DIGITAL Awards 2025: Nuremberg's vision for a municipal data revolution!

DIGITAL Awards 2025: Nuremberg's vision for a municipal data revolution!

On October 29, 2025, Nuremberg was the venue for the DIGITAL Awards ceremony, which took place as part of the Kommunale. This award honors the best municipal digital projects and shows how digitalization is progressing in the municipal sector. Awards were given in three categories, which included smaller communities as well as larger cities and districts, which shows that everyone has a good hand in digital transformation.

The participation of cities and communities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants was particularly exciting. Lehnin Monastery from Brandenburg secured first place with its innovative solution for online dog registration. Digital payment is made using Federal ID. Weisendorf from Bavaria achieved second place with a digital twin that offers administrative, council and citizen views. Bad Soden-Salmünster in Hesse rounded out the podium with a third place finish thanks to its AI-powered analysis of 34 processes for automation. It became clear that even smaller communities can achieve great things in the digital world.

Successful projects from larger cities

But the larger cities were also well represented. Nuremberg itself placed itself at the top of the municipalities with a population of over 20,000 thanks to holistic data management with a data governance board and the data mesh principle. Leipzig followed in second place with an AI-supported system that automates inquiries and thus streamlines the processes. Nettetal from North Rhine-Westphalia scored points with an open source AI portal for data protection-compliant document linking and secured third place.

In the districts, ministries and other authorities category, Darmstadt-Dieburg was honored with its “LaDaDi Kompakt” project, which distributes weekly news via social media. The Rhein-Kreis Neuss shined in second place with a digital twin and urban data platform, while Augsburg took third place with its AI to support youth welfare. The diversity and creativity of the projects are remarkable and show how small and large municipalities in Germany are taking responsibility.

Record participation and the future of the DIGITAL Awards

The online voting for the rankings, in which around 6,500 votes were cast, set a new record. It shows how great the interest is in municipal digital projects and the associated developments. The jury was made up of representatives from professional associations and experts, which underlines the quality of the evaluations. The next DIGITAL Award ceremony is scheduled to take place in March 2026, and new projects can be submitted since October 28, 2025.

A look at the city of Nuremberg opens the doors to a promising vision in which a lively data culture is part of everyday life. With its strategy, the city is pursuing an integrative approach to better use data and get closer to its citizens. This relies on three pillars: technology, organization and qualification. Accordingly, a data governance board ensures standards and the right ethics in handling the data, as kommunale.de reports.

In order to further strengthen the municipal data space, a guideline was developed that lays the foundation for securing data sovereignty. The goal is clear: to expand the appreciation of valuable data and optimal organization in administration. International best practices are analyzed, as the example from Vienna shows, which further illuminates the possibilities for German municipalities, while Difu.de provides practical recommendations for implementing data strategies.

Nuremberg is therefore not only the venue for an important award, but also presents itself as a role model for digital sovereignty, efficiency and proximity to citizens. The coming months will show how these successes can be further expanded and what innovative ideas the municipalities have in store.