About us 

We are the Digitalraum Main-Donau-Moldau e.V. and are delighted that you are interested in us and our work. As the name suggests, we are particularly concerned with digitalisation in rural areas in the region between the three rivers Main, Danube and Vltava. Our overarching goal is to promote science and research as well as networking in the field of SMART CITIES & REGIONS.

Digitalraum Main-Donau-Moldau

What is that? What do we hope to gain from it?

You can find more information on smart cities and smart regions as well as existing examples in the Smart City Guide on the Smart Akademie website. We developed these in an earlier InterReg project in 2022 with the ‘Digital Bavarian Main Danube’ network, from which our association emerged.

Co-operation between Bavarian and Czech members plays a central role in our association. The following areas of life are particularly important to us:

Digitalraum Main-Donau-Moldau
Digitalraum Main-Donau-Moldau

Our origin

Our association has existed in its current form since March 2023. However, its history began much earlier. Back in 2020, the city of Hassfurt and the district of Wunsiedel i. Fichtelgebirge (both winners of the first season of the BMI funding programme ‘Smart Cities – Made in Germany’) and numerous stakeholders from Bavaria founded the ‘Digital Bavarian Main/Danube’ network. This was the beginning of a cooperation that continues to this day.

The aim of the association was to bundle digitalisation activities within Bavaria, encourage cooperation and facilitate the exchange of good practice between regions and cities. This is because many regions, cities and districts are currently facing similar issues or have ideas for which they need support and do not have to start from scratch, which requires a lot of time, knowledge and resources.

In various working groups and network meetings over the past few years, regions and cities have been able to learn from the experiences of others, present the latest findings and experience reports and implement and further develop the strategies in their own concepts. As a result, solutions can be implemented and develop an impact in a shorter period of time.

Foundation of the association

Our efforts bore their first fruits and in 2022, the network was expanded across borders by involving municipalities from Western Bohemia (Czech Republic) and other partners from Bavaria. The ‘Smart Academy’ project, which was funded as part of the Bavarian-Czech InterReg programme, made it possible to jointly highlight topics relating to smart and green technologies.

During this cross-border cooperation, it became clear that the Bavarian and Czech participants face similar problems and challenges. Cooperation across borders is therefore not only in line with the European idea, but also logical, as both sides benefit from the approaches, best practices and solutions developed and shared. By founding the ‘Digitalraum Main-Donau-Moldau e.V.’ association, this cooperation is now to be consolidated and organised in concrete projects.

Why do we need an association for this?

We are all very busy and the smart regions constantly need new concepts, technologies, lifestyles and socio-technical systems to be researched and developed. We therefore want to take on these challenging tasks. The involvement of all social groups (stakeholders) – politicians, local authorities, research institutions, companies, associations, social groups and, above all, the residents of smart regions – in this research and development process is of crucial importance. The association also sees itself as representing the interests of both public and private sector organisations.

The core tasks of the organisation are therefore:

Digitalraum Main-Donau-Moldau
Do you have any further questions, or are you itching to become a member of our association and benefit from our activities and expertise? Or are you passionate about your topic and want to pass on your knowledge to others who are just starting out and need support?

If you have any questions, please use our contact form or enquire about becoming a member. We look forward to hearing from you!