Prospects of cooperation between the National Academy of Statistics and the University of Valencia

On April 20, 2018, the National Academy of Statistics, Accounting and Audit (http://nasoa.edu.ua/en/) was visited by José Cervera-Ferri, CEO of DevStat. During the meeting with the rector of the Academy Oleksander Osaulenko, and the head of the international relations office Aliaksei Zhurauliou discussed the prospects of cooperation between the Academy and the University of Valencia, as well as the participation of the Academy in the grant projects of the European Commission and the World Bank. Mr Osaulenko has been involved in World Bank project in Tajikistan managed by DevStat to provide advice on the establishment of a statistical training centre.

SPACES: Decentralised Social Spaces for Crowd and Data Driven Innovation

Following its determined values, DevStat is committed to participating in European H2020 projects putting the focus in R & D + i. In 2018 the company presented a proposal to implement the project “SPACES: Decentralised Social Spaces for Crowd and Data Driven Innovation” pertaining to the Information and Communications Technologies program (Objective: ITC-28-2018: Future Hyper-connected Sociality (c) Support of new Social Media initiatives). The preparation of this proposal was led by INTRASOFT International S.A. company that offers the development of mobile applications, development and testing of applications, content management systems, among others.

Below, we present a brief overview of the SPACES’ project proposed, which, although it did not exceed the threshold, generated a very valuable “expertise” for the company:

In recent years, our society has experienced the proliferation of large online social networks that have evolved to a keystone of civic bringing about numerous challenges among which data ownership, control, security and trust. Much of the controversy lies on the power that social networks can gain by accessing and processing large volumes of user data, which is exacerbated by improved cloud infrastructures and AI potential. In addition, the coupling between data and online social network applications limits the innovation potential of our society. SPACES introduces an innovative, decentralised, people-lead paradigm for Social Media deployment. It presents a trustworthy framework composed of a distributed reference architecture and an open-source technology suite and platform that enables the general public and communities to create multi-purpose Social Spaces while maintaining control over the use of their data and information. SPACES will exemplify the new paradigm by developing a framework for open data-centric decentralised social platforms decoupling user profiles and data from applications. The SPACES paradigm provisions two operational levels: a technology level employing decentralised technologies and architectures, and a business innovation level that will foster a peer-to-peer trusted ecosystem for data-driven innovation aiming to maximise the social and economic value of data. SPACES will foster a marketplace for data assets and data-driven innovation, a co-creation space for tools and services and a crowdfunding space. SPACES will demonstrate and validate its framework by means of three use cases addressing users of high, medium and low media technology literacy, as well as three distinct societal challenges in the areas of innovative data-driven services, trust-worthy data-journalism and crowd heritage. SPACES will also employ two developer workshops during its lifetime, and a large conference and public engagement event at the end.

We would like to underline the importance of the support received from FEDER and IVACE funds within the Business R & D Plan 2018, specifically HORIZONTE-CV, to prepare and develop the proposal of implementation for this project.

PREPARATION OF PROPOSALS FOR CALLS H2020. File number IMAPEA / 2018/54.

ICA Event in Valencia

DevStat is pleased to announce the organization of next ICA Event in Valencia (24-27 April 2018).

As a co-host and member of the Alliance from June 2015, we are more than happy of having the opportunity of receiving our colleagues to gather for 3 days of Cooperation and Networking.

ICA, the International Consulting Alliance (www.icaworld.net), is a network of like-minded, independent and reliable top quality partners working in the development cooperation field, committed to sharing experiences and good practices. ICA aims at bringing together the best technical and local organisations, surrounded by the best international and local experts.

The Alliance currently has already 65 Member organisations. Approximately half of the members are local organisations based in the beneficiary countries where the donor-funded projects take place, and half are technical partners, specialists in their respective technical area. Member of ICA are both profit and not-for-profit organisations, as well as (semi-) public organisations.

With DevStat based in Valencia, the city has therefore become the location of this international event which is to take place from 24-27 April 2018. With around 80-100 expected participants from 50-60 local and technical development aid consulting organisations, coming from more than 40 countries worldwide, this networking conference will be a unique opportunity for the City of Valencia and the Valencian Community to present itself to a large international audience.

Looking for the opportunity of meeting you.

 

Stakeholder consultation – Feasibility Study on Satellite Account for the EU Cultural and Creative Industries

DevStat is carrying out for the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) a Feasibility Study on Satellite Account for the EU Cultural and Creative Industries. As part of the project, a stakeholder consultation is launched, being its aim to identify and consult with key stakeholders the feasibility, the appetite and capacity for establishing a Cultural and Creative Industries Satellite Account, taking into account the impact of Intellectual Property Rights infringement.

Please take part to this stakeholder consultation and fill in the questionnaire available at:

https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/IPRsurvey2018

For questions related to this feasibility study or the completion of the questionnaire, please contact Florabela Carausu at fcarausu@devstat.com

Lecture on the European Statistical System in the Kyiv School of Economics

Open Discussion – Lecture on the European Statistical System in the Kyiv School of Economics

On 22.01.2018, José Cervera, CEO of DevStat, was invited to deliver a lecture on the European Statistical System in the Kyiv School of Economics (Ukraine) (Link to http://www.kse.org.ua/en/about/kse-news/?newsid=2255).

Students and lecturers of the KSE and other institutions exchanged views with José about the requirements imposed by the “EU acquis” for Ukrainian official statistics, which are set in the Association Agreement of Ukraine with the EU, which entered in force on 01.09.2017. José has become familiar with Ukrainian statistics after serving since 2014 as expert in different projects to support regional development and decentralization in this country (LINK to https://public.tableau.com/profile/jose1107#!/vizhome/MonitoringRegionalDevelopmentUAv2_0/sheet0).

Top 2017 results and new resolutions for 2018

Assistance for the organisation of the ESTP courses

Assistance for the organisation of the European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP)

Within the framework of Eurostat’s European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP), DevStat in consortium with the Lithuanian Department of Statistics and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria held a three-day and two-day courses severally on “Advanced R”and “Introduction to time series analysis with JDemetra+” in Luxembourg on the 27th – 29th November and 04th – 05th December 2017 respectively.

The course on Advanced R was taught by Mr Alexander Kowarik (course leader) and Mr Bernhard Meindl, both from Statistics Austria. The course on Introduction to time series analysis with JDemetra+ was taught by Mr Duncan Elliott (course Leader). Courses were attended by more than 20 participants that are part of Eurostat’s staff.

DevStat thanks the trainers and also the participants for their commitment during the course.

 

 

Assistance for the organisation of the ESTP Courses

Assistance for the organisation of the European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP)

Within the framework of Eurostat’s European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP), DevStat in consortium with the Lithuanian Department of Statistics and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria held a three-day course on “Non-response and non-sampling errors in household surveys” in Vilnius between the 4th -6th December 2017.

The course on Non-response and non-sampling errors in household surveys was taught by Ms Danutė Krapavickaitė (course leader) and Ms Inga Masiulaitytė-Šukevič. Both trainers are part of the National Statistical Institute of Lithuania, which support was essential for the success of the course.

The course was attended by more than seventeen participants from several National Statistical Institutes within the European Statistical System (ESS) and from candidate countries.

DevStat thanks the trainers, Statistics Lithuania and also the participants for their commitment during the course.

 

 

The 5th meeting of the Steering Committe QUAL

The draft proposals for recommendations on how to enhance the European Statistical System (ESS) Common Quality Framework were presented and discussed during the 5th meeting of the Steering Committe QUAL held on the 29th of November 2017 in Luxembourg. The proposals were formulated by the consortium DevStat – Statistics Norway within the frame of the contract on “Development of Conceptual Elements for a Common Quality Framework in the European Statistical System (ESS)” signed with Eurostat. The proposals are based on an exhaustive and structured inventory of quality management practices in the ESS, built during the initial phase of the project. The consortium was represented at the 5th Steering Committee QUAL by Hans Vigo Saebo and Florabela Carausu.

Statistics for regional development policy

A short note on the statistical information for regional policies was published by José Cervera in the “Strategy for Development” magazine published by the Ukrainian REGIONET network of specialists. This communication takes place in the framework of the U-LEAD programme (http://u-lead.decentralisation.gov.ua/), financed by the EU and the governments of Germany, Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia to support the process of decentralisation and regional development in Ukraine, where José acts as advisor on statistics and indicators for policy monitoring and evaluation.

Find the short notice here.