DPS, News, GLASS Projekt, 25.01.2021 
istock/ artJazz

Project GLASS: Citizen-friendly eGovernance platform is based on modern software technologies

News from Jan. 25, 2021

Today the GLASS project consortium comes together for its first virtual constituent project meeting. As part of this EU research project, which will start its work in January 2021, a user-centered and citizen-oriented eGovernance platform is being created, that will fundamentally improve the processes and services of public administrations, the service quality and the exchange of data in the public sector.

The digital transformation is forcing public administrations in Europe to fundamentally rethink internal administrative processes, services and infrastructures in order to be able to offer data protection-compliant, secure and cross-border solutions in the future. GLASS is intended to create a “European Common Services Web” that will bring citizens, businesses and European governments closer together. The project introduces a citizen-centric e-governance model that enables beneficiaries to participate in a network for big data exchange and service delivery, which is by design digital, efficient, cost-effective, interoperable, cross-border, secure and promotes the once-only priority.

To set up the eGovernance platform, peer-to-peer, blockchain and machine learning processes will be used to provide a public and distributed infrastructure. The platform is piloted on the basis of real use cases and evaluated as part of the project. The Fraunhofer FOKUS‘ project manager Dr. Yury Glikman explains: “GLASS is based on a distributed data storage system based on the so-called InterPlanetary File System and a distributed ledger, which provides a common and standardized access point among users. The data storage will form the basis for the execution and administration of distributed and secure applications, so-called dApps.“ Fraunhofer FOKUS‘ scientist Fabian Kirstein says: “A Single-Sign-On-Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) will provide access to enable the services in compliance with the Single Digital Gateway Directive. This creates an interoperable data room that promises both efficiency and transparency. In this way, we can ensure, that public services are offered digitally while at the same time the personal data of citizens are protected.”

Fraunhofer FOKUS will lead the development of the technical architecture, the implementation of the decentralized data management and standardization activities.

The whole project is led by the Greek company Unisystems. In addition to Fraunhofer FOKUS and Unisystems, ten interdisciplinary project partners from eight countries are involved in GLASS. The project runs until the end of 2023 within the EU research program “Horizon 2020”.