The Innovation Team is made up of 15 in-house employees project managers, product managers and IT developers as well as an external UX design team. From the outset, the department has operated in line with the Public Money, Public Code ideals of collaboration, auditability and innovation.
Relying on open source solutions means that the capital can better serve its citizens and foster affordable, creative ideas in the public sector. Recognising that knowledge-sharing can enable providing solutions to complex social and environmental challenges, the department has set up the Bratislava City Lab.
The City Lab is an open innovation platform that creates a safe space for testing innovations through controlled experiments of pilot solutions within five thematic areas: efficient urban mobility, adoption to climate change, energy efficiency and neutrality, knowledge-based decision-making, and digital transformation. Through the open source digital projects developed by the Innovation Team, Bratislava has set out to improve the user convenience and inclusivity of its digital services.
Over the long-term, these are meant not only to reduce costs and increase efficiencies for the city, but to also facilitate cooperation between different municipal companies. As such, the city is building its digital innovation strategy around inclusivity, ensuring that digital products and city services are provided to all residents, regardless of their background. In line with its Urban Innovation Strategy, the City of Bratislava has been building a complete ecosystem of open source digital services that the city, its municipal companies and 17 city boroughs can use to make access to their digital services easier, faster, more trustworthy, and more transparent.
Citizens can use one account to access multiple municipal services online such as paying their property taxes, buying swimming pool tickets, and following the status of their administrative requests. Only the full legal name, an email address and a password are required to sign up for the city account. For services with a higher level of security, verification takes place either via the national eID or via a national ID number and date of birth which are checked against the data contained in the national register.
