OIM
Ideas from Münster for Münster
Do you have a good idea for Münster? One that really makes our city better? Then share them with us.
We're not looking for complaints — we're looking for clever, creative and feasible ideas that move Münster forward.
How can we make Münster more sustainable? How can we make new and better use of places? What is missing to make people feel even more comfortable here? Impress us with your idea by 10.05.2026 and secure up to 5,000€ for implementation.
Rooms, auxiliary structures, project support & impetus for innovation from and for Münster.
Many people in the city have ideas about how we can overcome these challenges. But there is often a lack of the right structures, networks and spaces to turn ideas into solutions. Open Innovation Münster (OIM) fills this gap.
Why OIMWe are an open and digital point of contact for all Münsterans who have an idea to improve life in the city of Münster.
There are no hurdles to participation. The ideas come from children as well as seniors. Are analog or digital. From direct self-interest, for a specific group or simply for everyone.
It doesn't matter what skills the idea providers have. Whether they just provide the impetus or actively participate in the implementation.
This is what you can expect:
We are looking forward to your input and exchange!
Take a look now to see which programs we are planning for the near future. You will then find more content about the current program on a subpage. Participate actively, get involved, tell us about your ideas. We are looking forward to a time full of exchange, ideas and implementation. From Münster for Münster.
Idea competition
A city-wide call for initiatives, startups, and project teams to submit existing or new ideas. Online voting by the public and presentation of the most popular projects on a public stage.
Eligibility requirements: Minimum age 18 years. Participation is open to citizens, initiatives, associations and informal groups related to Münster. Submissions will be made within the officially announced deadline of 10.05.2026. By submitting, participants agree to the selection and funding conditions.
Objective: Visibility for innovations from Münster and strengthening the participation culture.
Innovation workshop with SMEs & crafts
As part of Open Innovation Münster, we bring together craft and medium-sized companies in a targeted manner to identify specific operational and city-related challenges and to develop innovative solutions together.
Between May and September, a total of six moderated innovation workshops will take place, organized in three fixed workshop groups.
The process (two workshops per workshop group)
Workshop 1:
Joint identification of key challenges from everyday business life
Intermediate phase:
Deepening the topics, initial ideas, integration of external impulses if necessary
Workshop 2:
Development of specific solutions, pilot ideas and cooperation projects
Working in fixed groups creates trust, openness and space for genuine collaboration — across industry and company boundaries.
Objective: Practical innovations that directly help companies and at the same time provide impetus for the city of Münster — e.g. in the areas of digitalization, sustainability, skilled workers or new business models.
Impact Ideation Lab
A 6-week program for citizens, students and volunteers.
Identification of specific urban challenges
Development of initial solution ideas in interdisciplinary teams
Coaching by experts
Access to contacts in administration, business and initiatives
Final pitch on public stage
Objective: Ideas become connectable projects with implementation prospects.
Three strategic fields of action for Münster's future
The 2030+ Site Development Strategy identified these fields as crucial for Münster's future. OIM translates them into everyday life — with real solutions, networks and open spaces.
Migrant potential
Focus: Remove barriers, facilitate job access, open networks, open up advice and funding opportunities
Many people with international history, different languages, experiences and skills live in Münster. This diversity offers enormous potential for new ideas, companies and solutions for the city.
At the same time, many face hurdles: when starting a business, accessing jobs, networks, or information. As a result, good ideas often remain invisible.
Example
Aylin has lived in Münster for several years. She regularly helps girlfriends fill out forms for daycare centers, job centers or language courses. Time and again, she realizes that the information is there — but difficult to understand and poorly bundled.
At OIM's Ideation Lab, she brings up exactly this problem. Together with two students, she develops the idea of a multilingual online platform that explains the most important ways through administration — simply, visually and can be used on a smartphone.
Through OIM, the team gets in touch with contacts in the city, tests the prototype with real users and receives support in further development.
Everyday aid is turned into a digital offering that makes it easier for many people to get started in Münster — and has the potential to be used in other cities as well.
Social innovations
Focus: Common good, new forms of cohesion, integration and local support are key.
Social innovation means: New ideas that improve living together in the city, for example on topics such as loneliness, education, participation, care, neighborhood or integration.
Solutions are often not created in the town hall or in the company, but directly from people who experience or see problems themselves.
Issues such as loneliness, care, participation, education and neighborhood are addressed directly. OIM makes social ideas visible, connects people with similar concerns and helps develop viable projects or startups from them.
Example
Mr. Becker has just retired and would like to get involved. At the same time, a local initiative knows many older people who need support in everyday life but do not dare to accept help.
In OIM's Call for Ideas, an idea is submitted: a simple platform that organizes neighborhood help — not anonymously, but at district level with personal contacts.
A small team is developing a pilot project from this. With the support of OIM, talks are being held with social welfare agencies and district centers to test the solution directly on site.
The project connects people who would otherwise never have met — and shows how digital tools can strengthen social closeness.
Green City/Sustainability
Focus: biodiversity, climate adaptation, urban agriculture, sustainable mobility and energy
Climate protection and adaptation to climate change affect everyone: urban heat, heavy rain, mobility, waste, energy, consumption. Many people and initiatives have ideas on how to live and do business more sustainably — but there is often no way to implement them.
This can range from new mobility offers to smart waste prevention to green district projects.
Example
In a residential area in Münster, garbage is always piled up next to the containers. The residents are annoyed, the city cleaning is overloaded, and no one really feels responsible.
At the OIM workshop for environmental ideas, residents, a designer and a geoinformatics student meet. Together, they are developing a concept for smarter collection points with clear signs, better user guidance and sensors that report when containers are full.
With the support of OIM, they are testing the concept in a pilot quarter. The waste is visibly declining and the idea is being examined for further locations.
What began as a local nuisance is becoming a scalable solution for a cleaner city.