2024 Innovation Library

Do you want to know the recipe for making innovation labs, units and offices last over time? Are you worried that innovation initiatives are not sustainable in your city or country?

The Mayor's Office of Bogotá (Colombia) has been developing a public innovation governance model aimed at generating culture, identifying innovation services and turning them into innovation enablers, working together among public entities, and enhancing the use of innovation to achieve goals that improve the life quality of citizens.

We believe in public innovation labs, but our goal is to create a sustainable innovation ecosystems. In this space you will meet the actors in charge of leading this change first hand. We will discuss the process, the lessons learned, and the future of this public innovation governance model.

By Public Innovation Lab of the city of Bogota iBO | Colombia

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

From raising children to supporting elders, caregiving sustains our societies. The labor of care bolsters our economies and provides stability in our communities. Yet, caregivers have largely been unacknowledged by governments, overlooked by traditional research, and severely undervalued in current economic systems. Care is also gendered, with the labor of care disproportionately provided by women - at home, in communities, and in paid professional contexts.

The City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE) understands that care is delivered at a local scale and believes that city governments have a unique role to play in understanding and addressing the challenges facing caregivers. Caring Cities worked with three city governments from the CHANGE network-Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and Los Angeles-to learn directly from caregivers. The research approach was rooted in the belief that individuals most impacted must be at the center of solving complex challenges in order to spark equitable and transformative change. CHANGE views community-based research as an opportunity for city leaders to listen to and partner with impacted residents, especially those who have been historically excluded from decision-making processes.

The community of practice introduced by Caring Cities helped to spark new ideas, support local implementation, and build a shared global understanding and movement for gender equity.

By City Hub and Network for Gender Equity | United States

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Stealing each other's good ideas should be a public value!

The Dutch 'Urban Agenda', an innovation program within the Dutch Ministry of the Interior, works with the brand-new role of Chief Exploration Officer. The job of the Chief Exploration Officer, or 'CXO', is to look for inspiration and opportunities in the outside world. The goal of this exploration is to boost the innovative work of the Urban Agenda - for instance by learning from the methods and practices of others, or by finding new potential partners to collaborate with.

In bureaucracy, the tendency is often to focus inwards: when faced with a challenge, we act from our own silos and invent our own wheels. At the Dutch Urban Agenda, we try to do this differently. Our main instrument is the so-called City Deals: experimental collaborations between various levels of government and social partners. City Deals serve to collaboratively create system change on a wide variety of urban and transition topics, such as 'electric car sharing' or 'a healthy food environment'.

In this showcase we introduce the work of Chief Exploration Officer and explain why and how this role forms a vital addition to government programs that take innovation at heart, such as the Dutch Urban Agenda.

By Dutch Ministry of the Interior | Netherlands

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Freetown has 74 informal settlements, where the population is living in extreme vulnerability due to lack of land-use planning, housing and basic services that are exacerbated by climate impacts, e.g. flooding, landslide, heat stress, coastal erosion, sea level rise and water shortages.

To address this, a multi-level governance partnership was built with vulnerable communities to co-design nature-based resilient housing, basic services and infrastructure that ensure inclusion, equity and well-being for all residents.

This includes: i) structured planning through re-blocking processes of Cockle Bay and Kolleh Town coastal communities where zoning plans were developed with designated areas of green zone (safe to build), yellow zone (safe to build with concern), and red zone (to be vacated and greened); ii) co-designed action plans for planning new housing units, infrastructure, services and greening; iii) commitment from Freetown City Council and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning (MLHCP) to designate a special planning area for the 2 settlements, increasing security of land tenure to guarantee occupancy and dignified living; iv) community learning platforms established for engagement and learning across communities to roll out slum upgrading across Freetown.

This may be incorporated into the World Bank Resilient Urban Sierra Leone Program (RUSLP) in 2024. A journey of transforming lives and restoring hope for Freetown's 40% vulnerable population.

By Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation | Sierra Leone

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

From 2014 to 2023, Project Life was developed and delivered in an integrated manner between Epidemiological Surveillance and the Psychosocial Care Center I to guarantee humanized care for cases of attempted suicide, as well as these individuals' families.

Through meetings with Health, Education and Social Assistance services, the flow and counterflow of suicide attempts were mapped and competencies were defined. Training was offered to fill out the investigation form, with cases being monitored to prepare a diagnosis of the territory and design of proposed interventions. These included mental health groups, matrix support, community spaces and campaigns.

By Fraiburgo City Hall, Health Department | Brazil

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Today, hundreds of GB of data are created every second. Traditional bureaucracies with manual processes and tools may soon be massively outpaced by the sheer volume of information. Bureaucracy must evolve – and ImpactAI aims to shape this transformation.

A significant portion of the tasks and time of bureaucrats involves the handling of unstructured texts, from extracting relevant information from dense technical documents to composing reports. With ImpactAI, we are investigating how automated AI tools can potentially be used to assist bureucracts with these tasks. We identified two tracks for the use of large language models for which we design safe testing environments to explore if and how AI can be used to enable bureaucrats to reclaim their time.

The first track explores a generalist AI chat interface that leverages broad knowledge. The second track includes retrieval-augmented generation systems for specialized research options. Besides technological progress we explore how the use of AI could transform processes and collaboration in the public sector. Our vision is a global community in which the responsible use of AI for the common good is explored collaboratively, especially with our partner countries. While the applications are currently not in productive use within the BMZ, we aim to share our experiences with international partners and further mature the project.

By Datalab, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

E.I.T.A! Recife is a cutting-edge movement created to promote a cultural transformation in public service. This project showcase focuses on the two innovation tracks: the Open Innovation Cycle and E.I.T.A! Labs. The Open Innovation Cycle identifies public problems and seeks disruptive solutions. E.I.T.A! Labs is a regulatory sandbox segment of E.I.T.A! Recife. It consists of an initiative to relax rules and adapt regulations to engage the technology and innovation ecosystem.

In any Open Innovation process, the premise is a good technique for involving experts and all areas involved to identify and prioritize problems. EITA Recife implemented Design Thinking methods to involve all, including the citizens.

In terms of efficiency, there was no increase in expenses with IT, with the allocation of R$ 3.2M (US$ 653,000). In terms of efficacy, based on the definition of 6 accelerated initiatives in the first Cycle, the success rate was 66.7%. This innovation performance is considerably higher than the expectations for successful scalability of startups in the market, which is approximately 10%. And in terms of effectiveness, the four solutions received a contribution of R$ 3.5 M from Recife. The innovative solutions have helped to effectively reallocate R$10.2 million of the municipal budget, both in health and infrastructure, and affected at least 40.1% of the population in the process of improving the solutions (about 664,900 people affected).

By Prefeitura do Recife (Recife City Hall) | Brazil

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Barcelona has committed to be a NetZero City by 2030. Construction is responsible for almost a quarter of all air pollution on the planet. At the same time, the pavement of Barcelona has maintained its same recipe since 1905. So in 2022 Barcelona City Council, through BIT Habitat, launched a challenge to seek a new pavement (Panot) that preserved the iconic design but was more aligned in its fabrication, installation and management with the climate emergency framework needs.

The awarded solutions had to lower environmental impact and heat island effect, increase permeability, extend their life cycle, and demonstrate those increased features during the prototyping process and monitoring the impacts on the real environment: the street. Winner proposals received a grant to co-finance 80% of the total cost.

The key element of that is the public purpose methodology: Administration becomes an active agent in shaping the market, investing in innovation but promoting the generation of the common good. Adopting the ""urban challenge"" methodology allowed finding a solution that didn't exist in the market before, ensuring that all the information generated is open to guarantee its scalability through the public procurement processes. Both public and private share the risk and revenues of the innovation process.

Therefore, the "creative bureaucracy" approach consists of designing an administrative procedure to accelerate innovation and ensure the achievement of these ambitious goals.

By BIT Habitat | Spain

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

13 fellows from 10 different African countries in 8 institutions and structures united to foster a culture of digital innovation at the African Union: the AU Digital and Innovation Fellowship is the first supranational initiative to bridge the gap between the digital ecosystem on the continent and the African Union.

The challenge: 12 months to strengthen innovation in the African Union. The results: 11 products in diverse AU units that make administrative processes more user-centred and effective.

The fellowship is a unique programme designed to inject youthful innovation talent into the complex structure of the African Union. The initiative strategically deploys African digital and innovation talents as resident fellows to address specific identified needs. These forward-thinking fellows, armed with creativity and tech prowess, tackle challenges through co-creation, design and implementation of tailor-made solutions.

Designed to deliver collective impact, the fellowship establishes connections between typically disparate entities: seasoned public officials within this supranational organization and the innovators. By tapping into the expertise of African innovators and witnessing their added value, the African Union embarked on a transformative journey, changing its understanding and approach to collaboration with the dynamic digital and innovation ecosystem on the continent. The journey will continue through a second AU Digital and Innovation Fellowship cohort.

By GIZ | African Union

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

There are around 50 thousand people with disabilities registered for employment opportunities in Lithuania. Those are IT programmers, academics, craftsmen, and others who are ready to do great work; they just need an extra bit of attention from employers for their special conditions. However, they do not have it easy. Lithuanian businesses are often reluctant to employ them for a combination of reasons, including a distorted perception of the disabled and weak incentives.

Every year, Lithuania spends around EUR 8.5 billion through public procurement. Government buyers employ massive numbers of people through catering, cleaning, construction, and many other contracts. However, they rarely spend it on (or with) those who need it the most. Public contracts are a powerful hidden lever to uplift marginalized groups through economic opportunities. The Government started using that power to promote the inclusion of the disabled by encouraging public buyers to spend their money with requirements to include the marginalized population, aiming to spend at least EUR 1.5 billion with inclusion requirements over 2024 and grow that figure over time.

The Government is to use a people-centered, empathetic, and open data-driven approach to change the status quo and help change the lives of thousands of the disabled in the country.

By Open Contracting Partnership | Lithuania

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

The Digital Archipelago Project: Connecting Communities was developed so that people from distant and vulnerable communities away from urban centers have easier access to the services of the Labor Judiciary. The proposal involves the installation of digital inclusion points where equipment and internet connection are provided for accessing the services. This represents an innovation for the public sector, as it overcomes geographical and social barriers by bringing judicial services to distant and vulnerable communities. The project's uniqueness lies in providing these points within community associations, aiming to bring Labor Judiciary services to environments already familiar to the population, thus contributing to strengthening the sense of belonging and citizenship of the beneficiaries.

By Tribunal Regional do Trabalho da 4ª Região | Brazil

*This project was selected by our community to be presented live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2024 through the Community Voting process.*

Once upon a time a Director General, who was passionate about the power of arts and culture to make a meaningful difference to society, met a Practitioner who had developed novel methods to do just that. Excited by their common goals, they got together and Taking the Initiative was born.

Harm-Christian Tolden and Lisa Baxter will explore how bureaucracy can be its own worst enemy and the meticulous steps they have taken to respond in a way that creatively disrupts the status quo, circumventing many of the bureaucratic 'norms' and replacing them with new ones. Inspired by ecosystemic thinking, cultural democracy, citizen-centred processes, emergent theory and socially engaged practice, our story is about being brave, taking risk and breaking the rules.

We will share our methodological approach which recasts artists as agents of change, bridging the tensions that exist between civic and civil society, top-down and bottom-up processes, and between instrumentalism and community self-determination. By positively disrupting established mindsets, process and structures within an experimental framework, we are testing and validating new ways in which artists, arts and culture can deliver value for the city and its citizens.

We are currently transitioning Taking The Initiative from an experiment to a core strand of the Cultural Department's activity as well as embedding it in plans for Bergen to become European Capital of Culture 2036.

By Bergen Kommune / The Experience Business | Norway

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Safecity was launched 11 years ago as an immediate response to the gangrape of Jyoti Singh on a bus in Delhi. The aim was to provide a safe space to anonymously document sexual and gender based violence. The personal incidents are collated as location-based patterns and trends, making what is currently invisible and under-reported visible and bridging the official datagap. Today, Safecity has data from 86 countries, is available in 15 languages and over 1.5 million citizens have been engaged in safer cities programming alongwith police and city officials.

By Red Dot Foundation | India 

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Our project establishes village accountability dialogues where girls hold village leaders (including government officials, teachers and NGOs) to account through Music, Dance and Drama (MDD) on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) at the village level. Therefore, through this approach, we breakdown the bureaucratic government system that denies girls the opportunity of holding government leaders to account on national policies and programs related to GBV. Through these village accountability dialogues, village leaders are brought together in order to avoid complicated administrative procedures that deny minorities like girls the right to participate in village and national good governance and accountability matters within the country.

By Might Foundation | Uganda

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Our project showcase delves into the critical issue of water scarcity in the city of Bamenda 1, Cameroon. We aim to shed light on the daily challenges faced by community members due to limited access to clean water. We highlight the impactful efforts of our organization, the Farmer Tantoh Foundation (Save your Future Association), dedicated to ensuring 'Safe Water for All'. We illustrate our work, learnings and plans for providing access to clean water to the city. At the heart of our narrative are the personal stories and experiences of individuals within the community. By sharing their perspectives, we provide a deeper understanding of the human impact of water scarcity and the urgent need for change. Furthermore, our showcase emphasizes the importance of community involvement in driving sustainable solutions. We display the collaborative efforts of local residents demonstrating the power of collective action in creating positive change. Water is life!

By Farmer Tantoh Foundation | Cameroon

*This project was selected by our community to be presented live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2024 through the Community Voting process.*

How do we make democratic processes fun and engaging? How do we lower the thresholds for participation? What tools can we use? The initial trigger for the boad-game Electionville was the observed lack of understanding and engagement among youth regarding local democracy processes and an assessment of the material available to change that. The mission was to address this gap by providing a playful, interactive platform for young individuals to learn about and engage with the democratic process, thereby promoting active civic participation. What surprised us was that we started to get reports that the game was used by human resources departments at municipalities when introducing and on-boarding new employees. We were told that the game worked as a great tool to explain how it is to work in a politically run workplace and that it clarified the different roles. Electionville is one of many tools Fabel has developed to increase democratic engagement.

By Fabel Kommunikation AB | Sweden

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

The Open Playground Manager (OPM) is an open-source web application specifically designed to enable the digital management of playground equipment. Its main objective is to simplify the administrative work involved in inspecting, maintaining, and documenting playground equipment.

The OPM was developed in response to the digital challenges faced by municipalities. They need to support their workflows with digital tools in order to establish more efficient processes. At the same time, they need strong partners to help them implement their digital projects. Municipalities are also increasingly expected to digitalize their administrations while strengthening their digital sovereignty.

Through the targeted use of design thinking and rapid prototyping, the Digitalization Department of the City of Wolfsburg was able to prepare the development of the OPM in a creative and innovative way. The project demonstrates how procuring digital products on a small scale can create significant added value. Originally designed for playgrounds in Wolfsburg, the OPM is not limited to this specific use case. Its “transferability by design” principle ensures that the solution can be applied and adapted to a wide range of use cases in different locations.

The OPM was funded to a significant extent through the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building’s (BMWSB) Model Projects Smart Cities (MPSC) funding program.

By Stadt Wolfsburg | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Our democracy is increasingly under pressure. People talk about “those people up there!” and ask, “They don’t care about what we want!”

This is exactly where the Democracy Guide comes in. The idea is simple: when people in their local communities know who they can turn to, they are more likely to reach out to those responsible. Every positive experience helps reduce the distance between citizens and politics. “Those people up there” become tangible, familiar faces become neighbors.

How do we connect people at the local level? Through a digital map that shows the relevant elected representatives for every location in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)—at the municipal, state, and federal levels. In principle, it is Google Maps for politics. Citizens can easily explore who is responsible for what in their local area.

As simple as the solution may sound, implementing it is challenging and time-consuming. For now, it is largely a matter of manual work and is only possible thanks to the support of many partners, including municipalities. Ultimately, however, we want to demonstrate the need for a standardized, nationwide data standard—and what such a standard could achieve.

Our goal: to make ourselves unnecessary because transparency has become the standard.

By Demokratie-Wegweiser | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

Initiatives led by young urban changemakers play an important role in our society. They create spaces for sociocultural expression, enable young people to experience their own agency, foster dialogue and encounters, and actively shape urban spaces. Projects such as building skate parks, creating parklets, and other forms of self-organized participation contribute to making cities more livable and sustainable.

The Urbane Liga is a network, knowledge platform, and advocate for more than 70 nationwide DIT (Do-it-together) urban development projects. Building on the Youth Forum for Urban Development established by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) and the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB), its aim is to strengthen the voices of young people in local, regional, and national urban development policy and to serve as their platform and advocate.

The experiences and insights gained through local projects feed directly into national policymaking and dialogue with municipal administrations. The Urbane Liga advocates for co-productive urban development and empowers young people to actively shape the cities they live in.

By Urbane Liga e.V. | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*

 

How can large language models (LLMs) be used quickly and in compliance with data protection requirements to make the work of public administrations easier? This was the question explored by the Innovation Lab of the Baden-Württemberg state government (InnoLab_bw). The result was F13, the first German AI prototype for public administration based on an LLM. With an intuitive interface, F13 provides employees of the Baden-Württemberg state administration with AI support for working with text. It can summarize texts, answer research questions relating to state policy, and provide text modules for creating documents. Its summarization and research functions are particularly useful for repetitive tasks and for extracting information from large volumes of text.

What has also become clear is that F13 represents a huge opportunity for public administration as the first product of its kind. Building on the experience gained through the project, further modern AI tools can be developed to make public administration more efficient in the future. The aim is to use the insights gained from the project to develop numerous ideas for future use cases that address specific challenges faced by public administration employees in their day-to-day work—and to ensure that Europe not only consumes AI, but actively develops and produces it as well.

When public administration works quickly, efficiently, and seamlessly behind the scenes, citizens benefit too.

By Staatsministerium Baden-Württemberg (InnoLab_bw) | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

In TEAM BRÜCKENBAUER, organized around the Citizens’ Commissioner BRÜCKENBAUER and empowered by the digital infrastructure and expertise of the BRÜCKENBAUER Citizens’ Office, public administration and citizens work hand in hand toward three goals:

1. Proactively informing and communicating with citizens in the Märkischer Kreis district and the South Westphalia region about the social impact of the closure of the A45 motorway and the infrastructure project involving the demolition and reconstruction of the Rahmede Viaduct on the A45.
2. Empowering as many citizens as possible in the region to use the exceptional window of opportunity created by the A45 closure (2022–2026) to actively shape the future of their region together with the relevant authorities and public administrations involved.
3. Continuously supporting citizens who volunteer in their local communities by providing practical knowledge and tools to help them make their engagement more focused, coordinated, and effective.

In a nutshell: TEAM BRÜCKENBAUER puts the principle of CIVIC PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP into tangible and effective practice, thereby strengthening trust in the ability of democratically organized public institutions to act and deliver.

By Stadt Lüdenscheid | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

Participation needs to reach more people. Municipalities in particular can use inclusive participation to counter declining trust in politics.

Drawing on practical experience in designing and facilitating participation processes, these tips focus on reaching new target groups: How can municipalities engage more than just the “usual suspects” in participation formats?

The aim is to make it easier for municipal staff to incorporate a wider range of perspectives into political decision-making processes. The recommendations provide practical inspiration for making participation efforts more proactive and accessible, particularly for people who do not feel addressed by traditional participation opportunities.

The key to successful participation lies in three interconnected elements: INFORMING people so that they WANT to participate—and making sure they CAN participate.

Here are 10 practical tips to get started!

By Initiative Offene Gesellschaft e.V. | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

Cities are changing faster than ever, creating a need for new tools for urban planners and developers. Urban Digital Twins use a wide range of urban data resources to create digital representations of cities and enable the simulation of “what-if” scenarios for future-ready urban development.

The Connected Urban Twins (CUT) project is advancing Urban Data Platforms and Digital Twins not only technologically and conceptually, but also through practical applications. The three partner cities of Hamburg, Leipzig, and Munich are testing use cases in the areas of social transformation, energy, and climate. Standardized solutions make it possible for other cities and municipalities to explore new approaches to urban development and citizen participation as well.

There is no single Urban Digital Twin that works for every city. Like a modular toolkit, the individual components of Urban Digital Twins need to be combined and adapted to the specific challenges of each urban development question.

Successful digital transformation depends on collaboration: cities need to exchange ideas, share knowledge, and develop solutions together.

By Senatskanzlei der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

Imagine a world where software updates and hotfixes can be implemented without time-consuming formalities. And in the public sector. Sounds like a dream?

“Developing a Social Future through IT” is the vision of the IT systems house of the Federal Employment Agency. Whether providing IT services for 130,000 users or for millions of citizens, stability and security are its most valuable assets. At the same time, the demands placed on IT are becoming increasingly complex, while delivery cycles are expected to become shorter. This means rethinking the existing “IT factory” model of collaboration.

The traditional hierarchical structure, which tends to create organizational silos, is therefore being transformed in favor of end-to-end responsibility: those who develop software are also clearly responsible for operating it securely. In short: DevSecOps.

By State Capability Enhancement Project of the Government Innovation Lab, Government of Meghalaya | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

The state has a responsibility to support citizens in challenging situations. There are in fact many forms of support available, including parental allowance, education vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, significant amounts of funding remain unused every year. The German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, for example, estimates that only one in three eligible children receives the child supplement.

The reason is often simple: people do not know that they are entitled to certain benefits. Ideally, public authorities would proactively inform citizens about available support—or even provide it automatically. In Austria, parents of newborns are generally informed that the family allowance will be paid to them automatically going forward. Comparable processes are not currently available in Germany. The aim of the application is to help close this gap.

The concept is simple. Using a mobile device, citizens create a personal profile. The software compares their data with the eligibility criteria for available benefits and funding programs. When there is a match, users are notified and guided through the necessary steps.

This means people no longer have to search through complex information themselves to find the support they may be entitled to. The application also serves as an important translation layer, turning complex eligibility requirements into an easy-to-understand format. Citizens can submit targeted applications and receive the support intended for them.

By FörderFunke | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

The Smart City project “Lab of Creative Minds” invites creative professionals to co-develop and test ideas and solutions for the challenges facing the city. The aim is to develop a methodological format within public administration that brings public officials and creative professionals together through creative techniques, fostering knowledge transfer and encouraging new perspectives.

Municipalities face a wide range of challenges, and the traditional mindset of the “approving authority” is no longer sufficient. Instead, municipalities need to transform themselves into co-creative shapers of their cities—ultimately putting into practice the principles set out in the New Leipzig Charter. Achieving the vision of a creative city requires a fundamental shift in perspective. The project demonstrates this process through practical collaboration with creative professionals: urban development issues are explored in workshops, and proposed solutions are brought to life and experienced in public spaces.

The project focuses on the creative potential of these individuals and the distinctive skills that result from their unique approaches to new challenges. The goal is to harness this creative problem-solving expertise for the development of Regensburg, critically examine existing behaviors, methods, and forms of collaboration within the city administration, and foster a culture of innovation and change.

Interdisciplinary collaboration and adaptability help the city respond to the realities of an increasingly fast-changing world.

By Kreativbehörde der Stadt Regensburg | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

A new municipal network has been established: the Strong Places Network. It brings together changemakers from town halls and public administrations in small and medium-sized cities to explore new approaches to tackling vacant and underused spaces.

Working with creative partners, the network aims to create “Strong Places”—community hubs, housing projects, coworking spaces, cultural and educational venues, and local businesses—that benefit municipalities by generating new opportunities, fresh ideas, and renewed energy while attracting engaged citizens with innovative ideas.

Achieving this requires knowledge of alternative allocation and procurement tools, new approaches to municipal development, and active citizen participation. The network focuses on peer-to-peer exchange, professional development, and experimentation rather than simply discussing why things might not work.

The goal is to build a nationwide community of committed and progressive municipalities that make their own projects visible and, by working together, develop a new mindset within public administration. With a shared voice, the network advocates for better political frameworks and funding opportunities for co-productive urban development and community-oriented real estate development.

In this video, the network explains where it comes from, where it wants to go, and what motivates its members—and invites more committed municipalities to join and contribute their knowledge, ideas, and can-do spirit.

Join the network!

By Netzwerk Zukunftsorte e.V. | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

Imagine being unable to see. Noisy cars and rumbling construction sites make it difficult to find your way. Suddenly, a friendly digital voice guides you safely and reliably to your destination.

Now imagine sitting in a wheelchair. Stairs and high curbs can create significant barriers to getting around independently. Suddenly, your smartphone shows you an accessible route without obstacles, allowing you to reach your destination on your own.

Mobility is an essential foundation for participation in society. Losing the ability to move around independently can reduce social participation and quality of life.

For many people with physical disabilities, independent mobility remains difficult to achieve. KLNavi and the navigation system for people who are blind or visually impaired address individual needs and make mobility an integral part of inclusion.

Highly precise navigation will be available to people who are blind or visually impaired. Among other things, the system will identify the location of obstacles such as benches, trash bins, and streetlights. People with limited mobility—including wheelchair users, people using walkers, and older adults—will be able to avoid stairs and high curbs along their routes.

The system will also lower barriers to accessing public transport and make individual mobility alternatives more predictable and easier to plan for people across different population groups, encouraging the use of alternative modes of transportation.

By Stadtverwaltung Kaiserslautern | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 

New jobs emerge where there is a critical mass of innovative businesses, research centers, and talented people. Metropolitan areas and urban centers offer many advantages in this regard. But they are also reaching their limits: rising real estate and housing costs, high levels of emissions, cities that are never quiet or dark, stressful commutes, social isolation, unsafe spaces, and loneliness.

At the same time, small towns and rural communities are experiencing accelerated demographic change, threatening to create a downward spiral. Young people in particular are drawn to urban centers with universities and diverse employment opportunities. Once they graduate, many do not return to their home regions. As a result, the demographic and economic potential of young, highly skilled people remains untapped.

KoCampus addresses these challenges by creating new connections between urban and rural areas. Lifelong learning, digital learning formats, future-oriented degree programs, and greater mobility between cities and rural regions can create new opportunities to bridge the urban-rural divide. KoCampus aims to explore what it means to study in the places where knowledge and expertise are most urgently needed.

The project envisions a future shaped by “green ideas,” supported by innovative community and housing projects, stronger networking and broader access to university and higher-education offerings, and greater opportunities for people to actively shape their local communities. At the same time, it addresses fundamental questions about innovation capacity and quality of life in rural and smaller urban areas.

By Stadt Herzberg (Elster) | Germany

*This project was selected by our community to be presented live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2026 through the Community Voting process.*

From the perspective of citizens and businesses, digital public administration can often feel like a patchwork: government digital services are characterized by inconsistent design, accessibility barriers, and an overall lack of intuitive usability.

KERN addresses this challenge by creating an open UX standard for German public administration, enabling those who develop and implement digital services to create intuitive and accessible solutions more efficiently.

The federal states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein are joining forces to develop KERN in line with the “Einer für Alle” (EfA, “One for All”) principle. Following the principle of “Public Money – Public Code,” they are publishing an open-source design system complemented by guidance, resources, and services for user-centered digital transformation.

The technology-independent component library builds on KoliBri, developed by the Federal Information Technology Centre (ITZBund), and, like KoliBri, is based on W3C web standards. Multi-theming also allows the visual design to be customized to meet different organizational needs.

From the outset, widespread adoption and collaborative development are being supported through a cross-state professional community (bottom-up) and partnerships at the decision-making level (top-down). As a modular toolkit for digital public services, KERN creates greater consistency across the “Public Administration” brand at municipal, state, and federal levels—helping improve the service experience and strengthen citizens’ trust in government.

By Staatskanzlei Schleswig-Holstein | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.* 
 

SoFinData is a data management platform designed to create a forward-looking, statewide, cross-sector planning foundation for managing social expenditure. The aim is to understand clearly who receives funding, for what purpose, and what impact public spending has on society and democracy.

SoFinData provides the foundation for evidence-based management by making data transparent and usable. This data helps increase the efficiency of public administration while fostering a data-driven decision-making culture that explicitly examines cause-and-effect relationships and identifies areas where action and management are needed.

Knowledge sharing and shared objectives help overcome departmental silos and bring policy and financial management closer together. By centrally processing and preparing data, the platform creates the basis for translating recommendations for more targeted policy work into concrete management measures.

A prototype has already been developed. The long-term goal is sustainable social and societal policy that takes into account the needs of people in different circumstances and stages of life.

The project’s interdisciplinary and cross-administration approach is considered a fundamental element. In the operational system, this spirit will be carried forward through an interdisciplinary team dedicated to the creative development of how management-relevant data is prepared and presented, as well as through a data lab serving as a space for developing innovative indicators and exploring new ways of using data.

By Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen Berlin | Germany

*This project was selected by our community to be presented live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2026 through the Community Voting process.*

As part of the “Create Your City!” participation workshop, the City of Linz invites school classes from lower secondary level onwards to the Old Town Hall to explore participation, democracy, and debating.

The workshop begins in the foyer of the Old Town Hall, where an aerial photograph of the city is displayed on the floor. Students first use it to locate themselves within the city. The workshop then moves to the municipal council chamber. After a brief introduction to the council’s responsibilities and composition, students work in small groups to develop arguments for and against issues affecting the City of Linz.

Similar to a municipal council meeting, the arguments are then debated in a panel discussion. The participants identify the most pressing issues and challenges that emerged from the debate. In the final part of the workshop, these challenges serve as the starting point for developing ideas to make Linz a more livable city.

Participants have access to a range of materials, from flip charts to LEGO, to visualize their ideas and present them to one another in creative ways.

Following the workshop, the ideas developed can be submitted through the City of Linz’s online participation platform, the “Innovationshauptplatz.” With sufficient support from the community, proposals are forwarded to the relevant experts within the Linz municipal administration and, where feasible, may ultimately be implemented.

By Magistrat Linz | Germany

*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2024 Call for Participation.*