Euskadi

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

Subscribe to our Soundcloud profile to keep up to date with our podcasts

Interview clips

The Basque Government announces the fifth edition of the awards for the best open data reuse projects in the Basque Country. An initiative that was created with the aim of rewarding the best ideas and applications/services created from the open data catalogue of the Basque Country (Open Data Euskadi) to show its potential and promote open data culture.

As in previous editions, there are two types of prizes: an ideas competition and an applications competition. In the first, a sum of 13,500 euros in prize money will be awarded. In the second, the prize money amounts to €21,000.

Below are the details of the call for proposals for each of the modalities:

Competition of ideas

Proposals for services, studies, visualisations and applications (web and mobile) that reuse open datasets from the Open Data Euskadi portal to provide value to society will be evaluated. Ideas may be of general utility or focus on one of two sectors: health and social or environment and sustainability.

• Who is it aimed at? To all those people or companies from inside and outside the Basque Country who wish to present ideas and projects for the reuse of open data from the Basque Country. This modality does not require technical knowledge of programming or computer development.
• How can you take part? It will be necessary to explain the idea in a text document and attach it when registering. Registration can be done either online or in person.
• What prizes are on offer?  Two winning projects will be chosen for each category, which will be divided into a first prize of 3,000 euros and a second prize of 1,500 euros. In other words, in summary, the awards are:

• Health and social category
  • First prize: €3,000
  • Second prize: €1,500

• Environment and sustainability category
  • First prize: €3,000
  • Second prize: €1,500

• General category
  • First prize: €3,000
  • Second prize: €1,500

Here you can read the rules of the Open Data Euskadi ideas competition: https://www.euskadi.eus/servicios/1028505

Application competition

This modality does require some technical knowledge of programming or computer development, asalready developed solutions using Open Data Euskadi open datasets must bepresented . Applications may be submitted in the general category or in the specific category of web services.

• Who is it aimed at? To those people or companies capable of creating services, studies, visualisations, web applications or applications for mobile devices that use at least one set of open data from one of the Basque Country's open data catalogues.
• How can you take part? The project must be explained in a text document and the developed project (service, study, visualisation, web or mobile application) must be accessible via a URL. At registering both the explanatory document and the URL of the project will be attached. 
• What prizes are on offer? This category offers a single prize of 8,000 euros for the web services category and two prizes for the general category of 8,000 and 5,000 euros.
  

  • Category web services

    • Only one prize: €8,000
  •  General category
    • First prize: €8,000
    • Second prize: €5,000

Check here the rules of the competition in application development mode: https://www.euskadi.eus/servicios/1028605

Deadline for registration:

The competition has been accepting proposals since 31 July and closes on 10 October. Follow us on social media so you don't miss any news about open data reuse events and competitions: @datosgob

Take part!

The Basque Government, with the support of the Provincial Councils of Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and the city councils of Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastian and Vitoria-Gasteiz, is organising the fourth edition of the Open Data Ideas and Applications Awards. These competitions aim to reward the best ideas and applications/services created from the datasets available in one of the following open data catalogues of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country:

• Open Data Euskadi
• Araba Irekia
• Gipuzkoa Irekia
• Bilbao Open Data
• Open Data Vitoria-Gasteiz
• Datos Donostia-San Sebastián City Council Open Data 
• Open Data Bizkaia

The ultimate goal of the awards is to promote open data culture and the reuse of open public data in the region.

What is the difference between the competitions?

There are two open competitions:

Ideas Competition

What is it about?

This competition is aimed at people who want to submit an original idea to create any kind of service, study, visualisation, web or mobile application generated from open data from the above-mentioned portals. It will only be necessary to explain the idea in a document and attach it when registering.

Who is it aimed at?

Students, professionals or companies willing to contribute ideas that meet the requirements indicated in the rules. Any natural or legal person can participate, except administrations and public entities, individually or in teams.

Prizes:

A total of €8,000 will be distributed, divided as follows:

• First prize: 5.000 €.
• Second prize: 3.000 €.

More information here.

Application competition

What is it about?

The competition consists of presenting a service, study, visualisation, web or mobile application, using datasets from the specified data catalogues. The solution must be accessible to all citizens via the web through a URL.

In this case, you must send the URL of the product and a document explaining the project.

Who is it aimed at?

The applications competition is designed for developers or computer programmers as well as for anyone with technical knowledge capable of creating a product that meets the requirements indicated in the rules.

As in the previous case, any natural or legal person can participate, except administrations and public entities, individually or through teams.

Prizes:

Se repartirán 18.000 € en total, divididos de la siguiente manera:

• First prize: 10.000 €
• Second prize: 8.000 €

More information here.

How is the winner chosen?

In both competitions, a jury will evaluate each project with a score from 0 to 20, based on criteria such as public and social value, economic value, innovative character or usefulness, among others.

¿Cómo puedo participar?

The registration period for both competitions begins on 7 July, once the call for entries has been published in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country. The registration period will remain open for 20 working days, until 3 August.

In order to participate, it is necessary to fill in the registration form. The procedures following the submission of the application form will be carried out through the "My folder" section of the Basque Government's electronic headquarters.

If you have any queries, you can contact the organisation via this link.

Come on and participate!

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

Many open data initiatives have taken advantage of the end of the summer and the return to school to launch competitions to promote the creation of value services based on open data. In addition to the recent launch of the Aporta 2020 Challenge, which on this occasion focuses on solving the challenges associated with the education sector, new editions of competitions such as BiscayAPP, the Barcelona Dades Obertes Challenge and the Castilla y León Open Data Competition have just closed their registration period.

The latest to join the list is the Basque Government, which together with the Provincial Councils of Alava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa and the City Councils of Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Vitoria-Gasteiz, has just launched two open data competitions, which aim to reward the best ideas and applications/services created from any open data catalogue in the Basque Autonomous Community.

• Ideas Contest: The Ideas Contest is aimed at both individuals and companies. They only have to present an original idea that can be used to create a service, studio, visualization, web or mobile application.
• Applications Contest: The Applications Contest is aimed at individuals and companies that, individually or in groups, present a project that is accessible to all citizens via the web.

In both cases, the idea or project must be based on the use of at least one set of data from one of the following catalogues:

• Open Data Euskadi
• Araba Irekia
• Gipuzkoa Irekia
• Bilbao Open Data
• Open Data Vitoria-Gasteiz
• Datos abiertos del Ayuntamiento de Donostia-San Sebastián 
• Open Data Bizkaia

Two winners will be chosen, who will receive a diploma and a prize of 5,000 and 3,000 euros in the case of the Ideas Competition and 10,000 and 8,000 euros in the case of the Applications Competition.

Registration is free and will be open from 8 October to 19 November, both inclusive.

More information at Open Data Euskadi

The Basque Government organizes two open data competitions with the help of the Provincial Councils of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa and the city councils of Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Vitoria-Gasteiz. The objective is to promote the culture of reuse information generated by the local public administrations. For this reason, the projects must use at least one of the datasets belonging to the following catalogs: Open Data Euskadi, Gipuzkoa Irekia, Bilbao Open Data, Open Data Vitoria-Gasteiz, Open data of the City of Donostia-San Sebastián and Open Data Bizkaia.

The registration period begins on May 22th. You can register on the website of each of the contests, free of charge, until June 30.

Next, we tell you the main characteristic of each contests.

Ideas contest

The ideas contest seeks innovative ideas to create a service, study, web application or mobile application, using some of the aforementioned open datasets. The two best ideas will be awarded 4,000 and 2,000 euros respectively.

This contest is aimed at students, professionals, companies or organizations from all sectors. To participate, it is not necessary to have technical knowledge, but an idea of what could be achieved using open data.

Application contest

On the contrary, the application contest focuses on real projects that provide any type of service, study, web application or mobile application, using the open datasets previously indicated. In this case, the economic endowment is 8,000 euros, to be divided between the first and the second classified (5,000 and 3,000 respectively). Due to they are real projects, in this case programming knowledge will be necessary.

Both in the ideas contest and the applications contest, the projects will be selected based on a series of criteria, such as its usefulness - taking into account the magnitude of the problem it solves and the number of potential users -, its potential to generate business and obtain profitability, its social value or its innovative character, among other factors.

The commitment of the regional and local administrations in favor of the reuse of open data is driving an increasing number of meetings of this type, where technology and open data are combined to create solutions that add value to society.

Join in and participate!