ePolicy · Engineering the POlicy-making LIfe CYcle

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 maker's 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.<br/>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.