site.btaBulgarian Project for Digital Twin of Sofia Wins International Smart City Innovation Award

Sofia University's Big Data for Smart Society Institute (GATE) has received the prestigious Seoul Smart City Prize 2025 in the Tech-InnovaCity - Institution category, the institute’s press office said on Thursday.

The award, granted by the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, places Bulgaria among the global leaders in smart city and technological innovation. GATE was recognised for its Digital Twin of Sofia project – the first digital model of a Bulgarian city, designed to support more sustainable, open and intelligent urban development.

More than 220 applications from around the world were submitted for the competition, with GATE becoming the first Bulgarian institution to win this award.

“This recognition is the result of vision, science and the hard work of the entire GATE team and our partners,” wrote GATE Director Prof. Sylvia Ilieva on social media. “The real joy will come when we return to Sofia and share it with everyone who contributed to this success. This award is also for Sofia – for its future as a city driven by technology, data, and for all its citizens,” she added.

The Seoul Smart City Prize was established to promote an innovative yet inclusive smart city model with a strong human focus in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, powered by information technologies and artificial intelligence. Its mission underpins the prize’s two categories – Tech-InnovaCity and Human-CentriCity – reflecting WeGO’s and Seoul’s vision that a smart city is more than just technology. It combines the integration of innovative policies and technologies across all aspects of urban life with digital inclusion and support for vulnerable groups.

The Tech-InnovaCity Institution award, along with Tech-InnovaCity Corporation, highlights the collective efforts required to build smarter, more sustainable cities, emphasizing the importance of public-private partnerships uniting governments, corporations, and communities to deliver innovative solutions.

The Seoul Smart City Prize 2025 ceremony took place on September 30 at COEX, Seoul, during Smart Life Week (SLW) 2025 – a global platform for exchanging knowledge, policies, and innovations in smart city development.