1st Hackathon for Senior Civil Servants Concludes Digital Leadership Programme

The first edition of a hackathon for senior civil servants in Luxembourg concluded the "Digital Leadership Programme" training course, launched in 2019, this week.

Luxembourg's Minister for the Civil Service, Marc Hansen, opened the first edition of this hackathon on Monday. This is part of the Digital Leadership Programme course, offered as part of the Digital Academy project of the National Institute of Public Administration (Institut national d'administration publique - INAP).

At the hackathon launch, Minister Marc Hansen emphasised the importance of integrating new technologies in the public sector, but above all of developing a digital mindset in all components of public services. He recalled the ambition of the Luxembourg government to become one of the most advanced digital societies in the world, a goal which requires support for the general population and consequently the adequate training of senior civil servants so that they can ensure a role of digital ambassador within their administration. 

Philippe Diederich, head of INAP, assured that he would make strengthening the digital skills of public officials the priority of INAP's next work programme. Before the end of the year, he will present a digital skills training programme which has been completely revised according to the needs resulting from a survey conducted in collaboration with LUCET and ULCC.

The pilot Digital Leadership Programme training course is offered by INAP, in collaboration with the Luxembourg Tech School (LTS), represented by its founder and lead coach, Sergio Coronado. Its ambition is to bring to life a collective reflection on the continuous improvement of the public service and the development of eGovernment. With this in mind, the course aims to involve a large number of public officials in the search for innovative and value-creating solutions for new public services, collaborative work processes or tools and user applications, among other things. Course participants thus had the opportunity to follow a business, technology and creativity programme, get introductions in relevant digital topics, receive personalised coaching and work on their own projects.

The hackathon is one of the fundamental elements of the Digital Leadership Programme. Participants had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the entire process of creating digital products, from the initial idea to development and the presentation of the final product (or a first prototype) to their colleagues and the jury. 

Mentors specialising in different technological fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), web development or cybersecurity supported participants at all stages of the development and implementation of their digital projects.

This year's event ended with the presentation of the final pitches on Tuesday, in front of a jury of experts. The projects resulting from the work of hackathoners cover the following areas: transparent and open administration; AI applied to the regulatory framework; chatbots serving the public.

These projects will be the subject of future initiatives in order to continue work and capitalise on the positive elements by generalising them in public services and internal operating methods.