Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration

As part of the Innovation Roadmap, FCT is promoting a Call projects that aims to support the development of partnerships between public administration and R&D institutions so that, together, they can build new ways of processing public data to produce knowledge that is relevant to society, using advanced artificial intelligence and data science techniques. This is the first of three Calls with a total budget of €10 million. The Notice of the Call the first Call available here, and applications will be accepted from March 15 to April 30. This action falls under Axis 5 – Research of the National Digital Skills Initiative e.2030 (Portugal INCoDe.2030).

Every year, in order to provide services to citizens, the Public Administration collects millions of pieces of administrative data. Although this data supports the purpose for which it is requested, its value goes far beyond that use. When processed, this data has the potential to inform decision-making, optimize resources, improve public policies, and ultimately contribute to improving people's lives.

Advances in computing and artificial intelligence techniques allow for increasingly complex analysis of different sets of microdata, combining them in new ways to extract previously inaccessible knowledge. The scientific community thus becomes essential in developing a model of public administration based on advanced analysis methods that allow the full potential of existing data to be exploited.

In addition to Call, to stimulate data science in Public Administration, a set of four projects identified in an integrated manner by the Offices of the Minister of the Presidency and Administrative Modernization and the Minister of Science, Technology, and Higher Education are already being promoted, in close collaboration with the coordination of the Portugal INCoDe.2030 Initiative, the Agency for Administrative Modernization (AMA), and the FCT. These partnerships will be funded for 18 months, with a total budget of €500,000. They are:

Project 1: Analysis of antibiotic prescription patterns (partnership between the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health, SPMS, and the Gulbenkian Institute of Science)

This project aims to prevent the excessive and inappropriate prescription of antibiotics, which poses a threat and a public health problem. Based on the digital transformation that is taking place in the prescription of medicines and health products, namely through Paperless Prescriptions, the aim is to further analyze antibiotic prescription patterns using electronic medical prescription data.

 Project 2: Long-term unemployment risk assessment (partnership between the Institute for Employment and Professional Training, IEFP, and NOVA SBE)

The project aims to deepen the analysis of the records of the Institute for Employment and Professional Training (IEFP) in order to detect the risk of long-term unemployment at an early stage and identify gaps in the skills of unemployed people in relation to the labor market.

Project 3: Food and economic inspection (partnership between the Food and Economic Safety Authority, ASAE, and the Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory, University of Porto, LIACC)

The project aims to develop risk analysis models for selecting economic agents to be supervised, based on available databases and to be developed within the scope of this project. The risk analysis models should include the simulation of the behavior of diverse economic agents, including virtual agents (i.e., those with an internet presence). The intention is to use all available information to improve prevention in the areas of food safety and economic supervision.

Project 4: Intelligent support for entrepreneurs (chatbots) (partnership between the Agency for Administrative Modernization, AMA, and the Center for Information Technology and Systems at the University of Coimbra, CISUC)

The project aims to further develop and apply artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques in the development of intelligent agents (chatbots) capable of answering questions and clarifying doubts from entrepreneurs within the scope of the Entrepreneur Desk/Business Space. It includes automatic support on issues related to starting a business, licensing, support, and financing, among others.