Open Data Innovation Challenge - Decode for Prijedor

The goal of this innovation challenge, and this Lab's workstream, is to offer answers to the following question:    How might we present, in an innovative way, the City of Prijedor as a favorable business and working environment, and a pleasant place to live, to potential investors and citizens?    The city administration of the City of Prijedor wants to present its city and its contents innovatively to potential investors, who would create better opportunities for young startups, businessmen and women entrepreneurs with future investments, and by creating a more favourable economic environment, offer better conditions for the life of all citizens.  The city of Prijedor wants to join the group of cities whose development is based on digitisation, which implies an active approach to promoting innovative solutions.  Opening data is only one step in what can lead to a modern, innovative and digital City of Prijedor. The proposed innovation challenge is oriented towards the citizens. It puts them at the centre of all processes intending to create a better quality of life in the City of Prijedor, with greater information and the realisation of citizens rights. In addition to citizens, the goal is to enable people in business and the business community as a whole, to get all the necessary information in one place in the shortest possible time using all the advantages of electronic communication.  The development vision of the City of Prijedor includes activities related to open data, such as:  • Modern city administration - every person is equally important to the city. The city administration will look for the highest quality solutions for the citizens and implement decisions promptly.  • The city of Prijedor is equally open to local and foreign investors, as every opportunity for new job creation is valuable.  The innovation challenge "Decode for Prijedor" implies a holistic approach to the use of data - as it envisages the use of existing data on the Open Data Portal of the City of Prijedor together with other open or available data sources to offer digital solutions and/or research works intending to present this city more innovatively to all potential investors. 

Today, the city of Prijedor is a well-developed urban, commercial and industrial city, and at the same time, a good host to some well-known international and domestic companies1. Over 80,000 citizens currently live in Prijedor. The industry of the City of Prijedor includes several economic sectors, among which the most important so far have been: mining, wood industry, metal processing, food industry, construction, and transport. However, other sectors with great potentials, such as agriculture, tourism and the IT industry, have also been recognized. The location of Prijedor within Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the map of Europe, represents an opportune location with access to a market of over 600 million consumers. The advantages of this position are numerous, and they are reflected not only in good traffic connections but in the preferential benefits and free trade regime that this city has through CEFTA, EFTA and the Free Trade Agreement with Turkey.     The City of Prijedor has been certified with the ISO 9001:2015 quality management standard for 15 years and accordingly has a defined administrative monitoring approach based on this standard. Furthermore, it is the first local government in Bosnia and Herzegovina to receive the "International Seal of Quality - BFC"3 certificate, thereby gaining the title Prijedor - the pioneer city of BFC, which for investors means a safe place for investment, a partnership relationship with the local administration, business success and capacity development, and healthy competitiveness, support and encouragement. In addition to this certificate, the city of Prijedor can be praised for having a fruitful industrial heritage, bearing in mind a rich history and tradition in doing business in various sectors, a large base of registered business entities, a qualified and competitive workforce strength, proactive city administration, active info-centres for investors, and industrial zones for "greenfield" and "brownfield" investments4.     The City of Prijedor has recently become the first local government in Bosnia and Herzegovina to develop an Open Data portal whose goal is to collect, categorise, distribute and use data managed by the City of Prijedor and public companies and institutions founded or co-founded by the City of Prijedor. 

To enhance the attractiveness of the City of Prijedor as a secure and profitable investment destination, through this innovation challenge, we seek digital solutions that highlight the city's infrastructure and financial and human resources and improve its standing on the local and international investor landscape.  To further support the vision of Prijedor as an ideal city where every resident can reach their full potential, the challenge calls for innovative ideas that make use of open data, particularly from young participants, that can potentially address issues in the fields of tourism, environmental protection, education, sports, transportation, and beyond.  Moreover, the challenge invites well-executed research that will provide insights and comprehensive analysis of the potential benefits for investors and citizens in the event of investment in the city's region. 

"Decode for Prijedor" - where every investment today means a better life for everyone in Prijedor tomorrow.

  How might we present, in an innovative way, the City of Prijedor as a favorable business and working environment, and a pleasant place to live, to potential investors and citizens? 

Drawing from the guidelines outlined in the UNDP's "Ministry of Data" Handbook, we will organize design thinking and co-creation sessions involving representatives from the City of Prijedor, the Development Agency of the City of Prijedor (PREDA), and two projects from the country office (PIPLS and Digital Transformation). Our collaborative aim is to collectively shape the framework for an innovation challenge centred around using open data from the City of Prijedor. Once the co-created concept takes form, we will publicly launch the innovation challenge via the Lab's Open Innovation platform. This platform will be accessible to anyone interested in participating, allowing them to submit their innovative ideas directly onto the platform through crowdsourcing. This process will establish a digital repository of all submitted ideas. Subsequently, a panel of expert judges will assess all submitted ideas and select three winners in each of the following categories: digital solutions, digital solutions by youth, and research. Following the announcement of these winners, they will proceed to implement their solutions, with the goal of bringing their ideas to life by the conclusion of 2023.

We are connecting data available on the first in-country Open data portal with concrete utilisation of those for digital solutions and research.

By showcasing the Open Data Portal of the City of Prijedor and co-implemented innovation challenge on the Open Innovation Platform, we anticipate that other local governments will be inspired to follow a similar development path to opening their data and creating an enabling environment for innovators to use those data strategically. The City of Prijedor has already committed to securing funding for next year's innovation challenge as they would like to continue with this practice.