The European Statistical System Innovation Agenda has been drawn up
The events of recent years, such as the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, have demonstrated like never before that partners of the European Statistical System (ESS) need to respond more quickly to challenges. To meet the rapidly changing data ecosystem and the growing need for operational data, it is necessary to expand the use of digital technologies, implement better practices and enable successful innovation. These issues are addressed by the ESS Innovation Agenda.
The main goals of the ESS Innovation Agenda are therefore to:
- strengthen the ESS's ability to respond rapidly to new and urgent user needs;
- augment products and service portfolios for meeting policy needs (e.g. new metrics and statistical insights, more granularity, timelier statistics, better access to the portfolio of products);
- realise efficiency gains to free up resources;
- strengthen resilience to shocks and adapt to societal changes.
Taking advantage of new technological and methodological innovations, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), privacy-enhancing technologies, smart devices, advanced methods for data integration, exploiting geospatial capabilities and data analysis is essential to rolling out the ESS Innovation Agenda.
The Agenda comprises activities of various types, such as developing new products and putting in place improved processes that are cross cutting various statistical domains. Improving the dissemination and communication of official statistics by focusing on those who are currently non-users of statistics is imperative.
To ensure the successful implementation of the ESS Innovation Agenda, Eurostat has established the ESS Innovation Network(EIN), which comprises innovation champions from all ESS Member States. The EIN has a coordinating role in promoting the activities and actions necessary to implement the ESS Innovation Agenda, and it also has a role in engaging with stakeholders.
More information can be found in the Agenda in Lithuanian and English.
The ESS is the operational partnership comprising the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat), the National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) and other national or regional authorities responsible in each Member State for producing and disseminating European Statistics, which also includes the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries.