Newsletter issue no. 1

 TOOP newsletter - issue no. 1

Welcome to the first issue of the TOOP newsletter! TOOP – The Once-Only Principle Project aims to explore and demonstrate the once-only principle (OOP) on a cross-border, collaborative and pan-European scale. In the context of public sector digitalisation, the OOP means that citizens and businesses provide diverse data only once in contact with public administrations, while public administration bodies take actions to internally share and reuse these data – even across borders – so that no additional burden falls on citizens and businesses.

In view of its contribution to the realisation of the Digital Single Market in Europe, the European Commission is strongly promoting the implementation of the OOP across borders. Therefore, TOOP was launched in January 2017 under the EC Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

The TOOP newsletter aims to keep you informed about the developments in the project and intermediate results. In this first issue you will learn more about TOOP objectives, expected outputs, and initial actions undertaken so far. Each following issue will bring new insights from the development of a federated OOP architecture as well as from TOOP piloting activities.

If you want to follow our future activities, please sign up to our newsletter and visit www.toop.eu. For any questions, comments, and ideas related to TOOP project, please feel free to contact us at any time!

Update from the Project Coordinator

The TOOP project has been gaining speed since its launch on 1 January 2017, and is ready to present its first achievements about which you will learn in this first issue of our newsletter. The once-only principle is constantly high on the agenda of the European Commission, which proposed a new regulation establishing a “Single Digital Gateway” to provide information, procedures, assistance and problem solving services on 2 May 2017 (see below).

The proposed regulation includes services for both businesses and citizens, thus providing an additional challenge for the TOOP project, which focuses on business cases. Therefore, we are currently evaluating the potential impact of the proposed regulation on the project and engaging actively with the sister-project SCOOP4C (Stakeholder
Community Once-Only Principle for Citizens).

Single Digital Gateway

On 2 May 2017, the European Commission proposed a new regulation establishing a Single Digital Gateway in Europe, COM(2017)256. This initiative emphasises the importance of the once-only principle for facilitating the use of online procedures and exchange of information between competent authorities. More information on the proposed regulation can be found here!

TOOP Position Paper

The TOOP “Position Paper on Definition of OOP and Situation in Europe” was the first deliverable published by the TOOP project. The objective of this Position Paper is to explain the once-only principle as it is understood by the TOOP consortium, and to summarise the motivation and ambition behind the project. You can find the deliverable here!

Taking big Steps towards TOOP Architecture Design

End of June, the T 2.1 architects meeting in Copenhagen was held. We can look back on a very fruitful meeting, where a number of steps were taken towards our first milestone in Work Package 2: to have the first version of the Generic OOP Reference Architecture (GOOPRA) described and available for the TOOP pilots, end of December this year. Already, a first structured approach has been proposed to describe the business architecture and the information systems architecture.

Besides, discussions with the European Commission are commencing on multiple levels regarding the implications of the TOOP results. Especially in light of the proposed Single Digital Gateway regulations, we are happy to be able to contribute to these important developments.

Within the last days, the first version of the Deliverable “Generic Federated OOP Architecture”, providing the foundation for development of the Generic Reference OOP Architecture has been published on TOOP website:

•    D2.1 – Generic Federated OOP Architecture  (1st version)

For more information, see: www.toop.eu.

Pilots are being developed

The design of the TOOP pilots is well underway in all three pilot areas. On 23-24 May, a plenary of all piloting country representatives was held in Rome, hosted by our project partner ANAC. There, the two baselines scenarios of TOOP were discussed: the “simple pull” of information, as well as the “notify and push” scenario of information update. All Member State representatives had an opportunity to express their piloting intentions and discuss the data provider and data consumers they intend to commit to the project. Work is ongoing to further define the pilots, culminating at the eventual Pilot Plans which will be ready by the end of 2017.

At the end of June 2017, the three pilot areas (Cross-border eServices, Connected Company Data, Online Ship and Crew Certificates) and the participant Member States have developed a series of motivational scenarios that describe the pilot use cases, as well as a preliminary set of business requirements. Close cooperation with TOOP architecture design has started the profiling of CEF Building Blocks for TOOP and the development of pilot solutions, mostly around eDelivery. Work on a preliminary data model and semantics is also underway. More activities of this kind will be performed in the following months.

A set of piloting principles, outlining the criteria and procedures by which pilots will be assessed and approved, as well as the operational aspects of pilot monitoring and budget consumption have been discussed with the Beneficiary Managers on 30 June and will be described in more detail in the Piloting Handbook, which is expected to be completed, reviewed, and submitted to the EC as Deliverable D3.4 over the summer by end of August.

Get People involved

Since the very beginning of TOOP, our aim is to communicate the project and its approaches to the outside world and to encourage potential partners or like-minded people to get involved and engage in the project. Within the last six months, TOOP has been present at events like the CeBIT in Hannover, the Semantic Interoperability Conference (SEMIC) in Valetta, or the Digital Government Society Conference (dg.o 2017) in New York. For TOOP, all these events are a great chance to get in touch with context related initiatives, start collaborations, exchange experiences, and be inspired by already existing real-life implementations that bring the Digital Single Market closer to reality.

Together with our sister-project SCOOP4C, we have organised some joint workshops, for instance within the scope of the Tallinn e-Governance Conference 2017 in Estonia. Doing this, our aim is to explore potential drivers and barriers to the implementation of the once-only principle by combining the different perspectives of both projects: the one focusing on the OOP for citizens and the other on the OOP for businesses. In favour of our common interest, we will continue our close collaboration and there will be more common actions and events to come! To stay updated, follow us on social media (see below) or visit: www.toop.eu.

Upcoming deliverables

Within the next months, the following deliverables will be developed:

•    D2.5 – Overview of Legal Landscape Regulations (31 August 2017)
•    D2.7 – Drivers and Barriers for the OOP (1st version, 31 August 2017)
•    D3.4 – Piloting Handbook (31 August 2017)
•    D2.2 – Generic Federated OOP Architecture  (2nd version, 31 December 2017)
•    D2.14 – Position Paper on Definition of OOP and Situation in Europe (updated version, 31 December 2017)

Meet TOOP here:

•    E-VOLUTION of Data Protection Conference, Tartu, Estonia, 6-8 September 2017
•    European Week of Regions and Cities 2017 - Brussels, Belgium, 11 October 2017
•    EUPAN Working Level Meeting, Tallinn, Estonia, 11-12 October 2017
•    e-Justice Conference “Futur-e-Justice”,  Tallinn, Estonia, 19-20 October 2017  
•    EUPAN Directors’ Meeting, Tallinn, 6-7 December 2017

… or at any other upcoming opportunity! For more information, see: www.toop.eu!

Get in touch

For further information and subscription to this newsletter, click here.
For any questions, comments, and ideas related to TOOP project, please feel free to contact us at any time!

The TOOP project is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 737460.