Three New Applications Bring the Smart City Experience to Life in Bamberg

How can digitalization improve everyday life in a city? In Bamberg, there are now three new answers to that question: the Bamberg App, the participation platform "Bamberg-Miteinander.de," and the sharing platform "BamBörsla" are digital offerings designed to connect people more easily and make life in the city more convenient. The applications were developed as part of the Smart City Bamberg programme and presented to the general public at the beginning of April on Maxplatz.

The focus is not on technological gimmicks, but on concrete services for residents: the Bamberg App brings together information and digital city services in one place — such as event listings, news from City Hall, or personalised reminders for bin collection days. The platform "Bamberg-Miteinander.de" is intended to connect people who want to get involved or are looking for collaborators on projects. BamBörsla is a space and materials platform centred not on buying or selling, but on sharing, lending, or renting out rooms, equipment, or materials that are temporarily not in use.

University provides academic support for the Smart City project

The Smart City project in Bamberg is accompanied by academic research from the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg, specifically through its Smart City Research Lab (SCRL). The university has been supporting the city with academic expertise since the very start of the funded project. At the Smart City Research Lab, researchers from various disciplines collaborate on questions of digital urban development. The goal is not only to implement new technologies on a technical level, but also to examine them from a societal perspective.

In doing so, the university brings research, teaching, and practice into close alignment: students and researchers work on topics including digital forms of civic participation, sustainable urban development, and the question of how digital technologies can concretely help people in their daily lives — as well as issues such as data protection, data quality, and ethics in the Smart City context. The three new applications make visible how this collaboration produces tangible results. The projects demonstrate how academia, city administration, and the public can work together toward a city that is both digital and worth living in. A close exchange between research and practice emerges that benefits both sides: the city receives academically grounded input for its projects, while the university gains concrete fields of application for research and teaching.

All three applications have been available free of charge since 1 April. The Bamberg App can either be downloaded from the usual app stores or accessed in a browser at www.app.bamberg.de. The civic engagement platform is available at www.bamberg-miteinander.de, and the space and materials platform at www.bamboersla.bamberg.de.

Further information events

Anyone who missed the event on Maxplatz and would like to find out more about the individual applications will have another opportunity to do so at the "smart verstehen" event series. The Bamberg App will be presented on 21 May 2026, and BamBörsla on 18 June 2026, both from 6:15 to 7:45 pm at Stadt:Raum, Promenadestr. 6a.