Next E. V.

What Next E. V. does

NExT e.V. (Netzwerk für die digitale Transformation der Verwaltung) is a Berlin-based nonprofit association (eingetragener Verein) founded in 2018 that connects public administration employees across Germany's federal, state, and municipal levels to advance the digital transformation of public governance. Its mission is to address fragmentation in administrative digitalization — where solutions are repeatedly rebuilt rather than reused and practitioner expertise rarely reaches policy debates — through three pillars: Networks & Communities (10+ active Communities of Practice and recurring events), Research (empirical studies, notably the 2026 Nachnutzung study based on 547 survey respondents and 33 expert interviews, with open-data publication on Zenodo), and Advocacy (policy papers on topics such as digital-suitable budget law and sovereign cloud). Core offerings include NExTcommunities, the NExT-to-meet-you and PIAZZA conferences, NExTwerkstätten workshops producing actionable deliverables, the InfoSec Impact Award (co-organized with BSI), the NExTbasics educational video series, and a Reuse Platform Overview cataloging 54 platforms. NExT does not develop proprietary software; its technology footprint comprises a WordPress-based website (next-netz.de), Sympa mailing lists for community coordination, the HyHyve platform for virtual conferences, pretix for ticketing, Sendinblue for newsletters, Vimeo for video, and Zenodo for open research data.

The organization is governed by a multi-member board chaired by Dr. Alfred Kranstedt, with Jan Klumb as Deputy Chairman and Dr. Hans-Günter Gaul as Treasurer; the managing director is Ann Cathrin Riedel. Revenue derives primarily from institutional grants and project funding — anchored by IT-Planungsrat, FITKO (Föderale IT-Kooperation), and Stiftung Mercator — supplemented by membership fees from public-sector employees. NExT operates with a small Berlin secretariat of 1-10 staff and a broader ecosystem of volunteer community leaders and strategic partners including DigitalService des Bundes, BSI, ÖFIT, Open Knowledge Foundation, Gesellschaft für Informatik, Agora Digitale Transformation, and ProjectTogether. Its go-to-market is community-led: the network grows by deepening cross-organizational practitioner participation and convening cross-sector dialogue through events, workshops, research outputs, and coalition advocacy (notably the Bündnis für Staatsreform and the two-year GovImpact project).

Name

Next E. V.

Legal name

NExT e. V.

Website

https://next-netz.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

NExT e.V. is a German nonprofit association connecting public administration employees across federal, state, and municipal levels through communities of practice, empirical research, and policy advocacy to advance digital transformation of public governance.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Institutional Funding & Grants: NExT e.V. operates primarily on institutional funding and grants from German federal digital governance bodies. Key funders include the IT-Planungsrat (IT Planning Council), FITKO (Föderale IT-Kooperation), and Stiftung Mercator (Mercator Foundation). Funding supports specific research projects (e.g., the study on Nachnutzung in public administration was funded by IT-Planungsrat in cooperation with FITKO), advocacy initiatives (GovImpact project funded by Stiftung Mercator), and the Bündnis für Staatsreform coalition.
2. Membership Fees: NExT e.V. is a registered nonprofit association (Verein) with members. The organization offers membership, with the income supporting operational activities. Specific membership fee amounts are not publicly disclosed.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

NExT e. V. is a nonprofit association that connects public sector employees across Germany's federal, state, and municipal levels and operates a three-pillar program of Communities & Networking (NExTcommunities, NExTwerkstätten workshops, conferences), empirical Research on administrative digitalization, and Advocacy translating practitioner experience into policy input. It delivers communities of practice, conferences, studies, policy papers, and an award program, with operations funded by grants from IT-Planungsrat, FITKO, and Stiftung Mercator.

Product overview

NExT e.V. is a non-profit association focused on digital transformation of public administration in Germany, operating through three strategic pillars: Networks & Communities (peer networks, events, workshops), Research (empirical studies, platform overviews), and Advocacy (policy papers, political engagement). The organization does not offer a software product in the traditional sense; rather, it provides networking services, research publications, educational resources, and advocacy outputs. Key offerings include NExTcommunities for peer exchange across administrative digitalization topics, NExT-to-meet-you and PIAZZA conferences for cross-sector dialogue, the InfoSec Impact Award recognizing innovative security solutions, NExTbasics video series for foundational learning, and comprehensive research studies on topics like solution reuse and digital identities. Research outputs are made available as open data and downloadable platform catalogs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• NExTcommunities: Communities of practice connecting public sector employees for knowledge sharing and collaboration on administrative transformation.
• NExTbasics
• NExTperspektiven
• NExTwerkstätten
• NExT-to-meet-you
• PIAZZA
• InfoSec Impact Award
• GovImpact

Products and services

• NExTcommunities
• NExT-to-meet-you Conference
• PIAZZA Conference
• NExTwerkstätten
• NExT Research Studies
• Policy Papers
• InfoSec Impact Award
• NExTbasics
• Reuse Platform Overview List
• Open Data Publication: Nachnutzung Survey Dataset

Quantifiable outcome

• 547 public sector employees surveyed and 33 expert interviews conducted for the Nachnutzung study — the first comprehensive empirical baseline on reuse in German public administration
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability5 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBSI co-organizes the InfoSec Impact Award with NExT e.V., recognizing innovative IT security solutions from German public administration bodies. The award ceremony takes place at BSI's Public IT Security Conference (PITS). NExT board member Dr. Astrid Schumacher is a BSI department head, further deepening the organizational link.
• DigitalService des BundescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDigitalService des Bundes collaborates with NExT e.V. on the GovImpact project, combining NExT's practitioner network knowledge with the DigitalService's implementation experience to identify success factors for good digital administrative services. Joint outputs include policy papers on Digitalrendite (digital yield), sovereign cloud, and other digital transformation topics. The organizations co-hosted the 'Pizza & Verwaltung' exchange format for parliamentary staff.
• Agora Digitale TransformationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAgora Digitale Transformation is a co-founder (alongside ProjectTogether/Re:Form and NExT) of the Bündnis für Staatsreform — a non-partisan coalition for state reform. The coalition brings together civil society, administration, and academic perspectives to develop concrete proposals for modern state organization.
• ProjectTogether (Re:Form)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProjectTogether (Re:Form) co-founded the Bündnis für Staatsreform with Agora Digitale Transformation and NExT e.V., focusing on organizing political evenings with decision-makers, publishing policy briefs, and strengthening the network at the civil society–administration–policy interface.
• ZenDiS (Zentrum für Digitale Souveränität)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerZenDiS collaborated with NExT on a joint session at RuDiCamp 2026 titled 'Viele Räder, wenig Bewegung? Nachnutzung und Kooperation als Schlüssel der Verwaltungstransformation,' discussing the role of Open Source in solution reuse.
• Ministerium für Infrastruktur und Digitales Sachsen-AnhaltminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Ministry for Infrastructure and Digital Affairs of Saxony-Anhalt partnered with NExT on the project 'For a digitally suitable administrative law of tomorrow,' part of the IT-Planungsrat's federal digital strategy. The project identified barriers in budget law through workshops across several federal states.
• Kompetenzzentrum Öffentliche IT (ÖFIT)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerÖFIT co-organizes the annual PIAZZA conference with NExT e.V., Open Knowledge Foundation, and Gesellschaft für Informatik. Additionally, NExT and ÖFIT are collaborating on a Verwaltungsmonitor (administrative monitor) as a major joint research project announced in 2026.
• Bundesagentur für Arbeit, dataport, Digitalagentur Brandenburg, FITKO, PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand, Stadt WiesbadenminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThese organizations collaborated as case study contributors and experts in the NExTwerkstatt on Digital Identities, providing cross-organizational input for the resulting impulse paper on digital identities in everyday administrative life.
• GovStack Initiative (GIZ)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNExT's Managing Director Ann Cathrin Riedel participates in the GovStack Women in GovTech Challenge panel at the UN Open Source Week 2026, alongside GIZ representatives. GovStack is a global initiative (implemented by GIZ) supporting digital government architectures and standards.
• Open Knowledge FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpen Knowledge Foundation is a co-organizer of the annual PIAZZA conference alongside NExT e.V., ÖFIT, and Gesellschaft für Informatik. PIAZZA brings together public administration, civil society, and academia.
• Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGesellschaft für Informatik co-organizes the annual PIAZZA conference alongside NExT e.V., ÖFIT, and Open Knowledge Foundation.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• ZenDiS (Zentrum für Digitale Souveränität): A German competence center for digital sovereignty, focused on open-source adoption in government. Collaborated with NExT on a joint session at RuDiCamp 2026 and addresses an overlapping community of public-sector open-source practitioners, making it a partial-overlap peer in the niche.
• Code for Germany: A civic-tech volunteer network (part of the international Code for All movement) building open-data and transparency tools for German municipalities. It addresses an overlapping community of civic-minded civil servants and is comparable to NExT's community-led, open-data-publishing approach to public-administration reform.

Direct peers

• DigitalService des Bundes: A federal government unit tasked with building digital services and reforming digital administration. It is both a core NExT partner (joint GovImpact project, Pizza & Verwaltung format) and a directly comparable peer operating in the same practitioner-to-policy niche for German e-government.
• Open Knowledge Foundation: A German non-profit advocating open data, open government, and civic tech. It co-organizes PIAZZA with NExT and operates an overlapping community of public-administration reformers and civil-society data activists, making it a directly comparable peer on advocacy and open-government research.
• Agora Digitale Transformation: A civil-society think tank focused on digital policy in Germany. Co-founder with NExT and ProjectTogether of the Bündnis für Staatsreform, making it a directly comparable peer in advocacy, civic-society engagement, and digital-policy research.
• Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI): Germany's main professional association for informatics, co-organizing PIAZZA with NExT. Although broader in scope (entire IT profession), GI directly overlaps with NExT's professional networking and policy-advocacy functions targeting the public-sector IT community.
• Kompetenzzentrum Öffentliche IT (ÖFIT): ÖFIT is a research and competence center for public-sector IT in Germany and co-organizes the PIAZZA conference with NExT, Open Knowledge Foundation, and GI. It directly overlaps with NExT's Research pillar and is collaborating with NExT on a joint Verwaltungsmonitor project — making it the closest comparable in scope, geography, and target audience.
• ProjectTogether (Re:Form): A civic-society organization driving participation and reform initiatives, co-founding the Bündnis für Staatsreform with NExT. It is directly comparable in operating model (community-led, grant-funded, advocacy-oriented) and target audience (reform-minded civil servants and civil society).

Broad incumbents

• Bertelsmann Stiftung: One of Germany's largest foundations, operating the Datenatlas Zivilgesellschaft (which hosts NExT's open-data survey outputs). Its public-sector digitalization programs and research overlap substantively with NExT's Research and Advocacy pillars, though it is far larger and broader.
• Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV): A Berlin-based think tank producing policy analysis on digitalization, including AI, platform regulation, and public-sector digitalization. While broader in scope than NExT, SNV overlaps materially on policy-paper output targeting German federal decision-makers.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/next-e-v

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Next E. V.