A Delegação Portuguesa irá organizar com o apoio da Comissão Europeia um evento de divulgação de informação e esclarecimento de dúvidas (infoday) sobre o Programa Europa Digital (DIGITAL) no dia 19 de janeiro de 2022, com início às 14:30, em formato webinar.

Este evento contará com a participação de peritos da Comissão Europeia (DG-CONNECT) que apresentarão o conteúdo dos programas de trabalho já publicados e aspetos relacionados com as regras de participação no Programa, sinergias e combinação de financiamento entre programas. É dirigido a todos os potenciais candidatos nacionais aos concursos do Programa DIGITAL e às entidades da administração pública que possam beneficiar das oportunidades de cofinanciamento comunitário do Programa.

Para informações detalhadas sobre este evento e registo de participantes por favor consulte: https://indico.fccn.pt/e/digital. 

The Infoday is meant to prepare applicants to draft the best possible proposals.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) – Digital is an EU funding instrument (2,065B€), with the objective of:

• Deploying very high-capacity networks, including 5G systems, in areas where socioeconomic drivers are located;
• Guaranteeing uninterrupted coverage with 5G systems of all major transport paths, including the trans-European transport networks;
• Deploying new or a significant upgrade of existing backbone networks, including submarine cables, within and between Member States and between the Union and third countries;
• Implementing and supporting digital connectivity infrastructure related to cross-border projects in the areas of transport or energy.

CEF Digital will foster public and private investments and will allow cumulative funding with other funding instruments, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) as well as with the InvestEU fund.

Pursuant to the CEF Regulation, CEF Digital will contribute to the development of Projects of common interest (PCIs)¹ relating to the deployment of safe, secure, sustainable and very high capacity digital networks, including 5G systems, to the increased capacity and resilience of digital backbone networks in all EU territories, in particular the Outermost Regions, as well as to the digitalisation of transport and energy networks.

¹Projects of common interest are key infrastructure projects aimed at completing the European internal energy market in order to help the EU achieve its energy and climate policy objectives: delivering affordable, secure and sustainable energy for all Europeans and contributing to a climate-neutral economy by 2050.

CEF Digital – First Work Programme (2021 – 2023)

On 16th December 2021, it was adopted the first Work Programme2 for the digital part of the CEF- Digital, which defines the scope and objectives of the EU-supported actions needed to improve Europe’s digital connectivity infrastructures for 3 years. These actions will receive more than 1B€ in funding (2021-2023). The first calls for CEF Digital will be launched in early January 2022 and will cover the following areas:

• 5G coverage along transport corridors
  • The goal is to leverage the needed private investment in order to establish a full pan- European transport network of 5G corridors by the end of the CEF programme.
• 5G for Smart Communities
  • The goal is to support the early deployment of 5G-based systems to enable use cases for socioeconomic drivers.
• Backbone networks for pan-European cloud federations
  • The goal is the development of cross-border and national cloud infrastructure interconnections at both the physical (i.e., very high-capacity networks) and functional levels (i.e., management systems, software-defined infrastructures and DNS resolution) which will ensure distributed, secure, energy-efficient and high-speed connectivity.
• Backbone connectivity for Digital Global Gateways
  • The goal is to deploy strategic networks as part of the Digital Global Gateway Strategy of the EU, contributing to strengthen the quality of connectivity within the Union, as well as with third countries. This includes submarine cables, satellite infrastructures and connectivity to internet exchange points in demonstrated market failure areas.
  • Space activities are mentioned (see below)
• Terabit connectivity for High Performance Computing
  • The goal is to support the interconnections between EuroHPC supercomputers, national High-Performance Computing (HPC) and research centres, data infrastructures and participating countries with ultrafast connectivity.
• Quantum communication infrastructure – The EuroQCI initiative
  • CEF Digital will support the interconnection of national quantum communication infrastructure networks between neighbouring countries, as well as the interconnection of the EuroQCI’s ground and space segments
  • Space activities are mentioned (see below)
• Programme Support Actions for Operational Digital Platforms and 5G connectivity infrastructures
  • Operational Digital Platforms are physical and virtual information communication technology resources, operating via the communication infrastructure, which support the flow, storage, processing and analysis of transport or energy data, or both. CEF Digital will fund Operational Digital Platforms (ODPs) to support digital services in the energy and transport sectors to be implemented across borders in the European Union
  • Build a community of best practices across Europe able to provide guidance and support to socio-economic drivers, when elaborating their 5G-based use-case proposals

²https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/multiannual-work-programme-2021-2025-connecting-europe-facility-digital

Backbone connectivity for Digital Global Gateways

The objective of this action is to deploy strategic networks as part of the Digital Global Gateway Strategy of the EU³, contributing to strengthen the quality of connectivity within the Union, as well as with third countries. This includes submarine cables, satellite infrastructures and connectivity to internet exchange points in demonstrated market failure areas.

³https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/joint_communication_global_gateway.pdf

CEF Digital will support the deployment of backbone networks addressing connectivity needs, such as:

• Connecting all territories of the EU including its Outermost Regions;
• Supporting the specific needs of Member States which are islands themselves, or have islands as part of their territory;
• Intermeshing backbones interconnecting major points of connectivity in the EU;
• Addressing the specific needs of Overseas Countries and Territories in the EU;
• Ensuring international connectivity, to EU partners worldwide as a basis for European digital autonomy;
• Promoting synergy projects addressing other objectives of CEF Digital, including sector specific considerations encompassing the connectivity of large-scale digital capacities such as High-Performance Computing (HPC) or cloud.

The indicative amounts available for the topic and calls are the following:

The applicants may apply for grants for works and studies:

• Works include total project’s investment costs required to construct the described networking solution for the foreseen system lifetime, from end to end, including e.g., cable landing stations or satellite ground stations, and the connectivity towards them.
• Studies include all preparatory work required prior to signing a contract with a supplier, such as marine ground surveys for submarine cables and the application for required permits.

Quantum communication infrastructure – The EuroQCI initiative

The EuroQCI will consist of a terrestrial component relying on new and/or existing fibre communication networks linking strategic sites at national and cross-border level, complemented by a space satellite component to cross-link and cover the entire EU.

The EuroQCI’s deployment will be partly supported by the Digital Europe Programme, while CEF Digital will support the interconnection of national quantum communication infrastructure networks between neighbouring countries, as well as the interconnection of the EuroQCI’s ground and space segments.

The following requirements have been set for the prioritisation of co-financing for the EuroQCI under CEF Digital:

• The deployment of the first cross-border quantum terrestrial backbone networks for interconnecting neighbouring national quantum communication infrastructures across borders, built with EU technologies, including if necessary through the deployment of “trusted nodes” (i.e. secure access points to the network which make it possible to link distant sites securely);
• Interconnection with the EuroQCI’s space segment, which will be implemented via the optical ground stations serving as an interface between the EuroQCI’s space components and its terrestrial fibre network;
• Provision of fibre links between the EuroQCI and a pan-European network of Security Operation Centres (SOCs);
• The management of encryption keys between all elements of the EuroQCI in an end-to-end manner.

Out of the total CEF Digital financing for the EuroQCI, the sum of 100M€ will be implemented in indirect management and cover the procurement of the initiative’s satellite infrastructure segment (a constellation
of EU satellites). The procurement will be entrusted to the European Space Agency as implementing partner.

This financing could be integrated into any investment intended to fund the EU space-based secure connectivity initiative currently under consideration.