17:54 PEYEIA municipality and Limassol based firm Interfusion Services have teamed up to develop new information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve democracy.
The €9.1 million EU funded programme Future Policy Modeling (FUPOL) project will run until October 2015, bringing together political experts and computer scientists from around the world.
Interfusion’s managing director, and one of 17 consortium partners Haris Neophytou said: “FUPOL is an exceptionally ambitious project that will enable policy makers to better forecast and understand policy trends.”
Neophytou said FUPOL could also help to improve democratic systems by enhancing citizen participation: “FUPOL aims to improve the decision-making ability of politicians and policy makers. It is a great accomplishment that a Cypriot company is part of this research effort and a great opportunity for Peyia Municipality, which will be one of the pilot sites where the FUPOL solution will be demonstrated and tested.”
Peyia will be one of the five pilot sites that will implement and test the FUPOL solution.
FUPOL aims at a completely new approach to traditional politics. Major innovations like multichannel social computing and crowd sourcing will change the way politicians communicate with citizens and enterprises and take decisions.
The new ICT system will be able to automatically collect, analyse and interpret opinions expressed on a large scale from the Internet enabling governments to gain a better understanding of citizens’ needs.
The software will also simulate the effects of policies and laws and to assist governments in the whole policy design process.
The task of policy modeling research is to analyse the policy landscape together with users in selected domains relevant to cities and municipalities and to develop generic policy models.
The project already generated significant interest beyond the European Union, with one partner 10,000 km away the Chinese city of Yantai.
Like most cities in China, Yantai is a rapidly developing urban centre; it will therefore greatly benefit from FUPOL in developing the tools and methods for sustainable development and aims to serve as a blueprint for other large fast developing urban areas in China.
More information: www.fupol.eu or www.facebook.com/fupol
