The Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) is part of 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the European Union, a programme focused on building the strategic digital capacities of the Union (as well as Countries Associated to the programme) and on facilitating the wide deployment of digital technologies and its applications. In strategic terms, it is aligned with the Commission vision for the Digital Decade and should therefore contribute to delivering the digital targets for 2030.
Highlights:
Meeting on the national co-funding mechanism for the sectorial AI TEFs (agri-food, health, manufacturing, smart cities & communities) through the Test Beds instrument of the national RRF plan, C16 component. It will take place online on 20 April 2022, 16:00. Please register here.
Second set of calls for proposals of the DIGITAL programme are currently open. See below list of topics corresponding to grants. Deadline for proposal submission: 17 May 2022 (17:00:00 Brussels local time).
Programme objectives and structure
The programme will boost investments in five interrelated specific objectives (SOs), as foreseen in the Regulation:
- SO1: High Performance Computing (approximately €2 227 million Euro)
- SO2: Artificial intelligence, data and cloud (approximately €2 062 million Euro)
- SO3: Cybersecurity and trust (approximately 1 650 million Euro)
- SO4: Advanced digital skills (approximately 577 million Euro)
- SO5: Deployment, best use of digital capacity and interoperability (approximately 1 072 million Euro)
The first four SOs are focused in building capacities in the key technological areas of high performance computing, artificial intelligence, cloud and data and cybersecurity, as well as the advanced digital skills required to deploy those technologies.
SO5 will be about deploying and using those digital capacities, promoting the Digital Single Market and advancing the digital transformation in a wide range of areas, such as the modernisation of public administrations, health, judiciary, transport, mobility, energy and the environment, education, culture and media.
Synergies with other Union programmes
As a new EU programme, the DIGITAL programme will continue to deliver upon the results of previous MFF 2014-2020 programmes: Connecting Europe Facility programme – CEF (in the area of Telecom) and ISA2, for the interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens).
To deliver upon and beyond those previous programmes, the DIGITAL Programme will be implemented in close complementarity with other Union programmes, namely, Horizon Europe, Connecting Europe Facility (CEF-2), EU4Health, InvestEU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
For instance, regarding synergies with Horizon Europe: the capacities and infrastructures of the DIGITAL Programme are made available to the research and innovation community, including for actions supported through Horizon Europe, such as testing, experimentation and demonstrations across all sectors and disciplines. As the development of novel digital technologies matures through Horizon Europe, those technologies will progressively be taken up and deployed by the DIGITAL Programme.
Current Work Programmes
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For the European Digital Innovation Hubs: DIGITAL Europe – EDIH Work Programme 2021-2023
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For Cybersecurity actions: Cybersecurity Work Programme 2021-2022
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For all actions excluding those implemented by the other two work programmes indicated above: DIGITAL Europe Work Programme 2021-2022 (“Main Work Programme”)
For High Performance Computing actions – work programmes are prepared by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. You can find more information concerning national participation here.
Learn more about how to get funded in the European Commission website.
Open calls
The second set of calls corresponding to grants are currently open for proposal submission with a deadline on 17 May 2022 (17:00:00 Brussels local time):
Data for EU:
- Data Space for Cultural Heritage (deployment): 2nd work strand – DIGITAL-2022-CULTURAL-02-HERITAGE
- Health Data Space: Federated European infrastructure for cancer images data – DIGITAL-2022- CLOUD-AI-02-CANCER-IMAGE
- Data space for Security and law enforcement – DIGITAL-2022-CLOUD-AI-02-SEC-LAW
- Data Spaces for Public Administrations: Public Sector Open Data for AI and Open Data Platform – DIGITAL-2022-CLOUD-AI-02-OPEN-AI
Sectorial AI Testing and Experimental Facilities:
- Testing and Experimentation Facility for Manufacturing – DIGITAL-2022-CLOUD-AI-02-TEF-MANUF
- Testing and Experimentation Facility for Health – DIGITAL-2022-CLOUD-AI-02-TEF-HEALTH
- Testing and Experimentation Facility for Agri-Food – DIGITAL-2022-CLOUD-AI-02-TEF-AGRIFOOD
- Testing and experimentation Facility for smart cities and communities – DIGITAL-2022-CLOUD-AI-02-TEF-SMART
Advanced Digital Skills:
- Short term training courses in key capacity areas – DIGITAL-2022-TRAINING-02-SHORT-COURSES
- Promoting European innovation in education – DIGITAL-2022-SKILLS-02-INNOVATE-EDU
European Blockchain Services Infrastructure:
- EBSI: Deployment of services – DIGITAL-2022-DEPLOY-02-EBSI-SERVICES
- Blockchain standardisation – DIGITAL-2022-DEPLOY-02-BLOCKCHAIN-STANDARD
Deployment of public services:
- European Digital Government EcoSystem (EDGES): Support to the implementation of the European Digital Identity Framework and the implementation of the Once Only System under the Single Digital Gateway Regulation – DIGITAL-2022-DEPLOY-02-ELECTRONIC-ID
- Security (law enforcement): AI-based pilots – DIGITAL-2022-DEPLOY-02-LAW-SECURITY-AI
Cybersecurity and Trust (topics covered in the Cybersec WP 2021-22):
- European Cyber-shield: Support to cybersecurity in the health sector – DIGITAL-2022-CYBER-02-SUPPORTHEALTH
- Support to implementation of relevant EU Legislation: Deploying the Network of National Coordination Centres with Member States – DIGITAL-2022-CYBER-02-NAT-COORDINATION
The DIGITAL Programme calls are implemented under direct management by the European Commission (DG-CONNECT) and by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) or, under indirect management, by the the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking or the European Cybersecurity Competence Network and Centre (ECCC), depending on the respective Strategic Objective.
Unlike Horizon Europe, however, the DIGITAL Programme is not supported by a network of National Contact Points, and therefore support to applicants must be provided by the Commission, HaDEA, EuroHPC, or ECCC.
Below you can find dedicated information on specific parts of the DIGITAL Programme.
Digital Innovation hubs
In order to reach all regions and to engage with companies (including start-ups and SMEs), research organisations and public administration the DIGITAL programme will support the establishment of a network of Digital Innovation Hubs.
You can learn more about the national network of “Polos de Inovação Digital” here.
Advanced Digital Skills
The HaDEA is responsible for the implementation of the calls under the SO4: Advanced Digital Skills. In order to support applicants, the HaDEA provides a dedicated website containing useful resources, such as recordings of previous infodays dedicated to this part of the DIGITAL Programme and matchmaking tools: Digital Europe Programme in the Digital Skills & Jobs Platform.
Questions related to the contents of the call texts can be directed to the HaDEA through the email address HADEA-DEP-DIGITAL-CALLS@ec.europa.eu.
