Municipal data competence for the common good

In a study, the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) is working with partners to develop recommendations for more data competence in municipal administrations. The "KoDaKo" project, which is 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 potential and challenges of digitization. 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 exploiting the diverse opportunities offered by digitization - while at the same time managing the complexity of these processes. Specific resources need to be made available or created in order to implement the corresponding organizational, personnel and technical measures. Individual approaches to building data competencies and designing comprehensive data management already exist. However, there is still a lack of systematic and practice-oriented solutions for building up data competencies 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 program, the project is developing recommendations and working aids to help municipal administrations establish effective data management. The project is connected to a series of research projects that are supervised in the context of the "Smart City Charter" by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Building and the Homeland 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.