Best Practice in Politics
We curate exemplary political work that successfully tackles today’s most pressing issues. This platform is a hub of tried and tested best practices in politics.
#FreeInterrail
An Interrail pass grants free travel on trains to all young Europeans, for one month of their choice, when they turn 18.
#WirVsVirus Hackathon & Support Programme
A diverse pool of 28,000 participants came together to collectively “hack” digital challenges related to the Corona crisis resulting in a great variety of solutions, co-created by civil society and public authorities.
An Electric Car for All Citizens
Climate-friendly mobility is instigated by a single electric car, purchased in a small locality for all residents to share.
Ausbildungscampus (Training Campus)
The Ausbildungscampus project is a collaborative effort to support young refugees and other young people in their journey towards vocational training and integration into society.
Bonn Participates! – Bonn Macht Mit!
An online platform in Bonn encourages civic participation in a simple manner, on topics ranging from bike pathways, to problem reporting, to budget planning.
Brand New Bundestag (BNB)
Brand New Bundestag (BNB) is an independent and non-partisan grassroots organisation that advocates for progressive, forward-looking politics by supporting young political talent.
Calliope Mini
A digital wizard tool provides various opportunities for schoolchildren to do their own programming and explore the world of bits and bytes.
CamBuildr – Empowering a Party for Agile Interactions
CamBuildr changes the way campaigns communicate, empowering them to build agile, digital communication platforms in minutes.
Care for Integration and Related Services welcome@healthcare.de
This project assists refugees in their integration into nursing and healthcare professions.
City of the Future 2030: Co-Create Sustainability through Digitalisation – IoT for Everybody
Ulm has been chosen as one of Germany’s Cities of the Future, implementing digital projects using a bottom-up co-creation approach which will develop the urban environment in a more sustainable way.
City West: room for new city ideas
The citizens of Ludwigshafen re-imagine urban space and discuss their ideas about how to redevelop the location of a former highway.
Cooking and Chatting in Bielefeld
This initiative is about sharing a public meal as part of a quarterly event, where citizens and politicians come together to cook, eat, and discuss.
COVID-19 Citizens’ Advisory Council of the City of Augsburg
A Citizens’ Advisory Council is set up to initiate a dialogue between residents and the administration about the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to improve acceptance of the responses to the crisis.
Cuckoo’s Nest
An apartment in a neighbourhood gets converted into a centre which serves the needs of many migratory residents, by offering educational help, care services, language courses, and various other services.
DB Rad+ App – Rewards for Cycling
Hamburg adopts the DB Rad+ app which employs gamification techniques and incentives to encourage cycling, and enables the city to make targeted infrastructure developments and promote local businesses.
Democracy Guide – Giving Responsibility a Face
The Democracy Guide transparently maps who is elected and in office, and where, developing an action plan for a municipal open-data norm.
Digital Villages
Rural communities connect online through a development project that supports local businesses.
DIPAS_navigator
The DIPAS_navigator scales up public participation and paves the way for more transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability.
Diversity Management
The City of Mannheim sets the pace for respectful, intercultural urban coexistence, with a round table on diversity management and strategies, such as anonymous application procedures.
Eberswalde Citizens’ Budget
A system of participatory budgeting is questioned and redefined in order to encourage maximum participation with a low-threshold voting event.
Education Fair
Youth from disadvantaged schools learn to take responsibility in a four-day fair, organising workshops and performances along various themes.
Electoral District Citizen Assemblies
Electoral District Citizen Assemblies (EDCAs) renew the relationship between residents and their local MPs, with a focus on engaging with those people who are disillusioned and frustrated with the current political scene. Anywhere around Europe a growing number of citizens – the “invisible third” – feels left behind by the political establishment. EDCAs are a low-threshold approach to involve all parts of society into a non-partisan political debate based on random selection and door to door motivation to participate.
Essen Packt An! Collaboration Through Social Media
This project started when the citizens of Essen wanted to help each other after a severe storm in 2014, with the initiative becoming a firmly established organisation and an example of how to efficiently organise in the age of social media.
Facing Change with a Common Vision
The two cities foster cooperation in diverse dialogue formats with representatives from civil society, the Municipality, the private sector, and citizens, in order to overcome the economic changes affecting the region.
Flat-Exchange Coordination Office
A flat-exchange coordination office is set up to tackle the issue of a limited housing market and ensure that residents have both affordable and appropriate housing.
Frankfurt Democracy Convention 2019
Citizens are randomly selected to represent society and discuss relevant issues to reduce alienation from politics and increase active participation in local democracy.
future_fabric: demokratie digital denken (thinking democracy digitally)
This project explores the opportunities and risks of the digital transformation through innovative educational activities that empower young people to navigate the challenges posed by disinformation and discriminatory algorithms in their digital lives.
Good Godesberg
Providing food and hospitality amidst a wave of refugees arriving in this locality in Western Germany makes the new immigrants feel welcome and gives them a fresh start into their new lives.
Hamburger Gründachstrategie (Hamburg’s Green Roof Strategy)
Hamburg implements a comprehensive strategy to green the city’s roofs in order to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, such as increased extreme heat and rainfall events.
HEAT – Hamburg Electric Autonomous Transportation
A comprehensive research and development project assesses the feasibility, safety and acceptance of the first fully automated public minibus service in Hamburg.
HEROES® Berlin
HEROES® is a unique project in Germany that engages young men as peer educators, empowering them to dismantle harmful gender stereotypes and create a reflective and unbiased space for young people to discuss important societal issues.
InnovationCity Ruhr – Bottrop Model City
Bottrop pledges to reduce carbon emissions by fifty percent in ten years using an InnovationCity master plan bound to spread in the region.
Innovative School Wutöschingen
An evidence-based approach leads this school to stop using fixed classrooms and hours for its pupils while providing the latest technology and adapting to individual needs.
Integration Project Kistlerhofstraße
Integrative housing in Munich lets young refugees share a living space with local students, supported by social workers 24/7, with an in-house cafeteria that is open to the surrounding community.
JoinPolitics
As a non-partisan start-up, JoinPolitics scouts out and supports political talent who develop and implement solutions to the great political challenges of our times.
Klimakommune Saerbeck: a city on its way to a sustainable future
A community thinks globally and acts locally to create sustainable changes and social transformation for a climate-friendly future.
Lighthouse Project School Farm
A community in Baden-Württemberg province provides a small, family-run, all-day primary school with a farmyard, acquainting schoolchildren with traditional farming methods and farm animals.
Marketplace for Good Business, Bocholt 2017
‘Speed dating’ for non-profits and companies paves pathways of mutual support, exploring opportunities for cooperation without using payments.
Minority SafePack Initiative
This programme promotes linguistic diversity and minority languages in Europe through cultural support, policy making, and the creation of a European Language Diversity Centre.
Mittelstand-Digital – Medium-Sized Companies Go Digital
The government provides small- and medium-sized companies with expert guidance and advice on how to take part in the digital transformation, through a cross-sectoral programme of knowledge and technology transfer.
Mobile in the Valley
As a result of a survey among youth, a mobile application called TwoGo is created, enabling people to share rides in a rural area of Germany.
Mobility Flat Rate in the City Zone
The City of Augsburg encourages the use of car-sharing, cycling, and public transport via a flat rate that provides a low-cost package for mobility at a fixed monthly price, on top of free public transport in the city zone.
MoBio – Mobile Biography for New Immigrants
A structured storage platform for biographical data facilitates the integration process for newly arrived migrants, allowing them to more easily navigate and manage the support services available to them.
Municipal Apprenticeship Initiative
This project organises apprenticeships for refugees, making up for the decline in local applicants.
#FreeInterrail
An Interrail pass grants free travel on trains to all young Europeans, for one month of their choice, when they turn 18.
#WirVsVirus Hackathon & Support Programme
A diverse pool of 28,000 participants came together to collectively “hack” digital challenges related to the Corona crisis resulting in a great variety of solutions, co-created by civil society and public authorities.
An Electric Car for All Citizens
Climate-friendly mobility is instigated by a single electric car, purchased in a small locality for all residents to share.
Ausbildungscampus (Training Campus)
The Ausbildungscampus project is a collaborative effort to support young refugees and other young people in their journey towards vocational training and integration into society.
Bonn Participates! – Bonn Macht Mit!
An online platform in Bonn encourages civic participation in a simple manner, on topics ranging from bike pathways, to problem reporting, to budget planning.
Brand New Bundestag (BNB)
Brand New Bundestag (BNB) is an independent and non-partisan grassroots organisation that advocates for progressive, forward-looking politics by supporting young political talent.
Calliope Mini
A digital wizard tool provides various opportunities for schoolchildren to do their own programming and explore the world of bits and bytes.
CamBuildr – Empowering a Party for Agile Interactions
CamBuildr changes the way campaigns communicate, empowering them to build agile, digital communication platforms in minutes.
Care for Integration and Related Services welcome@healthcare.de
This project assists refugees in their integration into nursing and healthcare professions.
City of the Future 2030: Co-Create Sustainability through Digitalisation – IoT for Everybody
Ulm has been chosen as one of Germany’s Cities of the Future, implementing digital projects using a bottom-up co-creation approach which will develop the urban environment in a more sustainable way.
City West: room for new city ideas
The citizens of Ludwigshafen re-imagine urban space and discuss their ideas about how to redevelop the location of a former highway.
Cooking and Chatting in Bielefeld
This initiative is about sharing a public meal as part of a quarterly event, where citizens and politicians come together to cook, eat, and discuss.
The Winners
of the Innovation in Politics Awards 2024
Condominium E-Voting – Successful E-Democracy
Condominium E-Voting allows residents to communicate their housing issues in a quick, easy, and safe manner, enhancing their engagement in the decision-making process and improving the efficiency of services.
Foodcard: dignified state food aid for people in need
The Foodcard is an innovative solution which gives people the freedom and dignity to choose what food and necessities to buy, and from where.
SeaProtectorOne, Aarhus
The SeaProtectorOne robot is installed at the river mouth in Aarhus, where the river flows into the harbour, removing rubbish before it enters the sea.
