Data-Driven Cities & Digital Governance: IURC Community of Practice Moves Toward Practical Cooperation

The IURC Community of Practice on Data-driven Cities and Digital Governance (CoP 9) held its recent online meeting with a shared goal: turning digital transformation strategies into practical, city-level cooperation. Representatives from European and Asia–Australasia partner cities exchanged perspectives on how data governance, digital platforms, and public–private collaboration can strengthen smarter, more resilient urban management.

From strategy to implementation: shaping cooperation under the UCAP

The meeting marked an important step in refining the Urban and Regional Cooperation Action Plan (UCAP), with members agreeing to structure future collaboration around three complementary pillars:

• Governance and strategy for digital transformation,
• Platforms and infrastructure such as urban data platforms and digital twins, and
• Concrete applications, where data and digital tools deliver visible public value.

Participants supported a phased cooperation approach, starting with mutual learning and stakeholder mapping, followed by deeper thematic work and joint pilot actions. This structure aims to help cities move beyond vision-setting toward tested, transferable solutions.

Key priorities: governance, data ownership, and real-world use

Across city inputs, several shared challenges stood out. Members highlighted the need to clarify who owns and controls urban data, how responsibilities should be divided between the public and private sectors, and how governance models for AI and digital platforms can balance innovation with accountability.There was strong agreement that citizen participation should remain a cross-cutting principle in digital governance, ensuring that data-driven policies are transparent, trusted, and socially accepted. Cities also stressed that data collection must be purpose-driven—clearly linked to outcomes such as climate resilience, service efficiency, and inclusive urban development.

Learning through practice: study visits and pilot ideas

Rather than limiting cooperation to policy exchange, cities expressed interest in hands-on learning through study visits and demonstrations of working systems. Proposed areas of practical collaboration included:

• Urban data platforms and citizen-facing digital services,
• Digital twins and AI-supported urban management,
• Cross-departmental data integration, and
• Engagement with startups and private-sector innovators.

Several cities signalled readiness to share concrete use cases, ranging from smart governance centres to digital transformation strategies linked to major international events. These exchanges are expected to feed into future pilot actions and joint funding proposals.

Building momentum for joint innovation

Participants also pointed to opportunities to connect city cooperation with broader research and innovation agendas, including future European research programmes. The UCAP was positioned as a living framework, to be refined as cooperation deepens and cities gain new insights from webinars, exchanges, and pilot activities.

Overall, the cities within the CoP9 underscored a shared ambition: to make digital governance more actionable, accountable, and impactful—by learning directly from each other’s experiments in data-driven city management and turning shared challenges into joint solutions.

Written by Soomin Yang, Programme Officer in CityNet, IURC Korean Helpdesk
(korea.helpdesk@iurc.eu)