European Commission - Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology

07/04/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/04/2024 04:54

Digital Europe Programme invests over €108 million in European digital skills, capacity, and tech

A new set of calls has been launched from the 2023-2024 Digital Europe work programme boosting work in skills, Digital Decade Multi-Country Projects, Local Digital Twins, and tackling disinformation.

Today, the European Commission launched a new wave of calls for funding opportunities under the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL), allocating over €108 million to bolster the EU's digital and technological capabilities. These investments will propel Europe into a leading position, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI), specialised education programmes, support for Multi-Country Projects, and tackling disinformation. The deadline for the calls is 21 November 2024. These calls roll out strategic investments that will be instrumental in making this Europe's Digital Decade.

Specialised Education Programmes

The DIGITAL programme will invest €55 million in advanced digital skills, more specifically specialised education programmes in key digital areas: virtual worlds, edge computing, quantum computing, photonics, and robotics and automation. This call will also support interdisciplinary programmes that will target the acquisition of advanced green digital skills in selected strategic sectors: agriculture, transport, renewable energy, waste management, as well as the acquisition of advanced digital skills for government and public sector. Concretely, the projects selected should support the design and delivery of higher degree education programmes at ISCED levels 6, 7, 8 (ranging from bachelor to doctoral or equivalent levels) as well as develop related self-standing modules. This investment aims to address the shortage of ICT specialists, contributing to the Digital Decade target of 20 million ICT specialists in the EU by 2030 while promoting gender convergence in the sector.

Support for Multi-Country Projects

With an indicative budget of €25 million, the DIGITAL programme will facilitate the implementation of Multi-Country Projects (MCPs), including where the European Digital Infrastructure Consortia (EDICs) have been chosen as implementation mechanism. These large-scale projects are designed to help the EU reach the digital targets and objectives as laid out by the Digital Decade Policy Programme. They aim to help build critical EU capacities through deployments that no single Member State could achieve alone. Investment in these projects will cover activities such as the deployment of common EU digital infrastructures and services, data sharing, stakeholder engagement and outreach, and capacity building. The selected projects should achieve scale, involve several Member States and have a long-term perspective. They are expected to demonstrate clear EU added value and contribute to reducing digital divides within and between Member States.

Local Digital Twins

In a significant push to advance the connection, development, and deployment of Local Digital Twins (LDTs) across the EU, the DIGITAL programme will invest €20 million. The successful projects will aim to help cities and communities harness economies of scale in data platform development and AI-based solutions. The funding will support the interconnection of existing LDTs, the creation of new LDTs based on shared needs, and the integration of complex AI tools into a LDT toolbox. This is done with a view to see the connecting up and scaling up of this digital infrastructure towards a future "EU CitiVerse". These efforts are also expected to contribute to the Multi-Country Project in the area of Connected Public Administration, specifically "Networked Local Digital Twins towards the CitiVERSE (LDT CitiVERSE EDIC)".

European Digital Media Observatory

An investment of €8 million from the DIGITAL programme will help the independent regional and national hubs (EDMO) to analyse digital media ecosystems. The hubs will focus on detecting and fact-checking disinformation campaigns, improving public awareness, and designing effective responses for general audience. This initiative aims to contribute to the fight against disinformation, to strengthen societal resilience against disinformation and enhance the monitoring of online platforms' policies in this field.

Background

The Digital Europe Programme is the first funding programme of the EU focused on bringing digital technology to businesses and citizens. With a planned total budget of €7.5 billion over 7 years, it is contributing to the digital transformation of Europe's society and economy, bringing benefits in particular to small and medium-sized businesses. The Digital Europe Programme is implemented by multiannual work programmes.

The Digital Europe Programme complements investments under other EU programmes, such as the Horizon Europe, EU4Health, InvestEU, the Connecting Europe Facility, as well as investments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The Regulation establishing the Digital Europe Programme was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 11 May 2021, entered into force on the same day, and has applied retroactively since 1 January 2021.