On the 15th of July, 2021, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Home Affairs (BMI) announced the winning cities of the third season of German “Smart Cities Model Projects”. This exciting scheme provides funding to assist selected cities with their digital transformation strategies and smart city projects. The scheme first began in 2019, where 13 German cities were selected for funding. In 2020, the project expanded to provide funding to 32 selected cities, to a total of 820 million Euros.
For the 2021 edition, a total of 94 cities, districts, and municipalities applied to the nation’s “Smart Cities Model Projects” for funding, but only 28 were officially selected.
The selection process included a rigorous multi-stage review, thorough evaluations by external experts who assessed how each city’s application best adhered to the twelve published criteria of the Model Projects scheme, and how each application focused on this year’s theme. The final decision was made by an eleven-person jury comprised of representatives from science, politics, and municipal umbrella organizations, chaired by State Secretary for Construction Anne Katrin Bohle.
Aside from funding, selected smart city projects also enjoy support from a range of partners, such as Fraunhofer IAO, DiFu, Creative Climate Cities, DLR, and Prognos, in the form of technical guidance and project coordination.
"Building back stronger together - creating spaces for the future"
In the third round of the Smart Cities Model Projects funding programme, cities were asked to submit their applications surrounding a central theme. For 2021, this theme focused on “Building back stronger together: creating spaces for the future.”
While all participating cities delivered proposals covering the key pillars of smart city development, 2021 also focused on how cities can best prepare for the future in light of the recent Covid-19 pandemic, building resilience, and making cities more livable for their residents. The judging process also examined how city strategies could be adapted to benefit other regions, and how effective integrated and cross-sectoral solutions could be.
Selected Smart City Model Projects
Of the 95 applications, only 28 were selected for funding. Here is a full list of the 2021 winners, listed alphabetically and divided into two separate sub-groups: smart cities, and smart consortiums and counties.
2021 Smart Cities
Bochum; Detmold; Dresden; Einbeck; Geestland; Guben; Halle (Saale); Hannover; Hildesheim; Kempten (Allgäu); Konstanz; Linz am Rhein; Mühlhausen/Thüringen; Münster; Oberhausen; Pforzheim; Potsdam; Regensburg; Würzburg.Districts and Communities
Gießen; Hameln-Pyrmont; Höxter; Kusel; Rhein-Neckar, Verband Region; Ringelai; Schleswig-Flensburg; Vorpommern-Greifswald.The City of Bochum was selected as a Smart City Model Project
The announcement of the 2021 Smart City Model Projects was a welcome one for the team at bee smart city. We are incredibly proud of the City of Bochum’s selection, as we partnered with the city to develop its innovative “Bochum. Future-proof. Citizen-oriented. ” smart city strategy, and prepared the city’s Smart Cities Model Projects funding application.
The core of Bochum’s smart city strategy revolves around key sustainability themes, including creating a smart ecosystem for education built around connected educational institutions, advanced climate monitoring systems, sustainable mobility, an innovative universal data platform, and a model project to become Europe’s most secure smart city in terms of cybersecurity.
We would like to wish the City of Bochum our warmest congratulations, and we wish them all the luck in the world as they put their ground-breaking strategies into practice over the next few years.
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