ISA² - Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens

About ISA²

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The ISA² Programme supports the development of digital solutions that enable public administrations, businesses and citizens in Europe to benefit from interoperable cross-border and cross-sector public services.

ISA² is running from 1 January 2016 until 31 December 2020. The programme was adopted in November 2015 by the European Parliament and the Council of European Union. To celebrate this, a conference 'From ISA to ISA²' was held on 3 March 2016.

The ISA² Programme supports the following actions: ISA² action overview. Under the actions, the programme develops interoperability solutions  are generally available for free and can be found here.

The preliminary results of ISA² were presented at the ISA² Mid-Term Conference on 29 November 2018.

What is new in ISA² compared to ISA?

ISA² is the follow-up programme to ISA, which ran from 2010-2015. The new programme will:

  • ensure that interoperability activities are well coordinated at EU level;
  • develop and operate solutions for the public administrations on the basis of businesses’ and citizens’ needs;
  • put in place the necessary instruments to boost interoperability at EU and national level, such as:
    • a revised European Interoperability  Framework (EIF);
    • a revised European Interoperability  Strategy (EIS);
    • an  Architecture, the European Interoperability Reference Architecture (EIRA);
    • Cartography of solutions, the European Interoperability Cartography (EIC).

European Interoperability Timeline

Who is managing the programme?

The programme is managed by the  Interoperability Unit of DG Informatics of the European Commission, DIGIT.D2.

The Member States play an active role through their participation in:

  • the  ISA² Committee, the high level governmental body of the programme;
  • the  ISA² Coordination group, a technical body mandated to ensure horizontal coherence between the programme’s actions.

How is the programme implemented?

The programme is implemented through annual rolling work programmes. This means that there will be five of them for the period 2016-2020.

Each annual work programme undergoes the following phases:

  • Submission: A call for proposals is addressed to:
    • the Member States and other countries participating in ISA²
    • the Commission services
  • Evaluation:
    • the Interoperability Unit presents a list of proposals that qualify to be included in the work programme, on the basis of the selection and prioritisation criteria defined by the ISA² decision
    • the ISA² Committee gives an opinion on the proposed action list
  • Adoption: The work programme is adopted by the Commission and the budget is released.
  • Implementation: The work programme actions are implemented by the European Commission services in charge of the specific actions.

What is the available budget and who manages it?

The ISA² Programme has a budget of EUR 131 million, distributed over the 5-year duration of the programme.

Funds are not allocated to entities outside the European Commission (i.e. in the form of grants).

The European Commission services in charge of the various actions implement them in accordance with the European public procurement rules.

How does the Commission monitor and evaluate the ISA² programme?

The monitoring and evaluation of ISA² are carried out through various streams under the monitoring and evaluation action, in particular:

  • monthly monitoring of the implemented actions and publication of results on the ISA² dashboard
  • annual reporting to the ISA² Committee
  • an interim evaluation of the ISA² programme by 30 September 2019
  • a final evaluation of the ISA² programme by 31 December 2021

Is ISA² aligned with other Commission initiatives?

The ISA unit ensures coordination with other relevant Commission services (i.e. DG DIGIT, DG CNECT, DG GROW …) and related initiatives, such as:

  • the context of the Digital Single Market Strategy, notably the Priority ICT Standards Plan, and the EU Catalogue of ICT standards
  • the European eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020
  • the CEF-Digital (the 'Connecting Europe Facility')
  • the IT Governance of the European Commission
  • similar interoperability-specific or policy-specific initiatives at EU level

Click the image to enlarge the diagram.

5th work programme (year 2020)

Current status:  Implementation

On 4 March 2020, the European Commission adopted the 5th work programme under the ISA² Programme.

  • Total annual budget: roughly EUR 27.8 million
  • Total number of actions: 54
  • Actions are grouped around 9 themes: 
    • Key and generic interoperability enablers (7 actions)
    • Semantic interoperability (4 actions)
    • Access to data / data sharing / open data (7 actions)
    • Geospatial solutions (1 action)
    • eProcurement / eInvoicing (1 action)
    • Decision-making and legislation (10 actions)
    • EU policies (5 actions)
    • Supporting instruments for public administrations (17 actions)
    • Accompanying measures (2 actions)
  • Relevant documents: 

4th work programme (year 2019)

Current status:  Implementation

PHASE PROCESS DATES
Submission Call for proposals From: 12/06/2018 
To: 18/08/2018
Evaluation Work programme preparation From: 18/08/2018
To: 03/2019
Adoption Adoption by the European Commission 26/03/2019
Implementation Work programme implementation From: 27/03/2019
To: 12/2020

On 26 March 2019, the European Commission adopted the 4th work programme under the ISA² Programme.

  • Total annual budget: roughly EUR 27.1 million
  • Proposals:
    • Submitted by Member States and Commission services: 3 
    • Accepted to become new work programme actions: 1
    • Included in ongoing actions: 2
  • Paused/finished actions: 10
  • Total number of actions: 54
  • Actions are grouped around 9 themes: 
    • Key and generic interoperability enablers (7 actions)
    • Semantic interoperability (4 actions)
    • Access to data / data sharing / open data (7 actions)
    • Geospatial solutions (1 action)
    • eProcurement / eInvoicing (1 action)
    • Decision-making and legislation (10 actions)
    • EU policies (5 actions)
    • Supporting instruments for public administrations (17 actions)
    • Accompanying measures (2 actions)
  • Relevant documents: 

3rd work programme (year 2018)

Current status:  Implementation

PHASE PROCESS DATES
Submission Call for proposals From: 12/06/2017 
To: 14/08/2017
Evaluation Work programme preparation From: 15/08/2017
To: 19/03/2018
Adoption Adoption by the European Commission 20/03/2018
Implementation Work programme implementation From: 21/03/2018
To: 12/2020

On 20 March 2018, the European Commission adopted the 3rd work programme under the ISA² Programme.

  • Total annual budget: roughly EUR 26.4 million
  • Proposals:
    • Submitted by Member States and Commission services: 14 
    • Accepted to become new work programme actions: 10 
  • Paused/finished actions: 7
  • Total number of actions: 53
  • Actions are grouped around 9 themes:
    • Key and generic interoperability enablers (7 actions)
    • Semantic interoperability (4 actions)
    • Access to data / data sharing / open data (7 actions)
    • Geospatial solutions (1 action)
    • eProcurement / eInvoicing (1 action)
    • Decision-making and legislation (10 actions)
    • EU policies (5 actions)
    • Supporting instruments for public administrations (16 actions)
    • Accompanying measures (2 actions)
  • Relevant documents:

2nd work programme (year 2017)

Current status:  Implementation

Phase Process Dates
Submission Call for proposals From: 24/06/2016 
To: 26/08/2016
Evaluation Work programme preparation From: 27/08/2016
To: 22/03/2017
Adoption Adoption by the European Commission 23/03/2017
Implementation Work programme implementation From: 24/03/2017
To: 12/2019

On 23 March 2017, the European Commission adopted the 2nd work programme under the ISA² Programme.

  • Total annual budget: roughly EUR 25.5 million
  • Proposals:
    • Submitted by Member States and Commission services: 10
    • Accepted to become new work programme actions: 4
  • Paused actions: 7
  • Total number of actions: 36
  • Actions were grouped around 9 themes:
    • Key and generic interoperability enablers (5 actions)
    • Semantic interoperability (3 actions)
    • Access to data / data sharing / open data (4 actions)
    • Geospatial solutions (1 action)
    • eProcurement / eInvoicing (1 action)
    • Decision-making and legislation (7 actions)
    • EU policies (2 actions)
    • Supporting instruments for public administrations (11 actions)
    • Accompanying measures (2 actions)
  • Relevant documents:

1st work programme (year 2016)

Current status:  Implementation 

Phase Process Dates
Submission Call for proposals From: 22/06/2015
To: 17/08/2015
Evaluation Work programme preparation From: 18/08/2015
To: 18/04//2016
Adoption Adoption by the European Commission 19/04/2016
Implementation Work programme implementation From: 20/04/2016
To: 12/2018

On 19 April 2016, the European Commission adopted the 1st work programme under the new ISA² Programme.

  • Total annual budget: roughly  EUR 24 million
  • Proposals:
    • Submitted by Member States and Commission services: 52
    • Proposals accepted to become work programme actions:  39
  • Actions were grouped around 9 themes:
    • Key and generic interoperability enablers (6 actions)
    • Semantic interoperability (3 actions)
    • Access to data / data sharing / open data (5 actions)
    • Geospatial solutions (1 action)
    • e-Procurement / e-Invoicing (1 action)
    • Decision making and legislation (6 actions)
    • EU policies (3 actions)
    • Supporting instruments for public administrations (12 actions)
    • Accompanying measures (2 actions)
  • Relevant documents:

Whom should I contact should I have questions?

See the section How to get in contact?

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