On February 12, 2026, AIR Artificial Intelligence Regensburg, DInO (Digital Innovation Ostbayern), and the City of Regensburg hosted a joint informational event titled “Understanding Public Procurement—Ways to Collaborate with the City of Regensburg” at TechBase Regensburg. The goal was to provide companies—especially startups as well as young and growing businesses—with practical and accessible information on public procurement procedures and to highlight concrete opportunities for collaboration with the municipality.
Following an initial discussion and welcoming remarks by Andreas Auberger (DInO) and Katja Eichinger (AIR), Julia Bauer, head of the City of Regensburg’s Procurement Office, provided a comprehensive overview of the public procurement system. She explained the goals and purposes of public procurement and walked the audience through the steps of a procurement process. She also provided tips on how to navigate common pitfalls for new bidders—measures such as submitting bidder questions or participating in market research can be particularly helpful in this regard.
Saskia Reichel, the future department head at the Procurement Office, provided further insight into the inner workings of the process. Using the procurement platform and specific documents, she explained how requests for proposals are published, which documents are relevant, and what companies should pay particular attention to when submitting bids.
In her presentation titled “Procurement in Practice: Is It Smart?!” Franziska Meier, Smart City Coordinator for the City of Regensburg, presented a concrete example of how this works. She highlighted a successful procurement process and collaboration aimed at developing data infrastructure and testing climate adaptation measures in climate labs as part of the “Resilient City” component of the R_NEXT Smart City project.
Afterward, the speakers took time to engage in an in-depth discussion with the participants. Unanswered questions were addressed, and participants shared their experiences with procurement processes. The event underscored the importance of transparency, dialogue, and timely information as the foundation for successful collaboration between city government and the business community.