Win EUR 40,000 for data-based ideas in Urban Data Challenge

Francesca Bria, Program Manager at the New Institute, remarked: "The challenge is to share data between companies, the city and the innovation ecosystem. This will provide practical insights into the collaborative use of urban data in the public interest." The findings will help democratize data governance in Europe, which is the institute's focus. Jan Pörksen, State Councillor and Head of the Senate Chancellery, stressed: "Our goal is to make all this data more usable in future and in the interest of Hamburg's citizens. We want to raise the standard of living in our city through the smart use of data.”

Companies, start-ups, SMEs, and scientific institutions can develop ideas and solutions in the challenge that combine existing data sets to analyse mobility in Hamburg. The focus is on cycling and micro mobility flows e.g., those of e-scooters. In addition to data from the Urban Data Platform, Hamburg is also providing the data of Bolt transport and those of IoT Venture, a developer and distributor of tracking technology. The prize-money will allow the winners to test a prototype of their idea in co-operation with the Ministry for Transport and Mobility Transition. The Senate Chancellery's Office for IT and Digitalisation and the State Office for Geoinformation and Surveying are also involved in the Urban Data Challenge.

The contest is part of the New Hanse project launched by the City of Hamburg and the New Institute. The aim is to test approaches to data democracy and drive positive social change. To this end, concepts are to be developed to ensure the safe exchange of data between public, private and civil society stakeholders in cities.

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