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.
Apadrinaunolivo.org
This non-profit organisation creates rural jobs by increasing the number of olive trees in production.
B-MINCOME: guaranteed minimum income & active social policies in deprived urban areas
B-MINCOME effectively improves the well-being of families in socially excluded and deprived areas by combining minimum income guarantees with inclusion policies.
Barcelona, Refugee City
A progressive plan prepares the city for a potentially large influx of refugees, considering the impacts on the inhabitants and coordinating City Council action with NGOs, volunteers, and citizens.
Beatriz Galindo Center for Homeless Women Victims of Violence
The Beatriz Galindo Centre incorporates the gender perspective into the municipal network of homeless care resources by addressing the specific needs of homeless women.
Brake the Curve
The Government of Aragon enabled the creation of platform that channelled the spontaneous civic initiatives that arose as a response to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bridging the Digital Gap
Bridging the Digital Gap aims to close the digital skills gap and resolve accessibility issues faced by people with disabilities and the elderly, using an artificial intelligence layer and accessible cyber-kiosks.
CALIOPE: Real-Time Air Quality Forecasting
CALIOPE is an advanced air quality monitoring and forecasting system that provides real-time, high-resolution data and insights to support public health protection and regulatory compliance.
Campus Rural: Revitalizing Rural Spain Through Student Internships
Campus Rural connects university students with rural communities to boost local development and counter demographic decline.
DECIDE MADRID
DECIDE MADRID allows citizens to make direct contributions via the platform, which are evaluated and incorporated into Madrid City Council’s public policies.
Decidim
This free open-source platform allows institutions all over the world to initiate participation processes, leading to the democratisation of development.
DoCHECK! Fighting Disinformation through Technology and Non-Formal Education
DoCheck empowers teenagers with media literacy skills to recognise and resist online disinformation, fostering a safer and more informed digital environment across Europe.
Easy Government
Easy Government invites people with disabilities and socially vulnerable people to redesign legal and administrative texts, using easy reading, to create simpler communication materials for all audiences.
Escuela de Pequeñ@s Científic@s Espiciencia (School of Little Scientists)
Espiciencia is an educational innovation project that aims to create a STEAM learning community in rural areas, promoting scientific and technological literacy within the entire community and empowering girls and women to enter science and technology professions.
Healthy villAGE: a participatory & comprehensive model for active ageing in rural areas
This project sees the conversion of an abandoned building into a multipurpose centre for elderly people, hosting various social innovation activities.
Housing Cooperatives in Barcelona
Sostre Cívic is a housing cooperative operating under the right-to-use model, which unites various projects to facilitate self-management in housing development for its members.
Including People with Intellectual Disabilities
The government of the Province of Biscay makes special provisions to recruit civil servants from societal groups with intellectual disabilities.
Inclusive Employment in Park Maintenance
A special consultant team provides support for employees with disabilities and to the management of the Parks and Gardens Municipal Institute in Barcelona.
La Compañía (The Company)
The Company is a network of senior volunteers who provide digital mediation for individuals over 65 years of age.
La Noche es Joven (The Night is Young)
La Noche es Joven (The Night is Young) is a programme initiated by the City Council of Santander that opens its facilities to the youth of the city at night, on weekends, to offer a series of different activities.
LAAAB – Aragón’s Open Governance Laboratory
Citizen participation in public policy is encouraged through the laboratory’s activities, which aim to bring institutions and citizens closer together through open deliberation and transparent decision-making.
Madrid Innovation Lab
Madrid City Council launching the Madrid Innovation Lab to bring knowledge of new technologies to citizens and small companies and create a robust ecosystem around them.
Madrid Innovation Sandbox
This controlled-testing environment provides safe spaces in which different products, services, and innovative projects can be tested and put into practice, simplifying procedures to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship, thus attracting talent and investments to the city.
Manresa Il·lumina Business Energy Community
Manresa Il·lumina Business Energy Community brings together companies in the Bufalvent industrial estate to implement a collaborative solar energy model, promoting local generation, reducing costs, and enhancing business resilience.
MICADO: Migrant Integration Cockpits and Dashboards
An interdisciplinary international project develops a generic solution facilitating communication between migrants, authorities and civil society, which can also be adapted to local needs.
Open Schoolyards
Bilbao is transforming schoolyards into inclusive community hubs that promote informal learning, intergenerational connection, and youth employment.
Paloma Project: AI for the Detection of Unwanted Loneliness
The Paloma project uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to detect and respond to cases of unwanted loneliness among elderly people through realistic, human-sounding phone conversations.
Palumba: Making Voting Easy for the Next Generation
Palumba is a gamified voting advice app that empowers young Europeans to discover candidates who align with their values, making political engagement fun, intuitive, and accessible.
Podemos Participation System
This platform allows registered members to contribute to the discourse of their party, no matter their availability or desired level of involvement.
Poligono Circular
An industrial estate takes a collaborative approach to waste-management by valuing waste materials and implementing circular-economy principles.
Prevention of Child and Youth Conflict Program
This community-based initiative in Villaverde is helping children and young people avoid gang involvement through early education, targeted support, and long-term reintegration strategies.
Project Arraigo
A social enterprise facilitates the transition from urban to rural living by working with rural communities to help them integrate new arrivals.
Puntos Vuela: Bridging the Digital Divide in Andalusia’s Rural Communities
The Puntos Vuela network bridges the digital divide in rural Andalusia, empowering communities with free digital skills training and access to technology for social and economic development.
Recipe for Wellness – Connecting Health Centres and Civic Spaces for Community Well-Being in Vitoria-Gasteiz
This project connects health centres with Civic Centres to promote holistic well-being through personalised activity prescriptions.
ReLabs – Laboratory of Living Waste
A circular system of material usage and re-use changes the urban design and waste management landscape of Madrid, leading to the construction of playgrounds from repurposed materials as well as fundamental systemic changes.
Rexcatering
Rexcatering is a circular, zero-waste project that empowers students to fight food waste by delivering food to those in need with the help of innovative technology.
Rural ATMs: Financial Inclusion in Rural Guadalajara
Bringing banking where it’s needed most, this project empowers remote communities with smart ATMs that restore access, dignity, and opportunity.
SYMON: An Intelligent Monitoring System for the Elderly
The SYMON intelligent monitoring system uses innovative technology to address the wellbeing of older citizens from three perspectives: health, loneliness, and leisure.
The Fabric of Life: Solidarity Laundry in the Valencia floods
After the catastrophic floods in Valencia in October 2024, thousands of residents lost their clothing to mud and contamination. An innovative industrial laundry solution was launched to recover and restore textiles on-site, providing free services to those affected and helping them reclaim dignity, memories, and identity.
The Family Card
The Family Card programme is an innovative social aid project that provides cash cards to vulnerable families for the purchase of food and hygiene products, allowing them to save their income for other essential expenses.
The Mar Menor (Menor Sea) has Rights
Granting rights to the Mar Menor and its basin strengthens social democracy and opens the way to furthering ecological justice with a new generation of rights for nature, which complement human rights.
Transparency in Private Entities (TEP)
The Transparency in Private Entities (TEP) platform enables private entities of any size, including associations and small companies, to comply with transparency regulations in Spain.
VisualGob
VisualGob is a new digital system which enables the visualisation of the Government Plan, allowing citizens to monitor their government’s progress in real time.
VITALISE: eValuating the ImpacT of urbAn mobiLIty measureS on air quality and public hEalth
The VITALISE project develops advanced, high-resolution models that evaluate how traffic management policies affect air quality and public health in Barcelona, supporting data-driven urban planning and pollution reduction.
Warehouse 51: Zero-Waste Humanitarian Aid System in Valencia’s Floods
After the devastating floods in Valencia in October 2024, GBGE and Paiporta City Council launched a large-scale humanitarian aid response, establishing Warehouse 51 as the central distribution hub and implementing the Circular Solidarity system to minimise waste and maximise aid distribution efficiency.
Apadrinaunolivo.org
This non-profit organisation creates rural jobs by increasing the number of olive trees in production.
B-MINCOME: guaranteed minimum income & active social policies in deprived urban areas
B-MINCOME effectively improves the well-being of families in socially excluded and deprived areas by combining minimum income guarantees with inclusion policies.
Barcelona, Refugee City
A progressive plan prepares the city for a potentially large influx of refugees, considering the impacts on the inhabitants and coordinating City Council action with NGOs, volunteers, and citizens.
Beatriz Galindo Center for Homeless Women Victims of Violence
The Beatriz Galindo Centre incorporates the gender perspective into the municipal network of homeless care resources by addressing the specific needs of homeless women.
Brake the Curve
The Government of Aragon enabled the creation of platform that channelled the spontaneous civic initiatives that arose as a response to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bridging the Digital Gap
Bridging the Digital Gap aims to close the digital skills gap and resolve accessibility issues faced by people with disabilities and the elderly, using an artificial intelligence layer and accessible cyber-kiosks.
CALIOPE: Real-Time Air Quality Forecasting
CALIOPE is an advanced air quality monitoring and forecasting system that provides real-time, high-resolution data and insights to support public health protection and regulatory compliance.
Campus Rural: Revitalizing Rural Spain Through Student Internships
Campus Rural connects university students with rural communities to boost local development and counter demographic decline.
DECIDE MADRID
DECIDE MADRID allows citizens to make direct contributions via the platform, which are evaluated and incorporated into Madrid City Council’s public policies.
Decidim
This free open-source platform allows institutions all over the world to initiate participation processes, leading to the democratisation of development.
DoCHECK! Fighting Disinformation through Technology and Non-Formal Education
DoCheck empowers teenagers with media literacy skills to recognise and resist online disinformation, fostering a safer and more informed digital environment across Europe.
Easy Government
Easy Government invites people with disabilities and socially vulnerable people to redesign legal and administrative texts, using easy reading, to create simpler communication materials for all audiences.
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.
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.
Citizens of Ankara: Re-Assemble!
This innovative Citizens’ Assembly fosters trust and engagement among citizens and local stakeholders, building a more resilient and cohesive social and political landscape across the City of Ankara.
