Karlstad seeks digital service to increase the city’s accessibility

Karlstad is preparing a second procurement with the support of Demand Acceleration. This time, the goal is to create a service that opens up the city’s offerings to more people.

Karlstad Municipality is exploring the possibility of procuring a digital service that can enable people with cognitive challenges to more independently access the city’s offerings. This could include culture, associations, and various activities that contribute to a richer life. An RFI (Request for Information) has been published to gauge the market’s interest and expertise in meeting the need. The purpose is to connect with innovative companies and entrepreneurs to gain an overview of possible solutions.

A growing target group

“Today there are approximately 200,000 people in Sweden with some form of cognitive impairment. It feels very good that we in Karlstad are taking the initiative to make the city’s offerings more accessible, and to create a service that can hopefully spread across the country,” says Ann-Sophie Gustafsson, Development Manager at the Health and Social Care Unit in Karlstad.

Previous procurement delivered results

“Guidance in the City” is an innovation challenge from Karlstad Municipality and DigitalWell Arena. The next step is to carry out a procurement with the support of the Demand Acceleration methodology. This means the municipality procures an innovation process, where multiple companies can participate to develop a digital service in close collaboration with the organisation.

The same methodology was recently used to procure a training tool for care services. In that process, seven companies were initially procured – before Virotea was ultimately awarded a contract to develop the final service.

• Here you can find more information on how to participate