City Challenge Berlin 2025 – Digital solutions for a modern administration

Berlin aims to increase its efficiency to become a city even more worth living in. In order to drive the digital transformation in Berlin’s administration, the Berlin Senate Chancellery has initiated the first City Challenge this year. The application period for phase 1 ends 27 July 2025.

The City Challenge Berlin 2025 has one primary focus: to promote innovative (digital) solutions in various divisions of Berlin’s administration – and to test them in practice. Implemented for the first time by the Berlin Senate Chancellery in close cooperation with the Smart City Unit at Berlin Partner for Business and Technology, the competition is one component of the Smart City strategy entitled “Going Digital Together: Berlin” (“Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin”, GD:B). Together with start-ups, innovative SMEs and science and research institutions, the City Challenge aims to spark, implement and test pilot projects in two fields.

The competition is looking for practical, technological solutions that are easily transferable and can be used as a blueprint for a modern administration. “The challenge centres on unusual ideas and projects that will make our administration and its subordinate authorities fit for the future,” said Martina Klement, Berlin’s Chief Digital Officer and State Secretary for Digitalisation and Administrative Modernisation. “Initiatives that strengthen the dialogue between administration and urban society or increase the efficiency and user-friendliness of administrative processes through the use of modern technologies are particularly important”, she continued, adding that Berlin aims to become the number 1 innovation location in Europe.

Dr Stefan Franzke, Managing Director of Berlin Partner, took the competition’s launch as an occasion to emphasise that the City Challenge creates a space to put ideas into immediate practice in the capital of innovation Berlin. “A pilot project with the state of Berlin is a true stepping stone for start-ups – and sends a strong signal from the administration to the market,” Franzke said. “The Smart City Unit at Berlin Partner initiated the competition to bring Berlin’s start-up agenda to life – and to guide administration and business towards a digital future together.”

And the City Challenges Berlin 2025 were:  

Challenge 1: Develop a digital athletic centre management tool to record and display when district sports facilities are in use

The aim is to replace conventional, analogue logbooks with a digital sports facility management tool to significantly reduce the workload for administration employees and club members, who are usually volunteers. 

Challenge 2: Digitalise tender preparation

Here the goal is a digital “tender preparation tool” to support the preparation process for tenders on the administrative side.  Afterwards, a prototype of the tool will be developed with a specialist department and tested with an awarding office; the necessary interfaces and intervention points will be defined. 

The two phases of the City Challenge Berlin 2025

Competition phase 1 – June/July 2025

Solution providers can submit their proposals for both challenges via online forms (each challenge has its own separate form). The jury will choose three providers per challenge to move on to the second phase of the competition. The six nominees will receive a one-off payment of €1,000 each for expenses from the Berlin Senate Chancellery to further develop their concept.

The application period ended on 27 July 2025. 

Phase 2: August to October

The six nominees will continue to develop their proposals. Afterwards, the jury will choose one winning idea per challenge, which the winning teams will implement as pilot projects together with the administration from November 2025 on. The Senate Department will award the winner of each challenge €25,000 in prize money to do so. The winners are expected to be announced in mid-/late October. (vdo)

For questions around the competition, please contact:

Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH
Smart City Unit
Sibylle Kubale / Beate Albert
smartcity@berlin-partner.de

Senatskanzlei Berlin
Patrick Lange
smartcity@senatskanzlei.berlin.de