News & Podcast

The InnovationLab and AI Competence Center of the city of Munich are driving future topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, and data analysis. What trends the team sees, what makes good startup collaborations, and how startups can get involved is explained by Stefanie Lämmle, head of the Data&Innovation department at the Landeshauptstadt München, in this interview.

The City of Munich is holding the innovation competition for the seventh time. The goal is to open city administration to innovative ideas and provide an opportunity to test and implement new concepts in a real-world test environment.

Many Münchners are likely familiar with the “schanigarten”: the temporary outdoor spaces of restaurants, usually built on parking spaces, are quite popular in summer. With the parklet, they have a kind of public counterpart. Here too, parking spaces are repurposed with the help of structures, usually into seating areas with additional offerings such as urban gardening opportunities or swap boxes. Bike stations are also frequently integrated. The Munich startup Wow Urbane Utopien is behind several of these parklets in the state capital and beyond. We spoke with the founders.

In the new smart city ranking by the Bitkom digital association, Munich displaces Hamburg, the long-standing leader, from the top position for the first time. The Bavarian state capital performed particularly well in the categories of administration and IT and communication.

Munich ranks second in Bitkom’s smart city ranking behind Hamburg and ahead of Dresden. The Bavarian state capital has made significant improvements compared to the previous year.

The digital industry association Bitkom is awarding the Smart Country Startup Award again. Solutions from the areas of smart city and govtech are being sought.