On Friday 1 March, the European Commission launched a vast new series of calls for proposals worth €176.5 million as part of the Digital Europe programme “to strengthen digital capabilities across the EU”.
These calls for projects particularly concern the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), data, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, the deployment of digital public services and digital skills.
€74 million of this investment package will be dedicated to creating sectoral data spaces, a cornerstone of the EU’s data strategy.
The Commission is also planning to allocate €30 million in subsidies to a pilot project enabling cross-border deployment of ‘Telco Edge’ infrastructure and its interoperability with the industry’s ‘Edge’ infrastructure. The resulting deployments could help create the ‘3C Network' ecosystem mentioned in the Commission’s recent White Paper on Europe’s digital infrastructure needs (see EUROPE 13355/8).
A further €67.5 million will be invested in projects related to artificial intelligence (AI), such as the Alliance for Language Technologies, announced in the recent AI innovation package (see EUROPE 13335/6).
€4 million will be dedicated to advanced digital skills, particularly in terms of employment. A further €1 million will be allocated to a project aimed at strengthening collaboration on the deployment of cross-border digital public services.
These calls are open to companies, public administrations and other entities from EU Member States, EFTA/EEA countries and associated countries, and run until 29 May. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)