Today, the Commission opened the third set of calls for proposals of the Digital Europe Programme, worth €200 million, under the 2021-2022 Work Programmes. The calls are open to businesses, public administrations, and other entities from the EU Member States, EFTA/EEA countries, and associated countries.
This funding will see an investment of €170 million in data spaces, the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) platform to provide easy access for business and public administrations to trustworthy AI tools made in Europe, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, as well as investment in specialised education programmes in the area of advanced digital technologies. The deadline for these calls is 24 January 2023.
A new call is also open for European Digital Innovation Hubs with additional €30 million. The Hubs located all around Europe will support private companies, including SMEs and start-ups, and the public sector in their digital transformation. The deadline for this call is 16 November 2022.
More information as regards applying for grants for these calls for proposals is available online.
Further calls under the 2021-2022 Work Programme will be published in the coming weeks.
What will the Digital Europe Programme fund?
€2.2 BILLION for supercomputing to:
Build up and strengthen the EU’s supercomputing and data processing capacities by buying world- class exascale supercomputers by 2022/2023 (capable of at least a billion billion or 1018 calculations per second) and post exascale facilities by 2026/2027.
Increase accessibility and broaden the use of supercomputing in areas of public interest such as health, environment and security, and in industry, including small and medium-sized enterprises.
€2.1 BILLION for artificial intelligence to:
Invest in and open up the use of artificial intelligence by businesses and public administrations.
Set up a true European data space and facilitate safe access to and storage of large datasets and trustworthy and energy efficient cloud infrastructure.
Strengthen and support existing artificial intelligence testing and experimentation facilities in areas such as health and mobility in Member States and encourage their cooperation.
€1.6 BILLION for cybersecurity to:
Strengthening cybersecurity coordination between Member States tools and data infrastructures.
Support the wide deployment of the cybersecurity capacities across the economy.
€580 MILLION for advanced digital skills to:
Support the design and delivery of specialized programmes and traineeships for the future experts in key capacity areas like data and AI, cybersecurity, quantum and HPC.
Support the upskilling of the existing workforce through short trainings reflecting the latest developments in key capacity areas.
€1.1 BILLION for ensuring the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society to:
Support high impact deployments in areas of public interest, such as health (complemented by EU4Health programme), Green Deal, smart communities and the cultural sector.
Build up and strengthen the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs, aiming to have a Hub in every region, to help companies benefit from digital opportunities.
Support the uptake of advanced digital and related technologies by the industry, notably small and medium-sized enterprises.
Support European public administrations and industry to deploy and access state of-the-art digital technologies (such as blockchain) and build trust in the digital transformation.