Open Government Week: see the programme of activities
Once again, Spain joins the celebration of Open Government Week (Open Gov Week), an international initiative promoted by the Open Government Partnership (OGP) that promotes the fundamental principles of amodern, citizen-friendlyadministration.
This edition, which will take place from 19 to 25 May 2025, brings together public administrations from around the world with the aim of promoting the values of open government: transparency, accountability, citizen participation and institutional integrity. To achieve these objectives, open data is a key element, as access to and re-use of public information is the foundation of open government..
Since Spain joined this alliance in 2011, it has demonstrated a firm commitment to the principles of open governance: it has been recognised on multiple occasions for its active role in the organisation of activities, being one of the States that promotes the most events during this week at an international level. In addition, this year our country holds the co-presidency of the Steering Committee and on 7, 8 and 9 October the IX Open Government Partnership Global Summitwill be held in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
In this post, we look at the agenda of events organised in Spain as part of Open Government Week. Among the hundreds of activities that will be held, we have focused on those related to access to information, open data and technological innovation.
What is Open Government Week?
Through workshops, information days, guided tours, talks and presentations, this action seeks to bring the workings of the institutions closer to society as a whole, foster understanding of public services and promote direct citizen participation.
The programming will include a diverse range of events, including:
- Institutional advertising campaign.
- Hackathon and innovation competitions.
- Debates and round tables.
- OPEN DAYS
- Launch of virtual content.
- Seminars and workshops.
- Participatory processes and citizen consultations.
Featured events in the 2025 edition
During this edition, numerous activities have been scheduled throughout the territory, focusing on the presentation of key projects and initiatives of the Administration. Below are some representative examples of the spirit of the Week, arranged by organising bodies:
- Ministry of Finance:
- Online presentation of the Central Treasury Archive content search portal (Monday 19 at 12.00h): through an online conference, access to the portal, the search modalities and the open accessible content it offers will be explained.. Some of the most outstanding online documents from the archive's collection will also be presented. Finally, other actions of the Archive relating to the Ministry's Document Management Policy will be disseminated for your information.
- Ministry of Culture:
- Spain is Culture (always available): The Ministry of Culture provides the public with a large amount of useful information accessible from the Spain is Culture portal. On the occasion of Open Government Week, they wanted to highlight this.
- National Institute of Public Administration:
- Stories of public innovation" conference (Tuesday 20 May): a day to discover how innovation is transforming the Administration. It will be possible to learn about the work of INAP's Public Innovation Laboratory (LIP) and HazLab, a citizen participation laboratory, together with other projects that promote change from different administrations to build a more open, collaborative and closer Administration. Sign up here.
- Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID):
- Workshop "Cooperation: a team effort" (Tuesday 20, 11:30 a.m.): through a cloud challenge, participants are invited to reflect on leadership, cooperation and teamwork, fundamental values in the development projects led by AECID. There are 20 places available, register here.
- Government of Navarre:
- Café with data (Monday 19): Training session on data quality and the benefits of metadata for publication in portals.
- Diputació de Barcelona:
- Workshop online "Where is the border between transparency and data protection?" (Monday 19 at 09.30h): the webinar will be given by Carles San José, consultant and trainer for the public sector in matters of transparency, data protection and administrative procedure in general. Entry:
- Webinar "I can't make a living! Be transparent or die trying" (Monday 19 at 11.30h): aimed at public staff, this is a virtual workshop on the importance of opening up data in administrations.
- Workshop on data spaces: what they are and how to make the most of them (Thursday 22nd at 10.00h):
- Webinar "Open data and mobility: take advantage of the use of Big data" (Thursday 22nd at 12.00h): how to take advantage of the mobility data that the Ministry of Transport makes available to the public for the analysis of road flows throughout the country.
- Online workshop "Master AI: become a prompts specialist" (Friday 23rd at 09.30h): this webinar is aimed at discovering how to communicate with generative AI tools to obtain more accurate results.
- Webinar "Public open source models of AI" (Friday 23 at 11.30h): this online seminar will present ALIA and its precedent AINA, as well as their uses.. Sign up!
- Madrid City Council: It organises a series of activities that highlight the use of open data in different sectors such as mobility or urban safety.
- Madrid Calle 30 (Tuesday 20, 09:30h): visit to the M-30 tunnels and its control centre. Attendees will learn about the datasets published on the M-30, how the information is managed and updated, and how citizens and the private sector can access, reuse and add value to this data.
- Air quality and meteorological data (Tuesday 20, 13:00h): visit to an air measurement station and explanation of how environmental data are collected to help make urban policy decisions.
- Municipal Police (Thursday 22nd, 09:30h): visit to the control centre, where incidents, operational coordination and public safety actions are managed.
- Urban installations: lighting, tunnels and ornamental fountains (Friday 23rd): a sample of how the operation of essential urban services is managed in real time through the municipal control centre.
- Game with data on social networks: Madrid City Council will share games and challenges on social networks related to the open data on its portal throughout Open Government Week.
An agenda with more than 400 events all over the country
These are just some of the events planned, but there are many more. We encourage you to consult the full calendar of activities available during the Week on the Open Government portal and to share your experiences and proposals.
Open Government Week is not just an institutional showcase, but a meeting place where the Administration listens, explains and learns from citizens. The diversity of scheduled events - ranging from education to security, social inclusion to victim care - reflects the public sector's commitment to getting closer to the day-to-day realities of society.
Thanks to these initiatives, the bond of trust between public authorities and citizens is strengthened, favouring a more collaborative, fair and efficient public administration
