On the occasion of the start of the ‘Simple. Together. Digital’ event series, Dr Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, today appointed the Digital Strategy Germany Advisory Board comprising 19 representatives from industry, academia and civil society. The Advisory Board is to support the federal ministries in implementing the Federal Government’s Digital Strategy. It is part of a comprehensive monitoring of the Digital Strategy under the responsibility of the BMDV to support, assess and make visible to the public the progress made.

Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital and Transport:

We want to finally make Germany fit for the digital future, thereby facilitating the life of our citizens. Our Digital Strategy allows us to implement a major societal, economic and scientific digital transformation process. As the Federal Government, we have set ourselves measurable and ambitious goals we want to achieve by 2025. We want to be measured against these benchmarks. The BMDV will closely monitor implementation of the measures. Our monitoring is based on three pillars that go hand in hand and allows us to keep a constant eye on the Digital Strategy’s progress – also enabling us to make adjustments in the short term and support each other, if necessary. It is important to me that we, the Federal Government, find common solutions to our digital challenges in a spirit of trust and in an agile way. This will help us initiate the digital transformation in Germany.

These are the three pillars of the monitoring to support Germany’s Digital Strategy:

1. Digital Strategy Germany Advisory Board
Today, the Digital Strategy Germany Advisory Board was established to support the ministries in implementing their projects. The Advisory Board consists of 19 representatives from industry, academia and civil society (see enclosed list of members). It is chaired by Prof. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, University of Bonn, and Dr Thomas Koenen, Federation of German Industry (BDI). During each of the ten annual meetings of the Advisory Board, two lighthouse projects of the Digital Strategy are to be presented and discussed. The Advisory Board is to provide the ministries with external impetus from industry, academia and civil society. After the meetings of the Advisory Board, the progress of the projects derived from the qualitative monitoring will be documented and regularly published at the www.digitalstrategie-deutschland.de website.

2. Database
All 135 targets listed in the Digital Strategy are subject to quantitative monitoring. This is to give the ministries a continuous overview of the progress made. For this purpose, a database based on a blueprint developed for the BMDV in the context of Tech4Germany will be set up by the beginning of 2023. The competent ministries will enter and maintain their data in their own responsibility. The database also is to improve inter-departmental networking. We want to make visible to everyone who is responsible for a project and what they are working on. This will facilitate the sharing of knowledge about digital solutions within the Federal Government and make it possible to join forces to better solve the often similar challenges of digital projects.
Moreover, the quantitative monitoring will form the basis for an ongoing review and evolution of the Digital Strategy. In a series of events on the Digital Strategy, the results are to be presented to the public at six-monthly intervals and documented at the www.digitalstrategie-deutschland.de website.

3. Impact assessment
The outcome-based impact assessment of the Digital Strategy will be carried out as part of an accompanying research project by ‘Agora Digitale Transformation’ funded by the BMDV. Within the project, a scientifically sound guideline for the implementation of impact analyses of political measures will be developed, which is expected to be presented to the public at the end of 2023. On this basis, an impact assessment for selected measures of the Digital Strategy will be implemented and trialled in practice. The assessment is to determine in concrete terms what impact the measures have, how they make life easier for citizens and where there might still be need for adjustment. The Digital Strategy will thus become a model for the practical implementation of impact assessment and make an essential contribution towards strengthening evidence-based policy in a learning digital state.

On the basis of the monitoring data, the implementation progress of the ministries is to be discussed every six months at state secretary level, headed by the BMDV. If necessary, decisions on whether to adjust the Strategy can also be taken there.

At working level, an agile interministerial working group will continuously monitor the process. The goal is a close cross-departmental exchange with a positive and transparent error and learning culture to support optimum implementation of the Strategy. The Federal Government’s DigitalService will support the interministerial cooperation with its expertise.

About the Digital Strategy

At the end of August 2022, the Federal Cabinet adopted the Digital Strategy presented by the BMDV. It defines the overarching framework for digital policy in Germany for the current parliamentary term.
Further information: https://www.digitalstrategie-deutschland.de