, training providers and other stakeholders to develop and implement continuing training activities, c) establish a national resource centre and three regional centres able to provide information, advice and methodologies on Continuing Vocational Training opportunities for various target groups and d) carry out at national and regional levels regular CVT needs analyses enabling all stakeholders to take informed and timely decisions.

Project Management Training, Bulgaria, Completed, EC Programme Phare The project aimed at the improvement of the capabilities of the Bulgarian energy companies in the areas of project management and international funding. The first objective was to provide high quality training on Project Management for experts from the Bulgarian energy industry. The second objective was to support the Bulgarian energy industry in seeking funding for the most promising energy projects in Bulgaria. The third objective was to support the dissemination of project management and financing knowledge throughout the energy sector.