UPDATE: Project details updated during the EPSA 2025-26 edition. Awarded Special Recognition for continuous improvement and long-term sustainability.
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.
Developments
In terms of stakeholder engagement and interaction, the digital platform has strengthened its functionality over recent years.
While in 2021 the users operating through the platform were mainly applicants, designers, and USRC internal staff, today municipal staff also use the platform as an interface with USRC and with citizens. Municipalities make particular use of the platform as a direct sharing portal, both to review documents uploaded by other stakeholders and to upload documents within their own remit.
The portal includes an automatic notification system that advises the relevant stakeholder who is in charge of the next step of the administrative process of the application.
The digital platform has undergone periodic enhancements to strengthen its existing functionalities. Originally created to manage private building reconstruction applications, it is now also used to handle public reconstruction requests for the municipalities of the 2009 seismic crater: this has also been updated to incorporate regulatory developments that have occurred over time, and to integrate the necessary related functionalities, such as the combination of sismabonus tax incentives with reconstruction grants.
Since December 2021, the security level of the platform has been increased by introducing the accredited access via CIE (Carta d’Identità Elettronica) or SPID, the public digital identity system that allows users to access and use the online services of public administrations over Italy.
Part of these developments is the result of a reflection process carried out by the USRC, also based on the results of an opinion survey on the portal that was launched during a corporate internship as part of a university Master’s programme.
The questionnaire was addressed to applicants and design engineers involved in reconstruction applications. In particular, it aimed to investigate overall satisfaction levels, ease of access and use, effectiveness in simplifying and optimising processes and procedures, the quality and quantity of available data, and any additional features to be implemented.
Long-term impact
- In the period from October 2020 to May 2021, the portal recorded 20 978 accesses, approximately 73% of which were by external users. The average number of monthly accesses was 2620 users, including 1910 external users and 710 internal users.
- As of December 2025, the total accesses to the portal recorded has reached nearly 140 000 users, approximately 84.63% of which were external users (117 588). The average number of monthly accesses was 2720 users.
- As of May 2021, the number of applications uploaded to the portal was 2354, corresponding to 34 439 documents, across 115 municipalities.
- As of December 2025, the number of applications uploaded to the portal amounted to 6347, corresponding to 245 684 documents, involving a total of 125 municipalities. The number of work progress reports submitted through the platform increased progressively.
- From January to September 2020, the average accounted for 46.1% of the total.
- In 2025, the number of work progress reports submitted through the platform (906), compared to those sent via certified email/PEC (165), accounts for 84.59% of the total (1071).
- In May 2021, 67.8% of users rated the portal as excellent (green icons), 25.25% as adequate (yellow icons), and 6.95% as poor (red icons).
- In December 2025, 72.31% of users rated the portal as excellent (green icons), 22.29% as adequate (yellow icons), and 5.40% as poor (red icons).
The implementation of the digital portal has led to:
- streamlining and simplification of the bureaucratic process aimed at granting applications eligibility for funding; a reduction in overall process duration;
- improved regulation of inter-institutional processes;
- greater integration of processes and stakeholders;
- optimisation of financial processes related to the disbursement of funds for reconstruction interventions;
- a reduction in follow-ups and inter-institutional communications required to fulfil administrative obligations.
Adjustment in the objectives
For all processes under its remit, USRC is pursuing the overarching objective of integration, simplification, acceleration of procedures, and dematerialisation of administrative acts.
Given the success of the digital platform created for private reconstruction applications, USRC has therefore initiated the development of infrastructures for the digital management of additional processes, especially those related to the following.
- Public interventions connected and complementary to the reconstruction, aimed at the regeneration of the territory: a dedicated digital platform was implemented in 2024 to collect 211 project proposals from 56 municipalities within the seismic crater, which can be consulted directly through the portal by the competent authorities.
- Public interventions financed under the Complementary National Plan (Piano Nazionale Complementare – PNC) to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The portal, currently underway, is expected to become operational in the first months of 2026, and will enable to manage the administrative process provided for the transfer of final balance payments, in compliance with the directives of higher-level authorities and to ensure the document preservation for any future use. The portal will also allow for the automation of the system used to extract the sample of interventions subject to on-site inspections, thereby promoting greater transparency and impartiality in the process.