2026 Seoul Smart City Prize, launched by The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGo) together with the City of Seoul, is calling for applications. The Prize promotes and champions people-centred digital transformation that is geared towards providing more accessible services for all citizens.
Application will open on 13 February 2026.
Read the prize brochure here.
Timeline
The application portal for the Seoul Smart City Prize will be open from February 13 to May 29, 2026.
Credit: the Seoul Smart City Prize
About the award
The Seoul Smart City Prize focuses on recognizing exemplary models for city governments, as well as individual, corporate, and institutional efforts to ensure inclusive digitalization of public services that benefit people across sectors like mobility, safety, welfare, environment, energy, culture, and governance.
The Prize promotes digital city models that support underprivileged groups in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is driven by information and communication technology.
Credit: the Seoul Smart City Prize
Theme
Focused on promoting digital transformation through innovation and inclusive strategies for smart, sustainable cities, the Seoul Smart City Prize features three categories:
- Tech-InnovaCity: projects that focus on integrating innovative policies and technologies with the core value of “technology and beyond”.
- Human-CentrCity: projects that are designed to prioritize digital inclusion in smart city development, thereby overcoming or mitigating the digital divide, and that aim to serve specific target groups within the citizen population with the core value of “accompanying the vulnerables”.
- Leadership: individuals who have demonstrated leadership in developing or promoting the innovative uses of technology and data to impact the lives of global citizens.
Detailed application guidelines and evaluation criteria for each categories are available here.
Objective
The Seoul Smart City Prize has the following objectives:
- Acknowledge efforts made for people-centred digital transformation.
- Promote the inclusive development agenda for key processes and frameworks surrounding the digitalisation of public services.
- Engage the global community in shaping the future direction of digitalisation by offering a space for discussion.
- Foster interaction and networking opportunities among relevant stakeholders in the smart city development sector.
Read the application guidelines here.