2026 Innovation Library
Explore public-sector innovation from around the world
Each year, the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s Call for Participation invites public-sector innovators and their partners to share projects, initiatives and practical solutions that are transforming public administration.
Explore the top projects from the 2026 Call for Participation, selected by our international jury and the festival community. Discover how institutions and organisations around the world are improving public services, strengthening participation and developing new ways of working in government.
Project Library
ISSUE: Montevideo faces a structural gap where robust electoral participation contrasts with low voluntary engagement, as citizen input remains disconnected from the city's internal, goal-setting Management Commitments System, leading to low trust and limited collaborative governance.
IDEA: NEXO integrates citizen participation and government management by allowing residents' proposals to become formal, incentivized goals within Montevideo's established, results-based Management Commitments System, effectively opening an existing institutional framework to the community.
IMPACT: NEXO has already generated early impact through community co-design and prototyping, leading to its formal integration into Montevideo's Strategic Plan and activating the city's robust management system to transform citizen-driven proposals into traceable municipal goals, with future plans to measure trust and participation.
By Montevideo Municipio C E-marote | Uruguay
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
*This project was selected by our community to be presented live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2026 through the Community Voting process.*
ISSUE: Montevideo faces a structural gap where robust electoral participation contrasts with low voluntary engagement, as citizen input remains disconnected from the city's internal, goal-setting Management Commitments System, leading to low trust and limited collaborative governance.
IDEA: NEXO integrates citizen participation and government management by allowing residents' proposals to become formal, incentivized goals within Montevideo's established, results-based Management Commitments System, effectively opening an existing institutional framework to the community.
IMPACT: NEXO has already generated early impact through community co-design and prototyping, leading to its formal integration into Montevideo's Strategic Plan and activating the city's robust management system to transform citizen-driven proposals into traceable municipal goals, with future plans to measure trust and participation.
By Montevideo Municipio C E-marote | Uruguay
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
*This project was selected by our community to be presented live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2026 through the Community Voting process.*
ISSUE: High barriers to entry and cultural differences have so far prevented public administration from harnessing the innovative potential of startups to increase speed and efficiency.
IDEA: NewGov NRW creates the contractual and cultural framework for the agile development of user-centred administrative solutions in collaboration with startups.
IMPACT: Four completed projects, four ongoing projects and numerous innovation projects in the pipeline are helping to create efficient and enjoyable administrative processes, including in the areas of government operations and approval procedures.
By Landesbetrieb Information und Technik Nordrhein-Westfalen (IT.NRW), Staatskanzlei des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Industrie, Klimaschutz und Energie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (MWIKE NRW), scty (Innovationsmentor) | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
*This project was selected by our community to be presented live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2026 through the Community Voting process.*
ISSUE: High barriers to entry and cultural differences have so far prevented public administration from harnessing the innovative potential of startups to increase speed and efficiency.
IDEA: NewGov NRW creates the contractual and cultural framework for the agile development of user-centred administrative solutions in collaboration with startups.
IMPACT: Four completed projects, four ongoing projects and numerous innovation projects in the pipeline are helping to create efficient and enjoyable administrative processes, including in the areas of government operations and approval procedures.
By Landesbetrieb Information und Technik Nordrhein-Westfalen (IT.NRW), Staatskanzlei des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Industrie, Klimaschutz und Energie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (MWIKE NRW), scty (Innovationsmentor) | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
*This project was selected by our community to be presented live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2026 through the Community Voting process.*
ISSUE: 8 out of 10 debtors don't work and have no declared income, leading to poverty and social exclusion.
IDEA: Pausing debt collection would give debtors time to rehabilitate, save up, seek help and get back on their feet.
IMPACT: In just one year, 500 long-term unemployed persons reentered the labour market through debt respite, drastically reducing social expenditure and improving tax-collection.
By Create Lithuania, Ministry of Social Security and Labour of Lithuania
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the top submissions to the 2026 Call for Participation and invited to present live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin on 11 June 2026.*
ISSUE: Japan confronts a convergence of long-term challenges by 2040—shrinking workforce, rising demands on government, and intensifying technological, climate, and geopolitical pressures—yet its ministries remain locked in short-term crisis management, with little capacity or incentive for sustained, long-term strategic thinking.
IDEA: The idea is to redesign government’s operating system by applying strategic foresight to ministries’ organizational and HR strategy—co-creating future pathways with diverse stakeholders, tailoring methods to Japan’s consensus-driven culture, and integrating the resulting tools into routine panning processes to create lasting adaptive capacity.
IMPACT: Piloting in two culturally different ministries revealed that translating foresight concepts into local context and engaging early-career officials with senior leaders creates energy for transformation in established bureaucracies.
By Digital Agency (DA), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) | Japan
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the top submissions to the 2026 Call for Participation and invited to present live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin on 11 June 2026.*
ISSUE: Informal waste pickers remain excluded from public systems, making waste recovery data, livelihoods, and environmental contributions largely invisible, with high volume of waste generated daily
IDEA: WaPDiT uses digital onboarding, GPS-tagged data, and cross-sector collaboration to integrate informal waste pickers into formal public waste management systems.
IMPACT: The pilot onboarded 600 waste pickers, enabled recovery of 67.5 tonnes of plastic monthly, improved transparency, and created scalable pathways for inclusive circular economy governance.
By Waste Pickers Association of Nigeria | Nigeria
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the top submissions to the 2026 Call for Participation and invited to present live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin on 11 June 2026.*
ISSUE: For many families affected by poverty, the beginning of the school term is financially challenging. However, complex application procedures, language barriers and a lack of information often prevent them from receiving urgently needed support.
IDEA: To enable around 50,000 children and young people to receive €150 digitally at the start of the school term, all stakeholders relied on broad-based cooperation, modern technology and an iterative approach involving continuous feedback and adjustments.
IMPACT: With activation rates of up to 95% in the summer term and 89% in the winter term of the first year, the project demonstrates that digital social benefits work. It reduces the administrative burden on public authorities and federal states, eliminates the need for 70 distribution centres, makes support more accessible to families and meets the highest data-protection standards.
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the top submissions to the 2026 Call for Participation and invited to present live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin on 11 June 2026.*
ISSUE: Socially disadvantaged young people rarely engage with public services and programmes, while using commercial social networks every day.
IDEA: Klub is a public-interest social network that brings together and curates youth opportunities while integrating accessible forms of participation. It is GDPR-compliant and designed for use by municipalities.
IMPACT: More than 5,000 activations, 1,000 regularly active young people and a growing number of partnerships with schools and public administrations demonstrate that youth services can achieve greater reach and that cross-sector collaboration is possible.
By Beteiligt am Projekt waren neben dem BMASGPK, die Bundesländer, die andamp GmbH und die Volkshilfe | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the top submissions to the 2026 Call for Participation and invited to present live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin on 11 June 2026.*
ISSUE: Traditional idea platforms separate citizens from their ideas. While ideas are collected, they are rarely implemented, leading to frustration on both sides.
IDEA: Bielefeld adapted the Adobe Kickbox method from the private sector for use by the wider community, empowering citizens to develop, test and implement their own ideas.
IMPACT: Open Innovation City is an initiative of the City of Bielefeld, WEGE mbH – Bielefeld’s economic development agency, City.Team Bielefeld and tomorrow bird GmbH, supported by funding from the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building.
By Open Innovation City – Eine Initiative der Stadt Bielefeld | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the top submissions to the 2026 Call for Participation and invited to present live at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin on 11 June 2026.*
ISSUE: 65% of Girls in Jos are leaving school due to poverty, early marriage, gender-biased norms, and weak systems for tracking and responding to absenteeism.
IDEA: To keep girls in school by creating a shared accountability system that links attendance tracking, community norm change, policy enforcement, media advocacy, and mentorship.
IMPACT: The project achieved 60% retention rates for at-risk girls, encouraging the government to adopt its scalable methodology. This fostered a cultural shift towards robust policy enforcement and systemic tracking of out-of-school girls.
By Girls Education Mission International, Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board | Nigeria
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: 65% of Girls in Jos are leaving school due to poverty, early marriage, gender-biased norms, and weak systems for tracking and responding to absenteeism.
IDEA: To keep girls in school by creating a shared accountability system that links attendance tracking, community norm change, policy enforcement, media advocacy, and mentorship.
IMPACT: The project achieved 60% retention rates for at-risk girls, encouraging the government to adopt its scalable methodology. This fostered a cultural shift towards robust policy enforcement and systemic tracking of out-of-school girls.
By Girls Education Mission International, Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board | Nigeria
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Governments work hard on service improvement but often lack tools to see and measure the hidden cognitive, emotional and time burdens people face.
IDEA: Sludge Audits apply behavioural science to diagnose where people struggle, why it happens and how to redesign services more effectively.
IMPACT: Governments have reduced friction, simplified processes, improved completion and built capacity to use behavioural evidence in everyday service reform.
By Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) | Global
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Governments work hard on service improvement but often lack tools to see and measure the hidden cognitive, emotional and time burdens people face.
IDEA: Sludge Audits apply behavioural science to diagnose where people struggle, why it happens and how to redesign services more effectively.
IMPACT: Governments have reduced friction, simplified processes, improved completion and built capacity to use behavioural evidence in everyday service reform.
By Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) | Global
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Connect the local economy actors (MSMEs and Family Farmers) to the Value Chain generated by the Paraguay's School Feeding Program "Zero Hunger".
IDEA: Interinstitutional public‑procurement strategy that integrates Family Farmers and MSMEs into the school feeding value chain through mandatory local sourcing quotas, simplified contracting, digital transparency platforms, and collaborative governance mechanisms.
Impact: From August 2024 to December 2025, more than 50 million dollars were allocated to MSMEs and Family Farmers, enabling over 500 MSMEs and 300 Family Farmers to supply products, inputs, and services all across Paraguay.
By Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC), Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Ministry of Social Development (MDS) | Paraguay
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Connect the local economy actors (MSMEs and Family Farmers) to the Value Chain generated by the Paraguay's School Feeding Program "Zero Hunger".
IDEA: Interinstitutional public‑procurement strategy that integrates Family Farmers and MSMEs into the school feeding value chain through mandatory local sourcing quotas, simplified contracting, digital transparency platforms, and collaborative governance mechanisms.
Impact: From August 2024 to December 2025, more than 50 million dollars were allocated to MSMEs and Family Farmers, enabling over 500 MSMEs and 300 Family Farmers to supply products, inputs, and services all across Paraguay.
By Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC), Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Ministry of Social Development (MDS) | Paraguay
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Public children’s hospitals often provide medical treatment but lack humane, supportive environments, leaving women and children emotionally stressed, fearful, and without dignity during care.
IDEA: The initiative used a government-led, CSR-supported, human-centered approach to redesign hospital spaces by listening to mothers, children, and healthcare staff and placing dignity and emotional safety at the core.
IMPACT: The hospital became calmer and more humane, with reduced distress among children, greater emotional support for mothers, improved care flow for staff, and increased public trust in government healthcare.
By District Administration, Indore, Government of Madhya Pradesh | India
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Public children’s hospitals often provide medical treatment but lack humane, supportive environments, leaving women and children emotionally stressed, fearful, and without dignity during care.
IDEA: The initiative used a government-led, CSR-supported, human-centered approach to redesign hospital spaces by listening to mothers, children, and healthcare staff and placing dignity and emotional safety at the core.
IMPACT: The hospital became calmer and more humane, with reduced distress among children, greater emotional support for mothers, improved care flow for staff, and increased public trust in government healthcare.
By District Administration, Indore, Government of Madhya Pradesh | India
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Whilst policymaking bears the weight of human consequence, the systems that surround it are often not equipped to engage feeling, participation and lived experience – yet artistic practice is often kept at the edges of the public policy space.
IDEA: MANIFEST embeds artists within government, using creative practice and structure to open spaces for reflection, experimentation and new forms of attention inside the everyday work of policymaking.
IMPACT: Artists working inside local and national government have created artworks, encounters and shifts in practice that have helped policymakers reflect differently on participation, evidence and the human consequences of decisions.
By Policy Lab, CAIR Labs | United Kingdom
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Whilst policymaking bears the weight of human consequence, the systems that surround it are often not equipped to engage feeling, participation and lived experience – yet artistic practice is often kept at the edges of the public policy space.
IDEA: MANIFEST embeds artists within government, using creative practice and structure to open spaces for reflection, experimentation and new forms of attention inside the everyday work of policymaking.
IMPACT: Artists working inside local and national government have created artworks, encounters and shifts in practice that have helped policymakers reflect differently on participation, evidence and the human consequences of decisions.
By Policy Lab, CAIR Labs | United Kingdom
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: The city offers 1,500 different services—that is quite a lot to navigate.
IDEA: Designed mobile-first, easy to use and fast, the life-situation matching tool guides residents to the city services that best meet their needs.
IMPACT: Strong uptake from the very beginning, expansion to additional life situations and a solid foundation for even more citizen-centred public services.
By Landeshauptstadt München | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: The city offers 1,500 different services—that is quite a lot to navigate.
IDEA: Designed mobile-first, easy to use and fast, the life-situation matching tool guides residents to the city services that best meet their needs.
IMPACT: Strong uptake from the very beginning, expansion to additional life situations and a solid foundation for even more citizen-centred public services.
By Landeshauptstadt München | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Commercial and industrial development projects often face opposition because business and the wider urban community are perceived as separate—even though attractive business locations cannot be taken for granted.
IDEA: Through the Zukunftspark Ludwigsfelde, a technology park is being developed collaboratively by businesses, public administration and local residents.
IMPACT: Public acceptance is growing, businesses remain engaged, and new ideas are incorporated directly into the city’s development.
By Stadt Ludwigsfelde / Ministerium für Infrastruktur und Landesplanung des Landes Brandenburg | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Commercial and industrial development projects often face opposition because business and the wider urban community are perceived as separate—even though attractive business locations cannot be taken for granted.
IDEA: Through the Zukunftspark Ludwigsfelde, a technology park is being developed collaboratively by businesses, public administration and local residents.
IMPACT: Public acceptance is growing, businesses remain engaged, and new ideas are incorporated directly into the city’s development.
By Stadt Ludwigsfelde / Ministerium für Infrastruktur und Landesplanung des Landes Brandenburg | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Skills shortages, pressure to transform and the need for diverse perspectives present major challenges for public administration.
IDEA: A cross-departmental trainee programme featuring rotations, modern working methods and a strong professional network promotes innovation and cultural change.
IMPACT: The programme helps retain talent over the long term, brings fresh ideas into public administration and strengthens Hamburg’s position as an attractive and modern employer.
By Freie 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 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Skills shortages, pressure to transform and the need for diverse perspectives present major challenges for public administration.
IDEA: A cross-departmental trainee programme featuring rotations, modern working methods and a strong professional network promotes innovation and cultural change.
IMPACT: The programme helps retain talent over the long term, brings fresh ideas into public administration and strengthens Hamburg’s position as an attractive and modern employer.
By Freie 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 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: How can the momentum and experimental energy of World Design Capital 2026 be sustained and embedded in public institutions beyond the project year?
IDEA: The Design Action Plan translates experimental design projects into a design policy framework that integrates design into public space, public services, and policy-making.
IMPACT: Design becomes an institutional public capability, enabling more participatory, effective, and sustainable public decision-making in the long term.
By World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: How can the momentum and experimental energy of World Design Capital 2026 be sustained and embedded in public institutions beyond the project year?
IDEA: The Design Action Plan translates experimental design projects into a design policy framework that integrates design into public space, public services, and policy-making.
IMPACT: Design becomes an institutional public capability, enabling more participatory, effective, and sustainable public decision-making in the long term.
By World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026 | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Public administration lacks clear and practical levers for working in a more impact-oriented way.
IDEA: The project provides practical recommendations for introducing impact-oriented approaches within federal ministries.
IMPACT: Impact orientation has been placed on the federal government’s agenda, supported by new networks, practical guidance and reusable templates.
By Agora Digitale Transformation | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
ISSUE: Public administration lacks clear and practical levers for working in a more impact-oriented way.
IDEA: The project provides practical recommendations for introducing impact-oriented approaches within federal ministries.
IMPACT: Impact orientation has been placed on the federal government’s agenda, supported by new networks, practical guidance and reusable templates.
By Agora Digitale Transformation | Germany
*This project was selected by the Creative Bureaucracy Festival jury as one of the standout submissions to the Creative Bureaucracy Festival’s 2026 Call for Participation.*
