Research, Development and Evaluation Commission

Taipei City Government announced the winners of the “Data Utilization in Research Reports” Award today (November 21, 2023) at the Taipei City Council. Mayor Wan-An Chiang presented the awards to pay tribute to the winning researchers.

Mayor Chiang emphasized government open data had been and would always be one of the most important policies of the Taipei City Government (hereinafter referred to as “TCG”). He urged all TCG agencies to continue the efforts reviewing related policies and operations to make data pertinent to people’s livelihoods available to the public. He also encourages the public to jointly optimize the use of open data to make suggestions to the TCG.

The applications for the incentive rewards are posted in diverse channels, such as websites, official notices to various organizations, etc. between June and July every year. For the 2023 competition, 6 research papers are eligible to compete for the awards. 4 of them are selected after application document review by the responsible agency and in-person discussion by scholars and experts. Mayor Chiang congratulated the winning teams and expressed appreciation for their efforts.

The subjects the research papers discuss this year are transportation, urban development, sports and leisure, participatory budgeting, etc. The paper receiving the Top Excellence Prize is entitled “Street-level Civil Servant’s Challenges and Countermeasures in the Implementation of Participatory Budgeting: An Examination of Taipei City Government Experience.” It uses the data of the proposal management system and conducts interviews with the civil servants in charge to examine the Taipei City Government’s implementation of participatory budgeting. The research result is a reference for policy implementation.

The Excellence Prize goes to the paper entitled “A Preliminary Study on the Child Pedestrian Friendly Environment in High Population-Density City: The Pedestrian Walkways for Schoolchildren in Taipei City.”  It proposes 4 clusters based on the population, socio-economic status, and environmental features of each neighborhood and explores the correlation using a questionnaire. The paper also makes suggestions for building a child-pedestrian-friendly environment in a high population-density city. It is a valuable reference for the Taipei City Government. 

TCG thanks all the participating research teams and hopes to see more applications in the future. The value of open data is determined by the smart and value-added use of them. TCG encourages research collaboration with the public and welcomes diverse opinions and feedback to improve governance efficiency.