Castilla y León

Promoting the data culture is a key objective at the national level that is also shared by the regional administrations. One of the ways to achieve this purpose is to award those solutions that have been developed with open datasets, an initiative that enhances their reuse and impact on society.

On this mission, the Junta de Castilla y León and the Basque Government have been organising open data competitions for years, a subject we talked about in our first episode of the datos.gob.es podcast that you can listen to here.

In this post, we take a look at the winning projects in the latest editions of the open data competitions in the Basque Country and Castilla y León.

Winners of the 8th Castile and Leon Open Data Competition

In the eighth edition of this annual competition, which usually opens at the end of summer, 35 entries were submitted, from which 8 winners were chosen in different categories.

Ideas category: participants had to describe an idea to create studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices. A first prize of 1,500€ and a second prize of 500€ were awarded.

• First prize: Green Guardians of Castilla y León presented by Sergio José Ruiz Sainz. This is a proposal to develop a mobile application to guide visitors to the natural parks of Castilla y León. Users can access information (such as interactive maps with points of interest) as well as contribute useful data from their visit, which enriches the application.
• Second prize: ParkNature: intelligent parking management system in natural spaces presented by Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez Martín. It consists of an idea to create an application that optimises the experience of visitors to the natural areas of Castilla y León, by integrating real-time data on parking and connecting with nearby cultural and tourist events.

Products and Services Category: Awarded studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices, which must be accessible to all citizens via the web through a URL. In this category, first, second and third prizes of €2,500, €1,500 and €500 respectively were awarded, as well as a specific prize of €1,500 for students.

• First prize: AquaCyL from Pablo Varela Vázquez. It is an application that provides information about the bathing areas in the autonomous community.
• Second prize: ConquistaCyL presented by Markel Juaristi Mendarozketa and Maite del Corte Sanz. It is an interactive game designed for tourism in Castilla y León and learning through a gamified process.
• Third prize: All the sport of Castilla y León presented by Laura Folgado Galache. It is an app that presents all the information of interest associated with a sport according to the province.
• Student prize: Otto Wunderlich en Segovia by Jorge Martín Arévalo. It is a photographic repository sorted according to type of monuments and location of Otto Wunderlich's photographs.

Didactic Resource Category: consisted of the creation of new and innovative open didactic resources to support classroom teaching. These resources were to be published under Creative Commons licences. A single first prize of €1,500 was awarded in this category.

• First prize: StartUp CyL: Business creation through Artificial Intelligence and Open Data presented by José María Pérez Ramos. It is a chatbot that uses the ChatGPT API to assist in setting up a business using open data.

Data Journalism category: awarded for published or updated (in a relevant way) journalistic pieces, both in written and audiovisual media, and offered a prize of €1,500.

• First prize: Codorniz, perdiz y paloma torcaz son las especies más cazadas en Burgos, presented by Sara Sendino Cantera, which analyses data on hunting in Burgos.

Winners of the 5th edition of the Open Data Euskadi Open Data Competition

As in previous editions, the Basque open data portal opened two prize categories: an ideas competition and an applications competition, each of which was divided into several categories. On this occasion, 41 applications were submitted for the ideas competition and 30 for the applications competition.

Idea competition: In this category, two prizes of €3,000 and €1,500 have been awarded in each category.

Health and Social Category

• First prize: Development of a Model for Predicting the Volume of Patients attending the Emergency Department of Osakidetza by Miren Bacete Martínez. It proposes the development of a predictive model using time series capable of anticipating both the volume of people attending the emergency department and the level of severity of cases.
• Second prize: Euskoeduca by Sandra García Arias. It is a proposed digital solution designed to provide personalised academic and career guidance to students, parents and guardians.

Category Environment and Sustainability

• First prize: Baratzapp by Leire Zubizarreta Barrenetxea. The idea consists of the development of a software that facilitates and assists in the planning of a vegetable garden by means of algorithms that seek to enhance the knowledge related to the self-consumption vegetable garden, while integrating, among others, climatological, environmental and plot information in a personalised way for the user.
• Second prize: Euskal Advice by Javier Carpintero Ordoñez. The aim of this proposal is to define a tourism recommender based on artificial intelligence.

General Category

• First prize: Lanbila by Hodei Gonçalves Barkaiztegi. It is a proposed app that uses generative AI and open data to match curriculum vitae with job offers in a semantic way.. It provides personalised recommendations, proactive employment and training alerts, and enables informed decisions through labour and territorial indicators.
• Second prize: Development of an LLM for the interactive consultation of Open Data of the Basque Government by Ibai Alberdi Martín. The proposal consists in the development of a Large Scale Language Model (LLM) similar to ChatGPT, specifically trained with open data, focused on providing a conversational and graphical interface that allows users to get accurate answers and dynamic visualisations.

Applications competition: this modality has selected one project in the web services category, awarded with €8,000, and two more in the General Category, which have received a first prize of €8,000 and a second prize of €5,000.

Category Web Services

• First prize: Bizidata: Plataforma de visualización del uso de bicicletas en Vitoria-Gasteiz by Igor Díaz de Guereñu de los Ríos. It is a platform that visualises, analyses and downloads data on bicycle use in Vitoria-Gasteiz, and explores how external factors, such as the weather and traffic, influence bicycle use.

General Category

• First prize: Garbiñe AI by Beatriz Arenal Redondo. It is an intelligent assistant that combines Artificial Intelligence (AI) with open data from Open Data Euskadi to promote the circular economy and improve recycling rates in the Basque Country.
• Second prize: Vitoria-Gasteiz Businessmap by Zaira Gil Ozaeta. It is an interactive visualisation tool based on open data, designed to improve strategic decisions in the field of entrepreneurship and economic activity in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

All these award-winning solutions reuse open datasets from the regional portal of Castilla y León or Euskadi, as the case may be. We encourage you to take a look at the proposals that may inspire you to participate in the next edition of these competitions. Follow us on social media so you don't miss out on this year's calls!

Data has great power to transform society. Its capacity to generate knowledge, drive innovation and empower citizens is undeniable. In particular, open government data is a resource with which to address major environmental, social and economic challenges from an innovative perspective.

In this sense, public administrations, including the autonomous communities, are organising competitions to promote the data culture. To tell us about these initiatives we have interviewed:

• Sonia Gómez Martín, Head of the Transparency and Information Re-use Service of the Government of Castilla y León.
• Imanol Argüeso Epelde, Head of Projects at the Basque Government's Directorate for Citizen Services and Digital Services.

Listen to the podcast (only available in Spanish)

Summary of the interview

1. To begin with, you can briefly present your data initiatives. What kind of data and contents can we find in the Open Data Euskadi platform? And on the Junta de Castilla y León's Open Data platform?

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: In OpenData Euskadi, the Basque Government's open data initiative, there is a catalogue of around 12,000 datasets from the Basque Government, the three provincial councils of the Autonomous Community of Euskadi - which are Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa and Álava - and the three capitals of these territories. By means of a federation system, all your datasets are displayed in the catalogue.

In addition, there is a community section, where we show news that we consider relevant to the world of open data. We also have a section for competitions and examples of products that have been made with our data.

Sonia Gómez Martín: All of this is similar to what can be found on the Junta de Castilla y León's open data platform. In our case, the open data catalogue only includes data from the Autonomous Community administration itself, not from the different provincial councils or provincial capitals.

In addition to the data catalogue, we have a visualisations portal, where we accommodate data with a large volume of information and where visualisations and API queries can be made. These data are thematic: there are up to 21 categories such as health, public sector, culture, leisure, rural environment and fisheries, and so on.

2. What activities are you carrying out to promote the re-use of this data?

Sonia Gómez Martín: The main activity in recent years has been the organisation and the annual Open Data Competition, through which we encourage reusers to use at least some dataset from our catalogue to create products, services and teaching resources.

There are also a number of other internal activities. For example, courses are run with our training school for internal staff of the Junta, so that they know the importance of reusing information generated within the public sector and making open data available to citizens and businesses.

In addition, there is a news section on the portal and we also receive requests for the dissemination of applications or the opening of data.

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: We also give courses within the Basque Government and to other administrations. For example, this year we have given one to the Provincial Council of Alava. We also have an initiative called Aula Open Data at the University of the Basque Country, located at the School of Engineering in Bilbao. It is a business classroom designed for students to use open data, make applications, visualisations and services derived from the data, and learn about this tool for their future professional activity.

We also participate in any event, conference, talk, etc. When an event related to open data comes up, we usually participate.

3. You have already introduced us to the data contests you organise. Can you tell us a bit more about each of them?

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: In the case of the Basque Country, there are two calls: one for applications and the other for ideas. The registration period for the 5th edition of the two calls is now open, and ends on 10 October.

In the case of the applications competition, any product derived from the open data of any of the catalogues of the Basque Government, provincial councils and the three capitals of the Basque Country will be awarded. It is mandatory to use some dataset from these catalogues. All that is requested is a URL with the service or product to be developed and a short document describing the project.

In the case of the call for ideas, a document explaining an idea for an open data product is needed.

We distributed around €34,000 in prizes in different categories.

It is also important to note that, although it is organised by the Basque Government as such, the three provincial councils and the three town councils of the Basque capitals collaborate: they participate in the jury, help us with promotion, etc.

Sonia Gómez Martín: In our case, it is a single call, but there are four categories. A category of ideas is also established, similar to that of the Basque Government. Another one for products and services that is also similar to the one Imanol mentioned: we are looking for an application or URL where a website is developed that uses some dataset from our catalogue. And then there are two additional categories. One for teaching resources, which seeks to encourage the creation of new and innovative open teaching resources using datasets from our portal to support classroom teaching. And another category of data journalism, which seeks to reward journalistic pieces published or updated in a relevant way in any written or audiovisual medium, where the information takes into account open datasets from our catalogue.

We give away €12,000 in prizes in total. And well, right now we have the 8th edition open until 23 September 2024.

4. What are the requirements for participation?

Sonia Gómez Martín: Entries must not have previously been awarded prizes in other competitions. In all categories it is necessary to use at least one data source from the catalogue of the Junta de Castilla y León's open data portal. And the same person can submit several nominations in different categories.

In the case of data journalism, it is sought to have been published as of the last day on which nominations could be submitted the previous year, which in this case is 3 October 2023.

In the case of the products and services category, there are awards for students, where the applicant must be a student enrolled in the 2023-2024 or 2024-2025 academic year.

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: The case of the Basque Country is similar. It is requested that some dataset from the public open data catalogues we have discussed be used: from the three provincial councils, the three capitals or the Basque Government. In the case of applications, it is also necessary to develop some kind of application, visualisation or website based on this open data.

Both competitions are open to any private individual, professional or even any company.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage people. The deadline is 10 October and anyone interested still has time to submit an idea or generate a product.

5. And what has been the impact of these competitions? can you give us some examples of solutions, ideas or products that have been submitted to the competition?

Sonia Gómez Martín: There are very interesting things, especially in what the students bring to the table. In the editions in which I have been part of the jury, I have seen, for example, an application, a website, which included the entire offer of vocational training in Castilla y León. Also an analysis of energy data which I found very interesting. In addition, some institutes have submitted and won awards for initiatives based on agricultural information catalogues. They made a small analysis of the peculiarities of our territory.

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: The truth is that most of the products that are generated are not still active. But there are some very interesting examples that still work today. To cite an example, the last edition presented a website called Openslot, which offers information on gaming and recreational machines in the Basque Country: manufacturers, machine models and makes predictions. It is a very sector-specific application.

Another example: last year, a Telegram group that relied on open data to provide information on which time slots are best for energy consumption was the winner and is still active. There are some products that last over time and others that are developed only for competitions.

6. What advice would you give to other public bodies wishing to launch such initiatives?

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: Above all, I would stress the importance of dissemination, of promoting the competitions in training centres, in universities related to information technologies.

It has also worked for us to include a voting system so that people can vote on the nominations. And this year we have included different categories by theme, in the case of ideas. In the case of applications, it is assessed whether access to the data is via an API or the SPARQL point. What we want to do is diversify and make more people eligible for the prize.

Sonia Gómez Martín: I would like to insist on what Imanol said about promotion. It is very important to make universities aware of the competitions and to encourage them to participate. You can also publicise it on social networks, on your portal datos.gob.es, etc. Everything little by little is helping to make them known and to increase the number of participants.

7. These competitions are a window to listen to the needs of re-users, have you taken any concrete action as a result of this feedback?

Sonia Gómez Martín: We have, on the open data portal itself, a section where we receive requests from re-users on what types of open data they would like to have. We receive them and we pass them on, but it is true that internally we sometimes have problems for the data they demand to materialise. It is not always easy for the management centre on which these data depend to convert them into open or even structured data formats.

On social media we also have an account on X, @transparencia, where we also receive requests, evaluate them and study them.

Imanol Argüeso Epelde: Yes, it is true. Normally, open data areas are often mere transmitters and it is sometimes difficult to materialise requests. I think that one of the great advantages of the competitions is that, internally, it is a very interesting source of information to listen to the reusers, to see what problems they have, what tools they use, what characteristics they have... and this allows us to focus our efforts.

Following this source of information, we have opened up certain datasets. The example I mentioned, Openslot, uses data that was not open and that we opened as a result of this participant. We have also developed several REST APIs based on the most demanded data: meteorological data, air quality, water quality, etc

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Interview clips

This application designed for iOS devices offers a wide range of tourist activities in the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León. It acts as a travel assistant, allowing you to create an itinerary according to the interests of each user.

TUrMISMO allows you to discover activities to do in the area, save your favourite places or plans, and trace your own route. To do this, it offers geolocated information on places as diverse as tourist offices, restaurants and wineries, organised excursions and ski schools, among many others.

The app was presented this year 2024 to the VII Open Data Competition of Castilla y León and uses open data provided by the Junta de Castilla y León.

This application shows the location of charging stations for electric vehicles within the Community of Castilla y León. The user can select the province of interest and access information on the available stations. For each station, various information is provided, such as its location, the supplier company, the number of charging stations and the available connectors. 

In addition, within the app the user can also find information on incentive programmes for electric mobility, such as the MOVES III Plan. 

The geographical data of these chargers have been obtained from the servers of the public platform of Open Data of Castilla y León. 

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

For yet another year since 2016, the Junta de Castilla y León has opened the deadline to receive the most innovative proposals in the field of open data. The sixth edition of the competition of the same name aims to "recognise the development of projects that provide any type of idea, study, service, website or application for mobile devices, using datasets from the Open Data Portal of the Junta de Castilla y León".

With this type of initiative, Castilla y León seeks to showcase the digital talent present in the autonomous community, while promoting the use of open data and the role of reusing companies in Castilla y León.

The deadline for submitting applications has been open since 5 August and will end on 4 October. When submitting projects, participants will be able to choose between the in-person or digital option. The latter will be carried out through the Electronic Headquarters of Castilla y León and can be processed by both individuals and legal entities.

4 different categories

As in previous editions, the projects and associated prizes are divided into four different categories:

• “Ideas" category: This category includes projects that describe an idea that can be used to create studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices. The main requirement is to use datasets from the Junta de Castilla y León's Open Data portal.
• "Products and Services" category: Includes those that provide studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices and that use datasets from the Open Data portal of the Junta de Castilla y León, which are accessible to all citizens via the web using an URL.
• “Didactic Resource" category: This section includes the creation of new and innovative open didactic resources (published under Creative Commons licences) that use datasets from the Junta de Castilla y León's Open Data portal, and serve to support teaching in the classroom.
•  “Data Journalism" category: Finally, this category includes journalistic pieces published or updated (in a relevant way) in any medium (written or audiovisual) that use datasets from the Junta de Castilla y León's Open Data portal.

Regarding the awards of this sixth edition, the prizes amount to €12,000 and are distributed according to the category awarded and the position achieved.

 Ideas category

• First prize €1,500
• Second prize €500

Products and Services category

• First prize €2,500
• Second prize €1,500
• Third prize €500
• Student Prize €1,500

 Didactic Resource category

• First prize €1,500

Data Journalism category

• First prize €1,500
• Second prize €1,000

As in previous editions, the final verdict will be issued by a jury made up of members with proven experience in the field of open data, information analysis or the digital economy. Likewise, the jury's decisions will be taken by majority vote and, in the event of a tie, the jury will decide who holds the presidency.

Finally, the winners will have a period of 5 working days to accept the award. If they do not accept the prize, it will be understood that they have renounced it. If you want to consult the conditions and legal bases of the competition in detail, you can access them through this link.  

Winners of the 2021 edition

The 5th edition of the Castilla y León Data Competition had a total of 37 proposals of which only eight of them won some kind of award. With a view to participating in the current edition, it may be of interest to know which projects won the jury's attention in 2021.

Ideas Category

The first prize of €1,500 went to APP SOLAR-CYL, a web tool for optimal sizing of photovoltaic solar self-consumption installations. Aimed at both citizens and public administration energy managers, the solution aims to support the analysis of the technical and economic viability of this type of system.

Products and Services Category

Repuéblame is a website aimed at rediscovering the best places in which to live or telework. In this way, the app catalogues the municipalities of Castilla y León based on a series of numerical indicators, developed in-house, related to quality of life. By winning the first prize in this category, it received a cash prize of 2,500 euros.

Data Journalism Category

Asociación Maldita contra la desinformación won the first prize of €1,500 for its project MAPA COVID-19: see how many cases of coronavirus there are and how busy your hospital is.

Finally, after the jury decided that the entries submitted did not meet the criteria set out in the rules, the "Educational Resource" category was declared void and, therefore, none of the participants were awarded a prize.

If you have any questions or queries about the competition, you can write an email to: datosabiertos@jcyl.es.

On November 2, the awards ceremony took place for the winners of the V edition of the Castilla y León Open Data Contest. This competition, organized by the Ministry of Transparency, Spatial Planning and Foreign Action of the Junta de Castilla y León, recognizes the realization of projects that provide ideas, studies, services, websites or mobile applications, using for this datasets from this Open Data Portal.

The event had the participation of Francisco Igea, Vice President of the Junta de Castilla y León, and Joaquín Meseguer, General Director of Transparency and Good Governance of the same, in charge of awarding the awards to the winners.

Of the 37 applications received, a jury of experts in the field has chosen 8 projects that have emerged as winners in the various categories.

Category Ideas

In this category, proposals to develop studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices are awarded.

• The first prize, € 1,500, went to APP SOLAR-CYL, a web tool for optimal sizing of photovoltaic solar self-consumption installations. Aimed at both citizens and energy managers of the Public Administration, the solution seeks to support the analysis of the technical and economic viability of this type of system. The idea was presented by professors from the Electrical Engineering Area, members of the ERESMA (Energy Resources' Smart Management) research group at the University of León: Miguel de Simón Martín, Ana María Díez Suárez, Alberto González Martínez, Álvaro de la Puente Gil and Jorge Blanes Peiró.
• The second prize, € 500, went to Dónde te esperan: Recommender for municipalities in Spain, by Mario Varona Bueno. Thanks to this tool, users will be able to find the best place to live based on their preferences or even chance.

Category Products and Services

This category differs from the previous one in that ideas are no longer awarded, but projects accessible to all citizens via the web through a URL.

• Repuéblame won the first prize, which this time consisted of € 2,500. Presented by Guido García Bernardo and Javier García Bernardo, it consists of a website to rediscover the best places to live or telework. The application catalogs the Castilian-Leon municipalities based on a series of numerical indicators, of its own creation, related to quality of life.
• The second prize, € 1,500, went to Plagrícola: Avisos de Plagas Agrícolas CyL by José María Pérez Ramos. It is a mobile app that informs farmers of the pest alerts published by the Instituto Tecnológico Agrario de Castilla y León (Itacyl), so that they can carry out the necessary preventive and curative measures.
• Complete the podium disCAPACIDAD.es [web], which won the third prize of € 500. Its creator, Luis Hernández Fuentevilla, has developed a website that centralizes offers and aid related to employment for people with disabilities in Castilla y León.
• This category also included a prize for students of €1,500. The winner was Ruta x Ruta x Castilla y León, presented by Adrián Arroyo Calle. This web application allows users to consult routes of all kinds, as well as points of interest located in their vicinity, such as monuments, restaurants or events. The solution also allows users to share their tracks (GPS recordings).

In addition, an honorable mention has been given to the candidatures presented by students "APP BOCYL Boletín Oficial Castilla y León”, by Nicolás Silva Brenes and "COVID CyL" presented by Silvia Pedrón Hermosa. This seeks to encourage students to work with data and present their projects to future calls.

Data Journalism Category

This category is designed to reward relevant journalistic pieces published or updated in any medium, whether written or audiovisual.

• MAPA COVID-19: check how many cases of coronavirus there are and how is the occupation of your hospital from the Maldita Association against misinformation won the first prize of € 1,500. After a work of compiling all the available data that the regional governments publish about the hospitals, Maldita has created a map to see how many cases of coronavirus there are and how the different hospitals are occupied. Information on ICU occupancy is also included in some hospitals.
• The second prize, € 1,000, went to De cero a 48.000 euros: who charges how much in the mayors of Castilla y León. Annual Compensation Explorer. Through various visualizations, its creator, Laura Navarro Soler, reveals information available in the Información Salarial Puestos de la Administración (ISPA). This information is crossed with other types of data such as the number of inhabitants in each region or the level of dedication (exclusive, partial or non-dedicated).

The category "Didactic Resource" has been declared void. The jury considered that the candidatures presented did not meet the criteria set out in the bases.

In total, the 8 awarded projects have received 12,000 euros. They will also have the option of participating in a business development consultancy.

Congratulations to all the winners!

The Regional Ministry of Transparency, Territorial Planning and External Action of the Regional Government of Castilla y León has announced this year the fifth edition of the open data competition. The aim of this competition is to recognise the creation of projects for mobile devices that provide ideas, studies, services or applications using the datasets offered by the Junta on its portal.

4 Categories are available

In addition to the traditional categories of "Ideas", "Products and Services" and "Educational Resources", last year "Data Journalism" was added as a novelty. In this fifth edition, these four categories will continue:

• Ideas: this category rewards projects that describe an idea designed to create studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices.
• Products and Services: this category includes projects that provide studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices. This category reserves an award for students.
• Teaching Resources: this award is aimed at the creation of new and innovative open teaching resources (published under Creative Commons licences is mandatory) that support classroom teaching.
• Data Journalism: this category, which was new last year, repeats again this year to reward relevant journalistic pieces published or updated in any medium, whether written or audio-visual.

These are the prizes in each category

In each category, a general first and second prize will be awarded, and in the case of "Products and services", one prize will be awarded to students enrolled in official university or non-university education. In the case of minors, a teacher from the school to which they belong will be responsible for the project submitted as a candidature.

The total amount of this fifth edition will be €12,000 and will be distributed as follows:

1. Ideas Category

• First prize: 1.500€.
• Second prize: 500€.

2. Products and Services Category

• First prize: 2.500€.
• Second prize: 1.500€.
• Third prize: 500€.
• Student prize: 1.500€.

3. Educational Resource Category

• First prize: 1.500€.

4. Data Journalism Category

• First prize: 1.500€.

• Second prize: 1.000€.

How to participate

The deadline for submitting your proposal is now open. The deadline for submitting applications is 13 July.

Applications can be submitted in two ways: in person or electronically.

You can consult the legal bases of this competition through this link.

Winning projects of the 4th Castilla y León Government Open Data Competition

The Junta de Castilla y León, through its Ministry of Transparency, Territorial Planning and Foreign Action, organizes, for yet another year, its open data contest. This is the fourth edition, after the appointments of 2013, 2014 and 2018, in which more than 100 projects were presented in total.

The purpose of the contest is to promote the use of the data published in the Castilla y León open data catalog, through the recognition of projects already carried out and the promotion of new ideas.

4 categories available

To the traditional categories of "Ideas", "Products and Services" and "Didactic Resources", this year adds a novelty: the award for "Data Journalism". Each of these categories is detailed below:

• Ideas Category: Reward projects that describe an original idea to create studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices. The idea must be unpublished and not have been previously awarded.

• Products and services category: Real projects are sought that provide studies, services, websites or applications for mobile devices, and which are accessible to all citizens via the web through a URL.

• Teaching Resources Category: This award is aimed at creating new and innovative open teaching resources (published under Creative Commons licenses) to support classroom teaching.  

• Category Data journalism: The novelty of this year. It seeks to reward journalistic pieces (written or audiovisual) published in a printed or digital media, including blogs. The works must have been published in the 12 months prior to the call and have not been awarded previously.

In all categories it is necessary that the project -or idea- presented uses at least one data source published in the Open Data Portal of the Junta de Castilla y León. It should be noted that the resource can be exploited using the data analysis portal. These data sets may be combined with others available from other sources, whether public or private, and at local, regional, national or international level.

All applications will be evaluated by a jury, based on criteria such as utility, originality and quality.

What does the prize consist of?

In each category there will be a first and second general prize, and one aimed at students enrolled in university or non-university education, provided it is official. In the case of minors, a teacher from the center to which they belong will be responsible for the project submitted as a candidate.

The award will consist of a financial award and advice on open data. The total amount will be 10,500 euros, which will be distributed among the winners in the 4 categories as follows:

1. Category Ideas  

• First prize € 1,500.

• Second prize € 500.

2. Category Products and services  

• First prize € 2,500.

• Second prize € 1,500.

• Student award: € 1,500.

3. Category Didactic resource. 

• First prize € 1,000.

4. Category Data journalism  

• First prize € 1,500.

• Second prize € 500.

What should I do to participate?

The deadline for submitting applications will be open from July 31 to September 30, 2020.

Applications for participation can be submitted both in person and electronically.

You can see the regulatory bases of the contest at this link.

Under the slogan "Collaboration and Homogenization: key aspects in the Information ecosystem", the 11th International Conference on the Reuse of Public Information was held on November 28 in the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. Once again, ASEDIE honoured its vocation to promote the publication of public sector information so that, the infomediary sector can develop value-added products and services, the main objective of its associated companies.

In the first part of the event, representatives of both the European Commission and the Spanish Administration make trends and developments in the sector public.

• Szymon Lewandowski, responsible for data and innovation policies of the European Commission, explained the new open data policies linked to the concept of high-value data, and emphasized the guidelines on how to share data from the private sector in B2B and B2G contexts and o the creation of common European data spaces. Szymon also informed about the second position of Spain according to the Open Data Maturity Index 2019.
• Cristina Morales, Deputy Director for Content of the Information Society of the Ministry of Economy and Business, referred to the active role of the Government of Spain in reforming European regulations on open data and reuse of public sector information and highlighted the interest in accelerating its transposition to the Spanish regulatory framework.
• Isabel Moya Pérez, Deputy Director for Open Government of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Function explained the Open Government Plan and its value for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically the “objective 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions”, focused on strengthening the rule of law and promoting human rights.
• Emilio López, Director of the Spanish National Geographic Institute, spoke of public-private collaboration in geographic information, and showed some examples of data reuse and open geoservices.
• Julián Prieto, Deputy Director for the General Registry of Data Protection of the Spanish Data Protection Agency, addressed his presentation to explain the concept of proactive responsibility, among other implications of the General Data Protection Regulation for Public Administrations and highlighted the importance of the development of a code of conduct for associations and organizations in accordance with the guidelines set out in the text.

The second part of the session was set up as a round table where Valentín Arce, Vice President of Asedie, moderated an interesting debate on the current situation, barriers and future perspectives in the publication of public sector information. The guests were Ricardo Cantabrana, from the Autonomous Community of Aragon; Joaquín Meseguer of the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León; Borja Mayor of the Community of Madrid and David Martínez Victorio of the Region of Murcia. All of them represent those autonomous governments that have responded positively to ASEDIE's request regarding the publication of the “top 3 Asedie”, three sets of data established as priorities for 2019: cooperatives, foundations and associations.

During the debate, some measures to boost the opening of public sector information were discussed, such as the inclusion of reuse clauses in the new tenders and the design of the systems so that the data were generated reusable by the source. Attendees also highlighted the need for a common strategic framework for all autonomous communities, which works as a road map, and a ranking of communities as an instrument to encourage publication.

Regarding how to channel requests for data by citizens, there was a disparity of criteria. Some of the attendees considered that they should be treated as requests for access to information, while others defended the creation of a specific channel, in order to ensure that data provided to the citizen are really reusable. All attendees agreed on the need to establish meetings with reusers to ensure that the supply of information corresponds to the demand. In this regard, the speakers praised the activity and value of an association such as Asedie, which channels the needs of reusers.

During the event, the Asedie 2019 Prize was awarded. The open data portal of Castilla y León won, for its great work in the opening of data and its impulse to published data reuse.

The event was closed by Ignacio Jiménez, President of Asedie, who invited attendees to meet again in the next edition, which is sure to be marked by new advances in the promotion of the reuse of public sector information.