Municipal data competence for more common good

In this project, iit experts and partners are working together on a study to develop recommendations for more data competence in municipal administrations.

The "KoDaKo" project, funded by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), focuses on the question of how municipalities can best address the potentials and challenges of digitalisation. Together, the researchers are investigating concrete, application-oriented approaches to building and expanding data competencies in the municipal sector.

Small and medium-sized municipalities in particular are faced with the challenge of identifying and using the diverse opportunities of digitalisation - and at the same time managing the complexity of these processes. Thus, specific resources are needed that must be maintained or created in order to implement corresponding organisational, personnel and technical measures. There are already individual approaches to building data competencies and designing comprehensive data management. However, there is still a lack of systematic and practice-oriented solutions to build up data competences on a broad scale at the municipal level. Within the research project "Digitale Stadt gemeinwohlorientiert gestalten durch kommunale Datenkompetenzen" (KoDaKo for short), iit is working with partners to develop adequate approaches. Other project partners include the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO and the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation - Industrial Automation Division IOSB-INA. As part of the BBSR's "Experimental Housing and Urban Development" (ExWoSt) research programme, the project is developing recommendations and working aids to support municipal administrations in establishing effective data management. "With the sustainable development of their competences in dealing with data, municipal administrations can significantly improve their services and processes and make them even more citizen-friendly. For this purpose, we will develop practical approaches and guidelines with the study project, among other things within the framework of surveys and workshops with municipal experts," says co-study leader Henry Schweigel from iit. The first interim results of the research project will be available in autumn 2021.

The main goal of the project is to support municipal administrations in designing data competences that are tailored to their needs and to put them into practice. This includes the analysis of the internal and external actor, cooperation and organisational structures of the municipalities. The project also focuses on the transferability to other municipalities.

The project is connected to a series of research projects that are being supervised in the context of the "Smart City Charter" by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Building and the Home Affairs and the BBSR. The charter was published in 2017 by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and the BBSR and highlights the development and expansion of data competencies as an important field of action for municipal data governance.