29 June 2021

ESPON needs your help to map digital innovation on the local level

ESPON needs your help to map digital innovation on the local level

ESPON launched a survey to gather insights from cities, towns and rural areas about their digitalisation efforts. DIGIsurvey is a keystone of the DIGISER project that is looking into digital innovation in governance and public service provision. The project has been developed within the ESPON 2020 Cooperation Programme carried out by OASC, IS-Practice, POLIMI, CPC, and Deloitte.

The project aims to promote a more nuanced conversation about the reality and state of digital transformation in cities across Europe. Without access to high quality, disaggregated and comparable data, it is not possible to fit public policy and funding to the actual needs of individual communities. As there is very little comparable data on how cities, towns and rural areas across Europe tackle digital innovation, the DIGIsurvey aims to fill this gap.

DIGIsurvey is an EU initiative, supported by ESPON, the European Committee of the Regions, living-in.eu, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, EUROCITIES, the 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge, Smart Cities Marketplace and Open & Agile Smart Cities.

     “This is the place where the DIGISER project with its DIGISurvey has shown to be effective: the DIGISurvey will gather data     from cities and municipalities to provide decision-makers with relevant and comparable information on digital transformation in their constituencies and to inspire digital transformation processes, The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of our society to unforeseen events. Nevertheless, it has also shown that those who had been relying on digital solutions could better face the negative impact of the economic shock. Therefore, the Living-in.EU initiative, a movement to boost sustainable digital transformation in cities and communities in the EU, is of key importance for the EU to promote the transition towards a cohesive, digital Europe, where no one is left behind.” Michael Murphy, Chair of the ECON commission of the European Committee of the Regions

Towards better policies

The results of the DIGIsurvey will help mayors, local councillors and elected politicians deliver new and effective digital solutions to their citizens. The data gathered will provide local administrations information on best practices that cities across Europe have already adopted, as well as insight into projects that did not deliver the expected results. More importantly, the results of the survey will help inform national and EU policies and support programmes, based on input received from the local level. 

The more cities that take part in the survey, the more data can be collected and the better informed local administrations can be when deciding on the best path towards their digital transformation.

Click here for more information on ESPON DIGISER.

Complete the survey here by 9 July.