Context
CityLAB Berlin was established as Berlin’s public innovation lab to address structural barriers to innovation within the city’s public administration. Funded through a grant by the Berlin Senate Chancellery and operated by the Technologiestiftung Berlin, CityLAB supports public-sector innovation projects, develops open-source digital solutions, and fosters networking and events focused on shaping Berlin’s future in the interest of the common good.
The lab responds to growing urban challenges and the need for more efficient, participatory, and user-oriented public services. Demographic change and limited personnel resources increase the urgency: public administrations must deliver more complex services with fewer staff, making innovation and digital transformation critical.
CityLAB provides a structured space for experimentation, participatory design, and implementation of user-oriented solutions. By combining iterative development, co-creation with citizens, and open collaboration with administrative departments, it allows ideas to be tested before large-scale deployment.
In relation to the award category, CityLAB demonstrates how public sector innovation can move beyond strategy towards concrete outcomes, showing that digital technologies can tangibly improve public life while building long-term administrative capacity and fostering cultural change within public institutions.
Objectives
CityLAB aims to strengthen the administration’s innovation and implementation capacity to close the gap between strategic digitalisation goals and practical service delivery. The project responds to the need for faster, user-centred, and participatory approaches, particularly where traditional administrative processes limit experimentation and cross-departmental collaboration.
The primary objective is to improve citizen interaction, increase transparency, and enhance decision-making through tested digital solutions. Functional prototypes such as Gieß den Kiez, Parl, and BärGPT allow administrative partners to validate ideas under real conditions before scaling, reducing risks, and ensuring practical relevance.
Through participatory design, in-house development, and extensive networking and knowledge exchange, CityLAB provides concrete, needs-driven solutions and methods while fostering administrative learning and sustainable digital transformation in Berlin.
Implementation
CityLAB is structured as a non-profit innovation lab embedded within Berlin’s Senate Chancellery and operated by the Technologiestiftung Berlin. Around 40 experts work across multiple projects, combining expertise in software development, service design, project management, and public sector innovation. Projects are selected jointly with administrative partners based on relevance, feasibility, and expected public value.
Implementation follows iterative cycles: problem exploration, user research, prototyping, testing, and validation under real-world conditions. Open-source digital solutions are developed in-house, enabling reuse and further development by other administrations. Staff and budget focus on prototype development, participatory formats, and knowledge transfer rather than long-term product operation.
Stakeholder consultation and participatory design are central: public servants, citizens, and external partners collaborate to ensure solutions are needs-driven and sustainable. Governance combines flexibility with accountability, with regular coordination to align projects with legal, technical, and strategic requirements.
CityLAB also fosters knowledge transfer and collaboration through events, workshops, newsletters, podcasts, and social media. This integrated approach combines structured governance with experimentation, enabling CityLAB to deliver tangible solutions while strengthening long-term innovation capacity, promoting cultural change, and enhancing administrative efficiency and citizen participation.