The GATE Institute has been awarded the prestigious Seoul Smart City Prize 2025 in the category Tech-InnovaCity – Institution. Bestowed by WeGO (World Smart Sustainable Cities Organisation) and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, this recognition places Bulgaria among the global leaders in smart cities and technological innovation.
The award acknowledges outstanding achievements in the development and integration of innovative smart city solutions. GATE Institute was recognised for its work on the Digital Twin of Sofia – Bulgaria’s first city-scale digital model, created to support more sustainable, open, and intelligent urban development. Competing against more than 220 applications worldwide, GATE is the first Bulgarian institution to receive this distinction.
“This recognition is the result of vision, science, and the hard work of the entire GATE team and our partners,” wrote Prof. Silvia Ilieva, Director of GATE, 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 inclusion, with care for all citizens.”
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 (“technology and beyond”) with digital inclusion and support for vulnerable groups (“accompanying the vulnerable”).
The Tech-InnovaCity Institution award, along with Tech-InnovaCity Corporation, highlights the collective efforts required to build smarter, more sustainable cities, emphasising the importance of public-private partnerships uniting governments, corporations, and communities to deliver innovative solutions.
This recognition of GATE’s achievements is even more significant given that it comes from the Seoul Metropolitan Government – one of the world’s leading smart cities, consistently ranked at the top for its modern infrastructure and citizen-focused services.
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.