Digital Europe

Application statusBudgetFund durationGrant sizeHow to accessThemeType of support
Open (31 calls)€7.5 billion2021-2027N/ACalls for proposalsDigital transformationGrants

About

Digital Europe Programme is the first EU programme that aims to accelerate the recovery and drive the digital transformation of Europe. The Programme is a part of the next long-term EU budget, (the Multiannual Financial Framework), and it covers 2021 to 2027. It will provide funding for projects in five crucial areas: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society.

The Programme is fine-tuned to fill the gap between the research of digital technologies and their deployment, and to bring the results of research to the market - for the benefit of Europe's citizens and businesses, and in particular SMEs. Investments under the Digital Europe programme supports the Union’s twin objectives of a green transition and digital transformation and strengthens the Union’s resilience and strategic autonomy.

For the first years (2021 & 2022), the Digital Europe programme will be implemented through four work programmes:

  • Digital Europe work programme
  • European Digital Innovation Hubs
  • Cybersecurity actions
  • High Performance Computing

Innovation Hubs 

Digital Innovation Hubs help companies take advantage of digital opportunities to improve their processes and products with a view to enhance their competitiveness. EU funding will be made available for hubs that are already (or will be) supported by their Member States (or regions), in order to increase the impact of public funding. The Digital Europe Programme will increase the capacities of the selected hubs to cover activities with a clear European added value, based on networking the hubs and promoting the transfer of expertise. Member States have an essential role in the selection process of the EDIHs; the initial network of EDIHs will be established from a list of hubs designated by the Member States.

Cyber security actions

As more and more services move online, cybersecurity has become crucial to the digital world. A strong common level of cybersecurity protects us from malicious cyber activities, which threaten our economies and our way of life. The Digital Europe Programme offers a chance to boost the common level of cybersecurity across the EU, underscoring the EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy.The Digital Europe Programme is an investment programme that helps the EU achieve a values-based framework for technology. This includes the GDPR, new proposals on the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS), artificial intelligence, and the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts. It will invest in building European cybersecurity infrastructures – the ‘cyber shield’. And, it will promote the widespread deployment and take-up of state-of-the-art cybersecurity practices and equipment. This is crucial to building the EU’s digital sovereignty, which relies on the integrity and resilience of data infrastructure, networks and communications.

The DIGITAL Europe programme

The DIGITAL Europe programme aims to build up and strengthen the EU’s supercomputing and data processing capacities, helping us to reach exascale supercomputing – computing with a power comparable to aggregating the computing capabilities of the mobile phones of the EU’s entire population – by 2022/2023. It aims to reach post-exascale capabilities by 2026/2027. DIGITAL also intends to increase accessibility and broaden the use of supercomputing in areas of public interest such as health, environment, security, and industry, including small and medium-sized enterprises.

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