Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration

(available only in Portuguese)

As part of the Innovation Roadmap, the FCT is promoting a Call for 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 3 Calls annually with a global allocation of €10M. THE Notice of the Call of the first Call is available here and submissions will take place from March 15th to April 30th. This action falls within 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 administrative data. While 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 decisions, optimize resources, improve public policies and, ultimately, contribute to improving people's lives.

Advances in computing and artificial intelligence techniques make it possible to analyze different sets of microdata in increasingly complex ways, combining them in new ways to obtain previously inaccessible knowledge. The scientific community thus becomes essential to develop a public administration model based on advanced analysis methods that allow the full potential of existing data to be taken advantage of.

In addition to the 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 financed for 18 months, with a total financial envelope of 500 thousand euros. They are:

Project 1: Analysis of antibiotic prescribing 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 represents a threat and a public health problem. Based on the digital transformation that is taking place in terms of prescribing medicines and health products, notably through Paperless Prescription, the aim is to deepen the analysis of antibiotic prescription patterns using data from electronic medical prescriptions.

 Project 2: Assessment of long-term unemployment risk (partnership between the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training, IEFP, and NOVA SBE)

The project aims to deepen the analysis of the records of the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training, IEFP, in order to detect the risk of long-term unemployment early and to identify gaps in the skills of unemployed people in relation to the labor market.

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

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

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

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