RRP, E015 digital ecosystem: Region-Ministry agreement for data exchange

A contribution to the creation of a new digital tourism hub by the Ministry of Tourism comes from Lombardy: a technological infrastructure for connecting the entire tourism ecosystem thanks to interoperability mechanisms and rules for managing digital information, shared by public and private actors.

The Ministry will sign a collaboration agreement with the Lombardy Region, lasting one year, regarding the sharing and exchanging of digital data focused on the E015 Digital Ecosystem.

The agreement model - approved by the Regional Council on the proposal of the Councillor for Education, University, Research, Innovation and Simplification, Fabrizio Sala - aims at "the sharing of models and solutions for the interoperability of data with public entities and private bodies based on the E015 Digital Ecosystem initiative, in implementation of the objectives of the RRP".

"Data today represent an essential value - underlined the regional councillor Fabrizio Sala - This is why protocols and interoperability systems are increasingly important. E015 is a digital environment that allows the information systems of public and private actors, operating on the territory in multiple sectors, to talk to each other. We are happy that the Lombard experience is recognized as best practice and put at the service of other administrations”.

The E015 digital ecosystem represents innovation, the result of a synergy created on the territory, which the Ministry of Tourism looks to as a best practice to be evaluated for the development of digitisation initiatives, in line with the objectives set out by the RRP.

What is the E015 digital ecosystem?

Born as a function of EXPO, E015 was the first active and functioning example of a Digital Ecosystem to promote and govern the exchange of data between different subjects within a regulated environment.

The sharing of information takes place through the publication of "API E015": data flows and functions shared within the E015 Ecosystem, which can be requested by other participants to build "digital relationships" and create new digital 'products' such as Apps or websites, information totems, monitoring dashboards for internal use.

The digital ecosystem allows those who participate in it - whether they are public or private entities - to give new value to the data owned by the members.

The Convention for the development and governance of this innovative digital environment was renewed by the Regional Council until April 2023. The Lombardy Region participates in it as the implementing body; also the following bodies participate in it: Confindustria, Camera di Commercio di Milano Monza Brianza Lodi, Confcommercio Imprese per l’Italia, Assolombarda e Confcommercio Milano Lodi Monza Brianza, with the technical and scientific coordination of Cefriel.

The context

The recovery and resilience plan proposes a strategy to support and relaunch tourism focused, among other things, on digitalisation. In particular, it is an invitation to develop and contaminate best practices within the Public Administration.

The Agreement with the Lombardy Region was created in this context, to share the experience of the E015 digital ecosystem in all its organisational, technological, administrative components, as best practice for interoperability services to be applied to the new digital services that the Ministry of Tourism wants to develop.

The evaluation of E015 is preliminary with respect to an implementation by the Ministry of Tourism of the best practices of interest to promote a synergistic development of digital services. With regard to the latter, the Lombardy Region can play a role of constant comparison on the solutions adopted and of facilitator for the dissemination at a local level. 

The content of the Agreement model

The Lombardy Region offers its availability to be a partner of the Ministry of Tourism regarding the solutions for the interoperability of the services, the adoption of standards, and the sharing of information for the new services in the field of tourism carried out by the Ministry of Tourism.

The agreement between the two bodies therefore envisages sharing experiences and methodologies on digital ecosystems, and in particular:

- promoting interoperability among PA information systems;

- promoting the development of digital services in favour of institutions, citizens, companies;

- supporting the growth of “digital relationships” between different bodies (public and private);

- favouring the realisation of APIs;

- facilitating the access, use and enhancement of the information assets of companies, bodies and citizens through innovative and regulated ways;

- encouraging the digitisation of the offer of public and private services;

- identifying technological, organisational and administrative reference standards for new digital services.

With this in mind, the Lombardy Region will provide the Ministry of Tourism, for example, with the Ecosystem Community Regulation Model E015, the Project Guidelines, the Template for regulatory tools, information on the Organisation and governance of E015, good practices for onboarding of territorial stakeholders, quantitative data and indicators, software, case studies, as well as an indication of the costs incurred.