Government Data Integration and Maturity: Major Changes by 2026
Data collected by the State public sector remains untapped, yet it is high-potential asset, essential for the country's technological progress. In order to make the best possible use of data and further progress towards effective data opening, the State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania) has been entrusted with a large-scale project - the authority massively describes public sector data resources and prepares a public catalogue of them, integrates data into the state data lake and opens them on Lithuania’s Open Data Portal.
"The need for public sector data in Lithuania is already high and continues to grow, unfortunately, the maturity of data economy is low. In order to use data, you first need to know what it is like in our country and where it is stored", Dr Jūratė Petrauskienė, Director General of the State Data Agency, reveals the main challenge.
From the departmental level to the general directory
What prevents simultaneous coverage of all the data available to the state? According to the interlocutor, most of the information systems and state registers are closed and focused on meeting departmental information needs. Acquisition of data is not centralized and, if there is a need to access data (e.g. when writing a report on performance results), it is necessary to contact its individual managers or processors according to individual service provision procedures established by the authorities themselves. Obviously, such processes are still complicated.
After assessing the situation, the State Data Agency was entrusted with inventorying all the data collected by the state and preparing the first global data catalogue of the Lithuanian public sector. The goal is to have data descriptions of all state information resources in one place. "Creation of such catalogue is the first and essential step towards the effective opening and use of data. Preparation of this catalogue will allow us to find out the size of the data economy of the Lithuanian public sector and, if necessary, to quickly use its data", emphasizes Dr J. Petrauskienė.
After the implementation of the project, a model of the state data structure and its management tools will be created in order to increase the amount of publicly available data in the national data lake and thus create prerequisites for re-using the data contained in all state information systems and registers and opening this data to the public, as well as the business and scientific sectors.
Relevant for many authorities in our country
The goal of the data integration into the data lake project carried out by the Agency is to inventory data of all public sector authorities. State authorities and other managers of the public sector information resources are legally bound (the Law on Official Statistics and State Data Governance of the Republic of Lithuania) to process the data they manage and ensure their availability for legitimate purposes, such as data opening, emergency management, scientific research, education, mutual exchange, etc.
"It is important to underline that authorities are not simply "thrown" into data processing matters without providing any guidance and assistance. The State Data Agency is precisely the authority that helps to inventory and record data, to standardize them, to create high-maturity (combined) sets, thus creating prerequisites for the further use of data on the secure multi-functional State Data Management Platform. The objective we all share is to organize public sector data management in such a way that data becomes available "here and now" for decision-making, to ensure its integrity, comprehensive analysis and its opening to the public as needed," notes Dr J. Petrauskienė.
In addition, all state authorities can also request data from other institutions through the State Data Agency on the basis of the "one-stop shop" principle. The more and better described data is contained in the catalogue and the data lake, the easier and faster it will be possible to find out about the existing data and get them for analysis, mentions the Head of the Agency.
How to participate and collaborate?
In the course of the project taking place since spring 2023 until June 2026, the Agency will contact all authorities and help both to prepare for the work related to the project and carry it out. Throughout the process, common good practices will be used to draw up a general inventory plan, determine the need for data collection, as well as the principles on which authorities are selected to develop an inventory plan for each year.
Authorities whose data has not yet been inventoried can start preparing for it and consider who could best coordinate these works, what data should be described in detail and how the description would take place, whether it will be necessary to involve information system suppliers.
"We recommend the lawyers of authorities to familiarize themselves with the Law on Official Statistics and State Data Governance, which establishes duties and offers opportunities for each institution to provide and receive data. In addition, the Agency publishes information about the project on its website, including answers to frequently asked questions," advises Dr J. Petrauskienė.
Currently, the Agency's project team, which consists of skilled, diverse specialists, already cooperates with almost 200 authorities: conducts in-depth interviews with their employees, together with them inventory the collected data and prepare primary data structure descriptions, analyze their content, maturity, quality aspects, implement standard data sharing links, requests the appointment of a data coordinator.
Most of the authorities we are currently working with are from the fields of health care, social security, transport, energy, environment, education, public administration. The following areas have been distinguished taking into account the main criteria on the basis of which an annual list of state authorities to be inventoried is drawn up:
- Data are needed to solve priority tasks of the state
- Data are classified as high-value data sets, the list of which is specified in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/130 of 18 January 2023 laying down rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the presentation of the content of the annual performance report
- There is an expressed public need to open data
- Data sample is broad and reusable
- Data is current and frequently updated
The State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania) implements the project "Integration of State Information Resources into the Data Lake", which is financed by the Economic Recovery and Resilience Facility Plan "New Generation Lithuania" and the State budget of Lithuania.