Designing public administration to be more modern, agile and citizen-centred through digitalisation, while at the same time increasing the success of digital start-ups: this is the aim of the Startups4State project, which has been running at the University of Bayreuth since March 2026. Funded by the bidt, three Bayreuth professors are collaborating in an interdisciplinary synergy to advance digital state administration.
“There are still many structural and cultural hurdles in cooperation between public administration and digital start-ups. Public authorities must primarily act in a legally compliant, low‑risk and citizen‑oriented manner, while start-ups are able to develop innovative digital solutions quickly and respond flexibly to new requirements. These differing strengths make cooperation demanding, yet they also demonstrate the potential that emerges when both sides bring together their perspectives and expertise,” says Prof. Dr. Anna Maria Oberländer, Junior Professor of Information Systems and Digital Transformation at the University of Bayreuth and one of the initiators of the research project. Together with Prof. Dr. Matthias Baum (Chair of Business Administration XVI – Entrepreneurship and Digital Business Models) and Prof. Dr. Christoph Krönke Lieb (Chair of Public Law, Economic Administrative Law, Sustainability and Technology Law), Oberländer will first analyse systematic needs as well as socio‑technical, entrepreneurial and legal requirements from both public administration and digital start-ups. Based on this, the team will develop practice-oriented tools to promote successful start-up–state cooperation.
“We are relying on scientifically grounded, interdisciplinary approaches that address the innovation needs of public administration and the growth objectives of digital start-ups, thereby accelerating digital transformation. The project thus lays the foundations for a modern, innovative public administration and for strengthening digital start-ups in Bavaria and Germany,” says Baum.
A central component of the project is the support of concrete pilot collaborations within a regulatory sandbox – a protected environment in which partners can test new technologies for compliance with legal requirements and their own needs before official launch. “These real-world testing environments make it possible to implement innovation projects together with partners from public administration and start‑ups under realistic conditions, to make obstacles visible straight away and to derive effective solutions,” explains Krönke Lieb. The interdisciplinary consortium at the University of Bayreuth – uniting information systems, entrepreneurship and law – acts as a link between public institutions and digital start-ups. With the University of Bayreuth as a central innovation partner, Startups4State thus represents a decisive step towards a high‑performing, modern state administration.
