The European Commission invites cities and communities across the EU to join the Online Procurement Helpdesk for Smart Communities!

Opportunities for participating EU communities

The support service is designed to advance the digital maturity of EU cities and communities in their early stages of digital transformation. Through the Helpdesk, cities can serve themselves and get insights on strategically navigating the digital landscape in the next five years. This strategy paves the way for establishing Local Data Platforms or Local Digital Twins.

By participating in this initiative, your city or community will enjoy the following benefits:

• Advisory services to assist your city or community in developing, reviewing and preparing the implementation of a digital strategy.
• A customised digitalisation roadmap for your city, detailing the necessary initiatives to enhance your digital capabilities.
• Expert guidance and validation to help ensure that your digitalisation strategy is aligned with not only best practices but also EU standards and interoperability needs.
• Tailored support and guidance on the procurement process to implement the digitalisation roadmap, including with the identification of procurement needs and future access to tailored procurement guidelines and templates.
• Participation in a European peer network pioneering the advancement of local data platforms and Al-powered digital twins.
• Community's visibility, sharing of best practices, successes, and failures to leverage on learnings and peer exchange.

The initiative is scaling up!

The Online Procurement Helpdesk has already accompanied 50 cities and communities in their digital transformation. From October 2024, the Helpdesk has been scaling up and is now ready to provide further streamlined support to additional local communities across the European Union.

Many cities benefited from this initiative. Find out how the support service contributed to their success:

Our experience with the Local Digital Twins Digital Toolbox was a seamless experience from start to finish. It was enlightening to take stock of where we are on our Digital Transformation journey and through the assessments we derived a clearer picture of where our strengths and weaknesses lie. The ability to visualise how Cork compares and contrasts with other European communities helps contextualise future endeavours and the sharing of information among participants will allow for more informed collaboration.

- Ian O’Sullivan, ICT Project Leader, Cork

Through collaboration with experts and other municipalities, the City of Kranj gained valuable insights into best practices for digital service delivery and citizen engagement. This experience helped us identify key areas for growth and provided the tools necessary to further our digital agenda, particularly in areas such as mobility, urban planning, and public administration. The project fostered a sense of community among participating cities, where we could learn from one another and contribute to the broader discussion on how digital technologies can enhance urban living.

- Tomaž Lanišek, Head of Unit for Development and Smart City, Kranj

Conditions for participation

Cities and communities’ participation in the Online Procurement Helpdesk for Smart Communities is free of charge. The call is open to:

• Cities and communities located in the EU
• In the early or scaling stages of their digitalisation