Can big-data analytics improve public administration and citizen services? What are the challenges? And who is doing it best? In collaboration with the European Commission; Public.digital, the UK’s pre-eminent digital-government advisory firm; and Deloitte, the management consulting firm, the Lisbon Council is overseeing Data Analytics for Member States and Public Administration, a year-long study to explore the technology, governance and policy implications of data analytics in public administration. The project is built around 15 in-depth case studies. In the spirit of open collaboration, working drafts of the case studies are published on the European Commission’s Join Up website for comment and discussion. An online seminar convened to present and discuss early findings from the study. The study is supported by the European Commission’s directorate-general for informatics in the context of the ISA2 Action 2016.03: Big Data for Public Administrations. It will culminate in three reports published by the European Commission – and a special analysis on how modelling has been used to support public decision making to face the COVID-19 crisis.