The e-POLICY project presents a multi-disciplinary research effort whose goal is to support policy makers in their decision process across the engineering of a policy making life-cycle. The life-cycle integrates, in a unique way, global and individual perspectives on the decision process, bringing to the policy makers attention both global concerns (e.g., impacts, budget constraints and objectives), and individual concerns (i.e. opinions, reactions), giving guidance towards better policy implementation strategies. An innovative game theoretical approach guides the interaction and conflict management between these two levels. In addition, the e-POLICY project proposes the evaluation of the economical, societal and environmental impacts of policy at both the global and individual levels. Societal impacts are derived from data retrieved by e-participation and Web2.0 tools. Both policy maker and citizens are assisted in the decision-making and participation processes through visualization tools. From a technological perspective, leading-edge optimization and decision support techniques contribute to global policy making, while agent-based simulation tools will perform a social simulation at the individual level, with game theory being used to manage conflicts and regulate the interaction between the two levels. Subsidiary, but no less important, techniques will aid the decision-making process by using opinion-mining from e-participation derived data and advanced visualization tools.
The project proof of concept will be an open source decision support system where the above components are implemented, integrated and evaluated with a realistic target: that of a real-world regional energy plan. One of the key barriers to the progress of renewable energy projects is recognized as the planning and consenting process. The e-POLICY project goes towards resolving this issue by aiding both processes.
Coordinator
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM-UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
- Dipartimento di Informatica - Scienza e Ingegneria-DISI
- Resp. Scientifico: Prof.ssa Michela Milano
Other participants
University College Cork, National University Of Ireland, Cork (Eire)
University Of Surrey (UK)
Inesc Porto - Instituto De Engenharia De Sistemas E Computadores Do Porto (Portugal)
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V (Germany)
Regione Emilia Romagna (Italy)
Power Planning Associates Limited (UK)
Aster - Societa Consortile Per Azioni (Italy)
Universita Degli Studi Di Ferrara (Italy)
Start date 01/10/2011
End date 30/09/2014
Duration 36 months
Project Reference 288147
Project cost 3.272.373 EURO
Project Funding 2.559.162 EURO
Area FP7- COOPERATION - ICT
Subprogramme Area ICT-2011.5.7: ICT for governance and policy modelling
Contract type Collaborative project