OpenBudgets.eu will provide an open-source software framework and accompanying Software-As-A-Service (SAAS) platform for supporting financial transparency, thus enhancing accountability within public sectors, and as a result preventing corruption. A key challenge addressed by OpenBudgets.eu is to provide a multi-stakeholder framework which is scalable, easy-to-use, flexible and attractive. The core objectives of OpenBudgets.eu project are: * A semantic data model, which will be used to integrate all relevant budget and transaction data, giving a pre-defined structure to the input data. This will enable the integration of data from different public sectors at different levels. This integration can then be exploited by comparing different datasets. * A library of visualisation tools with a user-friendly interface, which will enable stakeholders to visualise available data in different granularity and in different modalities (spatial, temporal, administrative). These tools will enable the scrutiny of data under different lenses, enabling stakeholders to explore any relevant budget allocation. * A library of data mining and comparative analysis tools. This library will enable the aggregation of existing data in order to obtain new outcomes and discover trends and patterns, and potentially forecasting budget measures. * A feedback and citizen engagement interface which enables users to discuss and give feed-back on the provided data, for example, suggesting different priorities for budgeting, or discussing a particular transaction. The OpenBudgets.eu open-source framework and portal will integrate these components into a comprehensive portal. The framework will be deployed as a software-as-a-service for thousands of public administrations and millions of citizens. We will apply the project concept to three large-scale pilot scenarios in the domains participatory budgeting, data journalism and corruption prevention.

CoAct proposes a radically new approach to face four “wicked” social global issues by engaging vulnerable citizens acting as in-the field competent co-researchers. The approach represents a new understanding of the underexplored field of Citizen Social Science and will result in the implementation of new or improved science-related policies. CoAct’s ambitious Research and Innovation activities will respond to issues related to Mental Health Care, Youth Employment, Environmental Justice and Gender Equality in Barcelona, Vienna, Berlin, Buenos Aires and in European Eastern countries. CoAct will define and develop a general framework for Citizen Social Science as a participatory research co-designed and directly driven by citizen groups sharing a social concern. The methodological framework will be first incubated in a consortium with Research Organizations, NGOs and global networks of Open Science and Open Data activism. Expertises from Computational Social Science, Participatory Action Research, Citizen Science evaluation or Citizen-generated Data will be incorporated to conceive a transdisciplinary Citizen Social Science that place vulnerable citizens at the center of Research and Innovation cycles, as co-designers and co-researchers. Secondly, three mission-oriented Actions and at least three Research Pilots will be led by vulnerable citizen groups with the support of Knowledge Coalitions formed by public bodies, CSOs and social innovators. The common effort will harness novel, simultaneously global and local, socially robust knowledge and scientifically reasoned measures to promote social change. An Open Citizen Science toolkit, Open Source digital platforms, and Capacity Building activities to improve data and science literacy, including a PhD Summer School, will be delivered. To demonstrate the scientific relevance and the social impact of CoAct!, a dynamic co-evaluation process with new tools will be done and shared with the broad Citizen Science community.

The exponential growth of data in the digital age has led to the development of powerful techniques for effectively harnessing digital information and discovering new knowledge. In this context, Text and Data Mining (TDM) enables researchers from different disciplines to analyse, extract insights and knowledge, and exploit diverse and complex datasets from various digital media. However, the present use of TDM in Europe is significantly lower than in the US and Asia, most probably due to limitations imposed by the European legal framework. In this light, the FutureTDM project identifies and reduces the barriers that inhibit the uptake of TDM for researchers, and innovative businesses. FutureTDM provides critical up-to-date assessments of legal regulations and policies impacting TDM in the EU, and places them in the international research and innovation context. It adopts a bottom-up approach by initiating dialogue between all relevant stakeholders, engaging them via knowledge cafés, workshops and representation on the advisory board to help identify barriers, common solutions and increase awareness of TDM practices and their potential. This combined approach will lead to developing novel policy frameworks and interdisciplinary case-driven practitioner guidelines facilitating the spread of TDM activities. Key to success will be the engagement of actors in the broader community (libraries, publishers, funders, etc.), who will be mobilised through workshops and will be provided with targeted recommendations in the Roadmap for TDM’s uptake. The knowledge distilled from quantitative and qualitative research will be integrated into a Collaborative Knowledge Base and Open Information Hub (www.FutureTDM.eu) using insightful visualisations. This dynamic platform will showcase excellence in TDM research and data-driven innovation and serve as reference for current and future TDM practitioners ensuring broader TDM uptake to boost Europe’s research and innovation capacities.