The Connecting Europe Facility is a key EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through infrastructure investment at European level.

The overall objective of the call “5G Large-scale pilots” is to deploy large-scale 5G SA infrastructures that integrate connectivity and edge cloud capacities along the 3C Network value chain. Each pilot is expected to maximise the number of use cases enabled by 5G systems in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, education, mobility, transport (including use cases for Connected and Automated Mobility for road, railway and inland waterway as well as coastal maritime automation, or multimodal transport as appropriate) etc., targeting urban, sub-urban, rural, and cross-border areas.

Specific objectives are the following:

• 5G SA large-scale pilots will stimulate a wider and faster deployment and takeup of 5G across Europe, while providing the foundation for developing “lead markets” for 5G and edge cloud systems, relying where applicable on technologies and standards developed under other EU programmes, in particular the Digital Europe Programme and Horizon Europe.
• 5G SA large-scale pilots should demonstrate the benefits gained in specific vertical applications, following the evolution from current electronic communications networks towards virtualised and cloud-native network functions and distributed telco edge cloud, opening new opportunities to Europe’s key industries.
• 5G SA large-scale pilots funded under this call for proposals are expected to leverage 5G infrastructures delivering leading-edge connectivity characteristics e.g.: symmetric gigabit performance, high-user-density, ubiquitous coverage (e.g. to connect IoT devices), low latency and very high reliability. They will contribute to the integration of devices, networks, cloud and edge computing, and communication capabilities for telco edge cloud deployment to realise a ubiquitous mesh of computing and communication resources. Where necessary, the pilots should bundle 5G networks with a cloud-to-edge middleware stack capable of supporting the data intensive use cases and applications designed for a multi-purpose context (5G corridors and/or 5G applications for socio-economic drivers).
• These large-scale pilots are encouraged to cover multiple use cases. Crosssector synergies between multiple use cases are expected to be enabled by 5G SA supporting local smart communities and connecting multiple sites distributed across multiple countries and regions.
• 5G SA large-scale pilots should be designed in a way that, with adaptations due to possible different requirements, they can be replicated across Europe, for instance under other funding programmes such as ERDF, EAFRD or national investments. Projects may be preceded by inception studies or best practices funded in earlier calls under this programme or may be based on any other preparatory work funded under other programmes (such as R&I under Horizon Europe).

Maximum 75% for all costs categories (‘project funding rate’).

The maximum grant amount is expected to be between €10.000.000 and €20.000.000 per project.
This amount may be exceeded if duly justified by the applicants.
The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.

• Information and Communication Technologies
• Information Technology
• Research, Technological Development and Innovation

• Businesses
• International Organisations
• Large Enterprises
• Legal Entities
• Other Beneficiaries
• Private Bodies
• Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
• Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
• State-owned Enterprises

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

• be legal entities (public or private bodies); and
• be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e. EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs).
• (for proposals submitted under topic CEF-DIG-2024-5GLSPCORRIDORS-WORKS topic) non-EU countries (except for topics with restrictions; see Digital Security Requirements section above and see below):
  • countries associated to the CEF Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an  association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries)

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium that is composed by minimum 2 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) including at least:

• an entity which deploys and operates mobile networks (hereafter referred to as “operator” or “MNO”) and provides connectivity services to the public or to specific clients (“private networks”) and
• a public authority or SED.

Exceptionally, proposals can be submitted by only one applicant or by one applicant and its affiliated entities, if both roles described above are fulfilled.

Moreover, entities that do not have themselves the right to use the frequency spectrum should justify whether e.g., they will use unlicensed spectrum or involve in the consortium an entity that has the right to use the necessary frequency spectrum.

Socio-economic drivers: As described above in the Scope section, the end-users in this topic should be socioeconomic drivers (SEDs). SEDs are defined in the CEF Regulation (Chapter 1 – General provisions, Article 2 – Definitions): “socioeconomic drivers” means entities which by their mission, nature or location can directly or indirectly generate important socioeconomic benefits for citizens, business and local communities located in their surrounding territory, or in their area of influence.

Examples of SEDs include schools, universities, libraries, local, regional or national administrations, main providers of public services, hospitals and medical centres, transport hubs as well as digitally intensive enterprises, as those entities can influence important socio-economic developments in the areas in which they are located, including rural and sparsely populated areas, where the market fails to deliver 5G SA connectivity.

Socio-economic drivers need to rely on cutting edge connectivity in order to provide access to the best services and applications, with a view to maximising their positive effects on the wider economy and society within their areas, including by generating wider user demand for 5G SA connectivity and services.

Department of Electronic Communications – State Department for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy

Website: https://bit.ly/39IYcFZ
Address: 286 Strovolou Avenue, Strovolos, PO Box 24647, 1302 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22814854/22814846
Fax: +357 22321925
Email: info.dec@dec.dmrid.gov.cy

Contact person:
Mr. Nikos Ioannou
Electronic Communications Officer
Telephone: +357 22814875
Fax: +357 22321925
Email: nioannou@dec.dmrid.gov.cy

For questions please contact: HADEA-CEFDIGITAL-CALLS@ec.europa.eu

• Funding&Tenders
• Call document