"Every year, the State Capital's Innovation Award offers interesting and challenging tasks from the city administration, which the participants work on in cooperation with the city. The applications demonstrate the great potential of creative and innovative companies and startups in the city. I am pleased that promising solutions were presented and recognized by the jury again this year."
explains mayor Katrin Habenschaden.
The winners of the four individual competition categories are: Hawa Dawa, which prevailed in the search for a "pilot project for the digitalization of NO2 measurements"; the team "Klink – Digital Services under the umbrella of Isarwatt," which won the "FlexibleWorking@LHM" challenge; Plan4Better in the area of "Emission-free mobility in Munich"; and Liangdao for its solution approach to "improving the data situation on stationary and moving traffic." Together with the city administration and one of the four Munich Entrepreneurship Centers of Munich's universities – UnternehmerTUM, Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship, LMU Entrepreneurship Center and Founders@UniBW – they can now further develop their ideas and test them in practice.
The winning teams with their solutions
With the task of "Pilot Test for the Digitalization of NO2 Measurements," the City of Munich investigated how digital (low-cost) sensors could be used to legally assess the air quality situation regarding NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) in the city and, in the future, to present it as comprehensively as possible. The winner in this category was the Munich-based startup Hawa DawaThe jury was impressed by the highly advanced approach to ensuring the quality of the measurement data. Andreas Bauer, Head of the Environmental Protection Department of the Department of Climate and Environmental Protection, says:
“With this pilot project, we are taking an important innovative step in the digitalization of air measurements.”
For the "FlexibleWorking@LHM" project, the state capital was looking for a digital tool that would support efficient mobile working for its employees. The "Klink – Digital Services under the Isarwatt umbrella" team impressed with its holistic approach to booking rooms at various locations and its user-friendly interface. Thomas Böhle is convinced:
"Digital solutions make administration more flexible and therefore more efficient. The coronavirus situation has shown how the public service can be there for citizens even during lockdowns, working from home and offering digital services."
Innovation Award 2021: Focus on mobility
In the question "Emission-free mobility in Munich," the startup Plan4Better was successful with its interactive planning tool. The open-source, web-based platform GOAT (Geo Open Accessibility Tool) impressed the jury. Fabian Schütte, Head of Research and Innovation at the Mobility Department, says:
“With the right data, the possibilities of the GOAT tool are enormous.”
The Mobility Department also addressed the topic of "Improving the data situation on stationary and moving traffic." The innovation award went to the company Liangdao. The jury was impressed by the solution approach: Liangdao's LiDAR sensor system with AI-supported software detects and classifies the various modes of transport (pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicles) in real time under data protection-compliant conditions. The system can also record the direction and speed of the modes of transport, thus enabling intelligent traffic control.
