What skills are Public Administrations missing to truly innovate?

As part of the Inspire PA project, we set out to answer this critical question through a European-wide survey and national focus groups held in Italy, Romania, and Greece, aiming to validate the social innovation skills gap in public administration. Over 220 civil servants from across Europe (and beyond) shared their insights and experiences.

What did we learn? There is strong motivation to innovate within public institutions, but also significant structural and cultural barriers: rigid procedures, fear of failure, limited access to practical, applied training.

These findings point to the need for a new cross-cutting professional role: the Social Innovation Officer — a connector between citizens, institutions, and transformative change. The insights gathered are now informing the design of a certified curriculum, tailored to real-world needs and aimed at equipping public servants with the skills to lead citizen-driven, participatory innovation.

Led by AMR, with the valuable input of all project partners, this is a key milestone toward building more resilient, adaptive, and inclusive public institutions across Europe.

In the coming months, the Inspire PA website will host the full report on the public administration needs assessment.