Nicolae Urs
I measure what Romania’s city halls offer online and help institutions plan their digitalisation.
Associate Professor and Vice-Dean at FSPAC, member of CSLDI. Since 2020, co-author of the Digital Cities index, which assesses all 325 urban city halls. I coordinated the Digital Transformation Strategy of Cluj-Napoca.
We measure what the state looks like on a citizen’s screen
Since 2020, Ioana Nisioi and I have assessed the websites of every urban city hall in Romania with the same instrument, once every three years. The results are public, at orase-digitale.ro.
- towns and cities
- 325
- indicators, 5 categories
- 46
- waves: 2020, 2023, 2026
- 3
About
- I researchSince 2020, the Digital Cities index, in three waves. An edited volume at Palgrave Macmillan and articles in peer-reviewed journals.
- I planI have worked on 19 development strategies in 7 counties and coordinated the digital strategy of Cluj-Napoca. To city halls, I offer the digital maturity report.
- I explainEssays and analyses on CSLDI, and comments for the press on cities and on the state’s digital projects.
I studied journalism: a bachelor’s, a master’s and a PhD on how the internet changed the printed press. Then I became interested in the other side of the screen: public institutions and how they use technology.
I am also a member of CSLDI, FSPAC’s Centre for Strategy, Leadership and Smart Development: it publishes my analyses, and the digital maturity report is offered through it.
I teach e-government, online communication and data visualisation. I am one of the coordinators of the Digital Government working group of NISPAcee, the network of public administration schools in Central and Eastern Europe, and a member of Code for Romania.
Full background, on LinkedIn- 2001Network technician and associate teaching staff at FSPAC
- 2013PhD: the internet and the changes in the print press
- 2018Coordinator, Digital Government, NISPAcee
- 2020First wave of the index: 325 towns and cities
- 2021Digital Transformation Strategy of Cluj-Napoca
- 2023Second wave of the indexFulbright Visiting Scholar, University of Georgia
- 2025Co-editor, Digital Transformation in European Public Services, Palgrave Macmillan
- 2026Third wave and the orase-digitale.ro platformHabilitation: Digitalising the Romanian state: from local government to the university
19 development strategies, in 7 counties
I coordinated one of them. On the other 18 I worked as the e-government expert in the teams that wrote them.
- Cluj
- Cluj-Napoca, strategic planning 2007–2013 and 2014–2020
- Cluj metropolitan area, integrated strategy, with the World Bank
- Apahida, 2022–2030
- Huedin, 2015–2020
- Covasna
- Covasna County, 2015–2020 and 2021–2030
- Sfântu Gheorghe, 2015–2020
- Baraolt, 2015–2020
- Caraș-Severin
- Caraș-Severin County, 2022–2027
- Reșița, 2021–2030
- Moldova Nouă, 2026–2032
- Sălaj
- Sălaj County, 2021–2027
- Zalău, 2016–2023 and 2024–2030
- Bihor
- Bihor County, 2021–2027
- Bistrița-Năsăud
- Năsăud, 2016–2022
- Timiș
- Sânnicolau Mare, 2025–2030
You can buy a platform. You cannot buy someone who takes ownership of the city hall’s website.
The digital maturity report
The index shows what citizens see on the website. The report shows why it looks that way and what the institution can change over the next two years.
What the institution receives
- The full report, with the analysis of the five layers and the maturity stage
- A two-page executive summary, for management and the local council
- A 24-month roadmap, with priorities and indicators
- A presentation of the results, to management
- Duration
- about 8 weeks for a city hall
- Price
- a fixed offer after the first conversation, within the Romanian threshold for direct procurement
- Contact
- urs@fspac.ro
Provider: CSLDI, the Centre for Strategy, Leadership and Smart Development at FSPAC, Babeș-Bolyai University.
The report does not touch the index score. The index is calculated the same way for every city, only from what is publicly visible.
What the assessment covers, from the foundation up
- Projects under way and planned05
- People: a staff survey and interviews with management04
- The systems behind the counter03
- How much citizens use the digital services02
- What citizens see on the websiteThe foundation: the orase-digitale.ro index01
Public data, made plain
Games and tools built on public data, part of the România Interactivă project. Some start from your city hall: the 2025 budget of 325 Romanian towns and cities and the elections from 1996 to 2025. Others start from the whole country: how you think Romanians live, set against the official figures.
Your city hall, in numbers
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Calculator Chitanța orașului (The city receipt) Pick your city and your sources of income to see how much you paid your city last year, where the money went and how much of the approved budget was actually spent. See your receipt
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Simulation game Primar pentru un an (Mayor for a year) You start from your city’s real 2025 spending and must balance the 2026 budget without a deficit. Five residents react to every decision. Be the mayor
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Game · 8 questions Ghicește bugetul (Guess the budget) Where does your city’s money come from, and where does it go? Guess first, then see the real figures. Start the game
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Analysis · 10 chapters Câte voturi aduce un primar? (How many votes does a mayor bring?) Elections from 1996 to 2025, in 3,186 localities. See how your mayor’s party did in the parliamentary election. Find your locality
Earlier, also on CSLDI · in Romanian
- Local e-government: chimera or reality?
- Who is the Romanian Government’s website for?
- What does the state know about me? It doesn’t quite know either
- Digi-bureaucracy: the challenges of digitalisation in Romania
- Digitisation, digitalisation, digital transformation: what state institutions need to do
- The digital transformation process: public institutions
- The digital criminal record certificate: is the glass half full or half empty?
- What ChatGPT can do for public institutions
Research
What goes through peer review: an edited volume at Palgrave Macmillan, chapters at Springer and articles on city hall websites, digital services and how institutions change.
Full list: Google Scholar · ResearchGate
- Digital Transformation in European Public ServicesUrs, Špaček, Nõmmik (eds.) · Palgrave Macmillan · 2025
- Digital Transformation Challenges in Romanian Cities: It’s Not About TechnologyNisioi, Urs · chapter in the volume above · 2025
- Digital Transformation in Organizational Management: A Bibliometric AnalysisUrs, Roja, Nisioi · NISPAcee Journal · 2024
- City as a Platform and the Role of Participative Democracy in Big Romanian CitiesUrs, Roja · Springer · 2023
- Governmental Websites Quality in Romanian Cities: Usability, Accessibility, and the Influence of the COVID-19 PandemicUrs, Spoaller · Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences · 2022
- Questioning the Real Citizen-Centricity of e-Government DevelopmentŠpaček, Csótó, Urs · NISPAcee Journal · 2020
- Rising Innovative City-Regions in a Transitional Economy: ICT Industry in Cluj-NapocaFan, Urs, Hamlin · Technology in Society · 2019
- E-government Development in Romanian Local Municipalities: A Complicated Story of Success and HardshipsUrs · Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences · 2018
For journalists
Data and context on any of the 325 towns and cities: what the city hall’s website looks like, which services it offers online, how it has changed since 2020 and how it compares with cities of the same size.
I can also comment on cities’ digitalisation strategies and the state’s digitalisation projects, which shape each other. Tell me which city or topic you are working on.
Short bio
Nicolae Urs is an associate professor and vice-dean at the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, and a member of the faculty’s Centre for Strategy, Leadership and Smart Development (CSLDI). Since 2020 he has coordinated, with Ioana Nisioi, the Digital Cities index, which assesses the websites of all 325 urban city halls in Romania. He coordinated the Digital Transformation Strategy of Cluj-Napoca.
In the press
- Punctul · 16 October 2026 · in RomanianTârgu Mureș has collapsed in the digital cities ranking: from 14th to 172nd out of 325
- Cluj24 · 14 October 2026 · in RomanianCluj-Napoca ranks first in Romania for digital government. Gherla and Turda in the national rankingAlso published by România24
- Capital · 1 August 2026 · in RomanianOnly one city in five has kept pace with digitalisation
- Actual de Cluj · 15 July 2026 · in RomanianA Cluj study: local government digitalisation is marking time, with almost 60% of cities slipping back after 2023
- Radio România Cluj · 15 July 2026 · in RomanianOnly 1 in 5 Romanian cities has steadily improved its digital services over the last 6 years
- Monitorul de Cluj · 14 July 2026 · in RomanianOnly 20% of Romanian cities have improved their e-government services over the last 6 years
- TheMayor.EU · interviewOnline public services as efficient as TikTok: Cluj-Napoca’s Digital Transformation
- Edupedu · 24 September 2020 · in RomanianCluj-Napoca, Sibiu and Brașov are the cities with the best e-government services for citizens
- Spotmedia · 24 September 2020 · in RomanianCluj-Napoca offers the best online services. Bucharest is at the bottom of the ranking
- Ziar de Cluj · 7 August 2020 · video interview, in RomanianOnline voting is not a solution for Romania. Public institutions are not digitalised
Ten years, step by step
How many steps I took a day on average, week after week. A data series that has nothing to do with digital government, with one exception: here too, what you don’t maintain, you lose. The same idea, applied to public services (in Romanian): Digitalisation is not a savings account.
- Latest week, …
- …
- Average in …
- …
- Compared with 2017
- …
Yearly averages, as a table
| Year | Weeks | Average steps per day |
|---|