Are you focusing on new topics emerging in the field of ICT and public sector, incl. public-private ecosystems? Then it is time to start preparing your submission for EGOV2025 – IFIP EGOV-CeDEM-EPART Emerging Issues and Innovations Track, which this time we chair in the updated form, welcoming A. Paula Rodriguez Müller on the board with us – Francesco Mureddu (The Lisbon Council, Belgium)and myself – Anastasija Nikiforova (Tartu University, Estonia)).

EGOV2025 – IFIP EGOV-CeDEM-EPART is one of the most recognized conference in e-Government, ICT and public administration and related topics, which this year will be hosted in Belgium, in the heart of Europe, by University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. This year, IFIP EGOV 2025 is dedicated to the broader areas of e-Government and e-Democracy, which include facets like Digital Government, e-Participation, Open Government,  Smart Government, AI government, GovTech, Algoritmic Governance, and related topics to digitalization and government.

Innovation and application of emerging technologies are now more and more in the thinking of governments at all levels. While it would be easy to consider the public sector as being less flexible or slow in adoption, presentations at recent EGOV conferences proved that one should not come to such a conclusion too easily. Upcoming technologies, innovative organizational solutions, or new avenues of public sector involvement in the public sector are becoming more commonplace along with the potential challenges and issues these bring. Policymakers and public sector officials are now expected to embrace change, consider digital transformation, or improve governance practices. At the same time, public sector researchers are also influenced by new views, methods, tools, and techniques. The goal of this track is to provide a platform for the discussion of new ideas, issues, problems, and solutions entering the public sphere. Ideas that are emerging but might not fit other conference tracks are also welcome. Focus may include, but are not limited to:

• Looking ahead into social innovation;
• Future studies, the future of government, policy-making and democracy;
• The future of digital governance;
• Public values in transforming the government;
• The role of government in smart cities (incl. smart sustainable cities) and sustainable living;
• The role of the public sector in Human-Centered Society (Society 5.0);
• New trends in public sector research such as Metaverse, Cityverse, Large Language Models (LLMs), generative AI and its implementations such as chatGPT, Claude, ChatSonic, Poe – benefits, risks, adoption and resistance to its adoption by the public sector and citizens;
• Government in the Virtual Worlds and Web 4.0;
• Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), smart contracts and blockchain;
• New technologies for automated decision-making and their policy implications;
• Public sector use and regulation of AI, genAI, Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0, and the Internet of Things (IoT);
• Digital Humanism (responsible and ethical integration of technology into society, ensuring that human values and dignity are prioritized in the development and use of digital tools and innovations);
• The role of the public sector in competitiveness and tech sovereignty;
• Global challenges that go beyond nation states (such as migration, climate change etc.) and which require international collaboration of individual governments;
• Preparing for the policy challenges of future technologies;
• Regulating misinformation;
• Digital transformation in public sector contexts;
• Self-Service Structures for Inclusion;
• Public-private sector collaboration and integration;
• GovTech initiatives and innovations;
• Latest trends in co-creation and service delivery;
• Online public community building;
• Upcoming issues of eVoting / internet voting including application of digital signatures in the public sector;
• Discussion of new research methods that have not been applied in this context;
• Application of role theory in the analysis of public sector functions and processes;
• Forward looking insights from case studies – let it be successful or failed experiments.
• Utilization of digital billboards;
• Public sector use and regulation of Fintech innovations;
• Theoretical and practical approaches to experimentation and sandboxing in the public sector.Future studies, the future of government, policy-making and democracy

Stay tuned, more info to come!