LORDIMAS - Local and Regional Digital Maturity Assessment- is a tool developed by ESPON in cooperation with the European Committee of the Regions, European Commission, Living-in.EU supporters and signatories and the Go Li.EU consortium.

Since the launch of LORDIMAS at the EU Week of Regions and Cities in October 2023 and subsequent promotion at the Smart City Expo in Barcelona, 130 cities, metropolitan areas and regions from all over Europe have already received their “digital snapshot”. This includes an overview of their strengths and gaps across seven main dimensions critical to a properly functioning smart city or community, i.e., Governance, Service design, Data management, Interoperability, Service delivery, Technology and Networking.

What’s in it for local, metropolitan and regional governments

1. LORDIMAS can act as a “conversation starter or accelerator” of internal alignment between business, IT and Procurement units or departments, leading to a common vision and a long term investment plan for digital infrastructure shared across the organisation. This plan should not only address new infrastructure needs, but also consider the implications for their sustainability and maintenance over time.
2. Access to other EU-funded opportunities, like the Online Procurement Helpdesk for Smart Cities and Communities: up to 150 cities that complete LORDIMAS can receive fully-funded consultancy services under the Digital Europe Programme to continue their evaluation of IT core capabilities towards a local digital platform and digital twin. At the end, cities and communities receive a roadmap tailored to their starting point, and support that includes procurement guidelines and templates that are compliant to MIMs and open standards to ensure future interoperability.
3. Leveraging the results to align with other national, regional or local efforts: the digital maturity scores can be used to inspire more fit-for-purpose adaptations in the action plans of municipalities, to better align with sustainable urban development and EU Green Deal goals, and any existing national strategies for the digital transformation at regional or local level. For example, Portugal is supporting, through the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), the development of urban data platforms across various city domains/verticals. To that end, the Portuguese government recommends the creation of Local/Regional Action Plans based on a framework that suggest the completion of LORDIMAS to infer about the “as-is” situation of municipalities.

Informing EU policymaking on the main gaps and funding needs of cities and communities

The topics covered under LORDIMAS and the Smart cities agenda have direct linkages with the Digital Europe Programme, the EU programme providing funding to help digital transformation of governments at all levels of governance. For this reason, gaining a deeper understanding of the critical digital infrastructure gaps and financing needs of cities and communities may inform future EU policies and new funding calls.

Do you want to find out about your city or community level of digital maturity? Go to LORDIMAS_EN and complete the assessment. It takes on average 30min to complete.

Do you want to receive free-of-charge consulting services to design your city digital transformation roadmap towards a data platform and digital twin, and get procurement support? Go to Online Procurement Helpdesk for Smart Cities and Communities and submit the Expression of Interest on behalf of your city administration.