Open Government Partnership

Open Data: Working Together and Innovating for Impact

August 4, 2025 by Open Government Team No Comments | Category Uncategorized

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government’s Open Data Team worked with a group from the University of Edinburgh’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation MSc programme. Louise Meikleham, Senior Data Policy Officer, reflects on the project and its impact.

Open data is often seen as a tool to fuel innovation, grow the economy, empower communities and drive transparency. But in practice, joining the dots and showing real-world impact can be challenging.  

That’s the issue we explored in partnership with the University of Edinburgh team: how do we move beyond publishing open data to demonstrating its value? 

Challenges of demonstrating impact 

Through reviews, interviews and case studies, the team identified two main challenges: 

• Without a clear way to show how open data is re-used, it’s hard to show how it is used by people outside government, and therefore hard to show its real-world impact or highlight its value. 

• Open data is often too complex, making it difficult for people to engage with it. 

Innovative solutions   

To address these challenges, they proposed a set of thoughtful, user-focused solutions including: 

1. A framework for real-world case studies, using the example of the Climate Action Platform delivered by the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service. 
2. A way to bring together existing data and resources to encourage collaboration across user groups and sectors.  
3. A gamified pilot ‘Open Data City’ using QR codes and storytelling to make open data accessible, interactive and meaningful.  

Lessons learned from collaboration 

What made this project stand out wasn’t just the innovative solutions, it was how we got there. Each team member brought a different perspective and valuable insights.  

Gabrielle, with a background in law and banking in Brazil, shared: 

“I work a lot with open finance, and I could see how it could help other banks to connect and also to provide a better service to their customers. When I saw this project, I saw a huge opportunity to work with the public sector – to advocate for a project and see the impact that open data can have and see how this could work in the public sector.” 

Max, a project and product manager with experience in start-ups and digital platforms, highlighted the importance of making open data more accessible for users: 

“The key benefit includes increasing the openness and the usability of public sector data, pushing data-driven decision-making and building a more interesting and transparent digital ecosystem. By providing a structured framework and gamified engagement, our project helps bridge the gap between data publication and social impact – making open data more accessible to both professionals and citizens.” 

Reflecting on new ways of working

In government it’s easy to rely on familiar mechanisms and relationships. But working with different perspectives opened us up to new ways of working, new ways of seeing the problems, and new solutions.  

Marilu, a consultant with experience in government bodies and innovation projects in Peru, shared her reflections on some of the key barriers to achieving meaningful impact through data: 

“A lack of standardisation remains a major challenge for many institutions, including the Scottish Government. It makes data difficult to use or compare across systems. In addition, it’s not always clear who is using the data or how it’s being applied.” 

Communication is essential. We need to understand how to tailor our messaging for different types of users. Communicating with non-technical audiences requires a different approach. Data must be presented in a clear, accessible way—ideally in formats that are easy to grasp. Gamification can be especially powerful here, making data more engaging and easier to connect with.” 

It’s also important to consider how people are involved in our processes. We can ensure this is achieved by implementing feedback loops. This allows us to adapt and refine our models in ways that truly meet users’ needs.” 

As the project wrapped up, we asked the team what they would take forward from this experience. Andhika, who has an engineering background and experience working with local government bodies in Indonesia, shared how the project reshaped his view of government: 

“I come from Balikpapan, a city in Indonesia located near the country’s new capital development area. With some business tender experience in local government bodies, I’ve observed that government processes can often be bureaucratic and rigid. 

But after working with the Scottish Government on this project, my perspective changed. I saw how a government institution can be open, agile, and genuinely user-centred. The way the team approached innovation, policy collaboration, and stakeholder engagement showed me that public sector work can be both strategic and people-driven. 

With a future career goal of working in the public sector, this experience opened my eyes to how effective and forward-thinking government can be when guided by collaboration, data, and a clear commitment to public value.” 

The power of partnership 

The project was supported by Dr Hajar Mozaffar, Director of the Digital and Artificial Intelligence Transformation Lab at the University of Edinburgh, which helped the team take an innovative and collaborative approach. 

Martin Macfie, the Scottish Government’s Head of Open Data said:  

“It’s really important that we work in partnership with people from other organisations who provide fresh perspectives and informed insights.  

The team went over and above what we were expecting, delivering a thoughtful and innovative solution. This is going to help us massively in our thinking and next steps.” 

This partnership helped us think more broadly about how to connect sectors and users, and how to spark the engagement needed to unlock open data’s full potential. 

When people can see and use open government data, it builds confidence, creates opportunities for businesses to grow, for innovators to solve problems and enables communities to act. To unlock the value of open data, we need to shift the narrative – from technical outputs to meaningful information that shapes better outcomes. 

You can hear more reflections from the students who led the project by watching the video.

The project team pictured in order from left to right: Max Zhu; Louise Meikleham; Gabrielle De Oliveira Ribon; Andhika Kamal Yudhistira; Marilu Nuñez Sanchez; Hajar Mozaffar (Programme Director, MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Edinburgh Business School) and Martin Macfie. 

Stay connected, explore and learn

Want to stay informed about how open government is building trust and transparency in Scotland? Sign up to the Trust and Transparency in Scotland Community Bulletin for updates and opportunities to be involved. 

For reflections on leading open government, read Minister for Parliamentary Business, Jamie Hepburn, MSP’s blog What a year as Co-chair of the Open Government Steering Group where he shares his experience of a year in post.  

To explore the broader context of open government visit Open Government Partnership Scotland.  

Interested in open data in Scotland? We have published the independent open data blueprint report. See also our latest blogs on open data policy and improvements to open data publishing. 

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