The project Digital for Reconstruction Grants has been developed in the context of the reconstruction of private buildings and historical centres. This relates to those municipalities damaged from the earthquakes that occurred from 2009 onwards (the so-called seismic crater).
To date, thousands of applications for grants have been submitted under the standard grant application procedure under USRC’s competence. All the documentation required had to be submitted either in person in printed form or via pec, with relevant impacts on both the applicant and the receiving administration.
The USRC (Special Office for the Reconstruction of the Municipalities of the ‘Seismic Crater’) realised the need to develop and implement a method to make the system simpler and more accessible. It needed to avoid waste of time and human resources, to reduce issues for external users and to improve its efficiency, effectiveness and transparency. Effort was required to modernise and upgrade the services of the municipality provided for local population.
The Office decided to broaden an existing tool, a digital platform, which was already in place working with contracts related to the post-seismic interventions. It was to include the submission of applications for grants, states of work progress and any related documentation. The digitisation allowed the creation of the first shared interface between the applicants, the designers and the public administrations where each stakeholder can consult, access and upload information or documentation. The information that required human resources was now automatically processed in real time by the digital system. Moreover, it can be visible on the platform by everyone, which makes the system more transparent.