Disrup­tive Tech­no­lo­gies in the Public Sector

A partner in both the TG4Np and Improve Projects from ERNACT Ireland contac­ted us at the end of the 2014-2020 NPA funding period. Tradi­tio­nally, at the end of the funding period, extra money is distri­bu­ted, and now the oppor­tu­nity had come to get a research project funded about advanced technologies.

The reasons for co-opera­tion were based on Karelia’s good repu­ta­tion and acti­vi­ties in previous projects. ERNACT also called to action Umeå Univer­sity. Accor­ding to the origi­nal deci­sion, the project was due to start on 1 April 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pande­mic, the start was post­po­ned to 1 October 2020. The project ended March 31, 2022.

The DISTINCT Project (Disrup­tive Tech­no­lo­gies Trans­for­ming Nort­hern Perip­hery and Arctic Commu­ni­ties) was led by the ERNACT network (Ireland), which coor­di­na­ted acti­vi­ties with the other two part­ners: Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences (Finland) and Umeå Univer­sity (Sweden). The project had a dura­tion of 18 months.

The Distinct Project

The DISTINCT Project explo­red the prac­tical applica­tion of Disrup­tive Tech­no­lo­gies in the public service provi­sion. This inclu­des the use of Virtual Reality (VR), Inter­net of Things (IoT), Arti­ficial Intel­li­gence (AI) and Blockc­hain in health and social care, envi­ron­men­tal mana­ge­ment and training.

Disrup­tive tech­no­logy is an inno­va­tion that signi­ficantly alters the way that consu­mers, industries, or busi­nes­ses operate. A disrup­tive tech­no­logy sweeps away the systems or habits it replaces because it has attri­bu­tes that are recog­nizably superior.

The reason disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies are impor­tant, is because the success­ful applica­tion can save costs, increase viabi­lity, improve use of scarce human resources, span distances and improve deci­sion making. However, the small number and concent­ra­tion of disrup­tive tech­no­logy research and inno­va­tion centers, allied with low levels of aware­ness, present serious blocks to realizing this improvement.

The DISTINCT Project focused on the following technologies:

• Inter­net of Things (IoT): desc­ri­bes the network of small physical objects, that are packed with sensors, software, and other tech­no­lo­gies to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet.

• Arti­ficial Intel­li­gence (AI): desc­ri­bes software, machi­nes, compu­ters or devices that can mimic func­tions of the human mind such as lear­ning, percei­ving their envi­ron­ment, solving a problem or success­fully achie­ving goals.

• Virtual Reality (VR): use of special headsets/devices to gene­rate realis­tic images, sounds and other sensa­tions that simu­late a user’s physical presence in a virtual envi­ron­ment. The user is able to look and move around and inte­ract with virtual objects.

• Augmen­ted Reality (AR): inte­rac­tive expe­rience of a real-world envi­ron­ment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by compu­ter-gene­ra­ted percep­tual infor­ma­tion, some­ti­mes across multiple sensory modalities.

• Blockc­hain: Blockc­hain is a growing distri­bu­ted list of data records, called blocks, linked using cryp­to­graphy. It is resis­tant to modi­fica­tion and can record tran­sac­tions between two parties efficiently and in a veri­fiable and perma­nent way.

What We Did in the Distinct Project

Part­ners worked toget­her to jointly achieve the project’s main result: three Nort­hern Perip­hery and Arctic regions with signi­ficantly enhanced capacity to deliver future-proof viable public services using disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies as a result of increa­sed aware­ness, prepa­red­ness and inno­va­tion planning.

1. Public Sector Fore­sight Analysis

The questionnaire’s inten­tion is to increase aware­ness among public autho­ri­ties by disco­ve­ring applica­tions and esti­ma­ting poten­tial demand, of how particu­lar disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies can be applied to particu­lar public services in remote and spar­sely popu­la­ted areas.

A total of 45 total respon­ses were gathe­red through the online ques­tion­naire from diffe­rent NPA count­ries. Respon­ses came from Finland, Ireland, Nort­hern Ireland, Scot­land, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Link to Fore­sight Analy­sis Report.

2. NPA Disrup­tive Tech­no­lo­gies Capacity Evalua­tion Report

The purpose of the docu­ment is to assess the exis­ting disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies capaci­ties avai­lable in the NPA region.

It is the result of the process followed by the DISTINCT part­ners which have inclu­ded desk research, consul­ta­tions and inter­views with target groups that in this case are the research centers, univer­si­ties, colle­ges and compa­nies, owners of the know-how on disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies solutions.

The iden­ti­fica­tion process has focused in the poten­tial applica­tion of disrup­tive tech­no­lo­gies, in particu­lar Inter­net of Things (IoT), Arti­ficial Intel­li­gence (AI), Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and Blockc­hain, into the public service areas addres­sed in the project, namely, health and care, envi­ron­men­tal mana­ge­ment and training.

Link to the Capacity Evalua­tion Report

3. DISTINCT Disrup­tive Tuesdays

The Disrup­tive Tues­days was a series of workshops/demo sessions where several examples were showca­sed provi­ding atten­dees with a better idea of the role that these tech­no­lo­gies can play for impro­ved public services. In total, three sessions were organized:

1. Use of Disrup­tive Tech­no­lo­gies in Envi­ron­men­tal Mana­ge­ment, 16 Novem­ber 2021 –
2. Use of Disrup­tive Tech­no­lo­gies in Health and Social Care, 7 Decem­ber 2021 (Hosted by Karelia –
3. Use of Disrup­tive Tech­no­lo­gies in Educa­tion and Trai­ning, 25 January 2022

These online sessions were recor­ded and can be acces­sed here.

4. Imple­men­ta­tion Roadmap

The recom­men­da­tions and best prac­tices propo­sed in this roadmap, targe­ted to orga­niza­tions respon­sible of public services, makes use of the findings from the work done by the DISTINCT part­ners­hip in previous project acti­vi­ties. The roadmap will be publis­hed on the project website at a later date. The roadmap can be found after publica­tion here.

---

Authors:

Timo Rui, Senior Project Manager, Karelia UAS

Riikka Räsänen, Project Specia­list, Karelia UAS

Cover photo: Tara Wins­tead