Ville de Paris - Direction de l'Innovation

The Ville de Paris Direction de l'Innovation et de l'Attractivité is the City of Paris's dedicated innovation department, responsible for driving digital transformation, fostering civic innovation, and coordinating smart city initiatives across the French capital. The department oversees some of the most ambitious urban innovation programmes in Europe, including Paris's internationally renowned participatory budgeting process — which allocates hundreds of millions of euros based on citizen proposals and votes — and the city's open data portal, which publishes thousands of datasets for public use. The Direction de l'Innovation also coordinates the city's smart infrastructure programmes, including the deployment of environmental sensors, smart street lighting, and intelligent waste management systems. Under the broader Paris Smart City strategy, the department works to ensure that technology serves the city's goals of ecological transition, social inclusion, and democratic participation. Paris has set itself apart from many global cities by placing citizen empowerment and environmental sustainability at the centre of its smart city approach, rather than focusing primarily on technological deployment. The Direction de l'Innovation embodies this philosophy, ensuring that digital tools and data serve Parisians' quality of life.