New calls opening in the Digital Europe funding programme

The European Commission has announced the second set of calls for proposals in the Digital Europe (DIGITAL) programme. The forthcoming calls address a large array of the themes in the Digital Europe, among others data spaces, testing and experimentation facilities, public sector open data, medical data, blockchain, digital identity, cybersecurity and skills. The calls prepare and advance deployment of digital technologies and services in sectors such as health care, smart cities and communities, education, agriculture, culture, manufacturing, security and law enforcement. 

Most of the calls are single-stage grants but the set of calls include also SME support actions, coordination and support actions and framework partnerships. The calls will be opened on February 22^nd 2022, and have their deadline on May 17^th 2022 already, which necessitates professional preparation of the proposals.

Our Ecosystem Leader Pentti Launonen says: “The public funding can double or triple your return on investment of your research, development and innovation actions. Further, the innovation ecosystems created during the application phase can provide you also with new knowledge, capabilities, partners and access to new markets. We are happy to discuss with you how to integrate European and national funding opportunities to your innovation strategies”.

Overview
The goal of the DIGITAL programme is to accelerate the recovery of European economy and boost the digital transition of Europe. It extends to years from 2021 to 2027 and will support projects in five key areas, namely:

• Supercomputing (2.2 B€) for building up and strengthening the EU’s supercomputing and data processing capacities, increasing accessibility and broadening the use of supercomputing
• Artificial intelligence (2.1 B€) for investing in and opening up the use of artificial intelligence by businesses and public administrations, setting up European data spaces and cloud infrastructure, and strengthening testing and experimentation facilities
• Cybersecurity (1.6 B€) for strengthening cybersecurity coordination and supporting the wide deployment of the cybersecurity capacities
• Advanced digital skills (580 M€) for supporting specialised programmes and traineeships for the future experts in key capacity areas and upskilling of the existing workforce
• Ensuring a wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society (1.1 B€) for supporting high impact deployments, building up the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs), supporting the uptake of advanced digital and related technologies by the industry, and supporting public administrations and industry in the digital transformation.

The final versions of the main work programme and two other DIGITAL work programmes were published in 2021 for the calls of years 2021 and 2022, and these calls will provide funding of total 1.98 B€.

For whom?
The grants and procurements released through the DIGITAL programme are targeted both for private sector organisations (SMEs, large enterprises and NGOs) as well as for public sector organisations and not-for-profit groups of entities.

Is the DIGITAL programme something that could boost your future projects? Start planning now – our funding experts are here for you to help you plan your strategy, find potential partners and increase your chances for a winning funding proposal. Do not wait until the last moment but contact us today!