Consolidation of the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs with reinforced AI focus)
Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Digital Europe Programme is the first EU programme that aims to accelerate the recovery and drive the digital transformation of Europe.
Worth €7.6 billion (in current prices), 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.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The objective of this call is the consolidation of the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) aiming to cover all regions of the European Union and Associated Countries, including the EU’s outermost regions, by strengthening its performance and capacity to meet local, regional, national and European digitalisation needs.
Each EDIH will provide services based on a specific focus and expertise, which will support the local private and public sector with their digital transformation with particular focus on support to development, training deployment and uptake of European AI. This specialisation can be strengthened over time and should make use of existing local competencies in this area.
Detailed Call Description
The consolidation of the EDIHs network will be pivotal in supporting the wide deployment and uptake of European AI technologies, solutions and tools and in promoting the adoption of other crucial digital technologies, while upholding Union values and human-centric perspective.
Furthermore, the network will harness the potential of green digital technologies, advancing Europe’s collective climate and environmental goals.
The EDIHs will closely collaborate with European AI innovation infrastructures, in particular with AI factories, the AI-on-demand platform and AI Testing and Experimentation Facilities to ensure a flexible journey for European companies to benefit fully from these AI innovation infrastructures.
The EDIH network is dedicated to promoting and facilitating the digital transformation of SMEs and public services through four types of services:
- Test before invest: providing access to technical expertise and experimentation facilities, in particular to AI-related services.
- Training and skill development: offering training sessions to SMEs and public services for upskilling and reskilling of the workforce, including on the adoption and use of AI technologies.
- Support to identify and facilitate access to potential financing sources to support digital transformation.
- Foster an innovation ecosystem and networking opportunities.
Each EDIH is expected to provide all four types of services. They can however have different weights in the overall services portfolio. The services will be provided on an open, transparent and non-discriminatory basis and will be targeted mainly to (1) SMEs and mid-caps and/or (2) public sector organisations conducting non-economic activities.
Each EDIH will act as an access point to the European network of EDIHs, helping local companies and/or public actors to get support from other EDIHs in case the needed competences fall outside their remit, ensuring that every stakeholder gets the needed support wherever it is available in Europe. Reversely, each EDIH will support the companies and public actors from other regions and countries presented by other EDIHs that need their expertise. The EDIHs will also serve as contact point for the AI innovation infrastructures as described above, notably the AI factories, AI-on-demand platform and TEFs, and offer a first-line AI help desk to businesses and public sector organisations, including basic information on compliance with the AI Act as well relevant sources of further information and ensuring a broad adoption of strategic technologies supporting the development of an AI continent.
Each EDIH will make available the relevant experimentation facilities and demonstrators related to its specialisation. SMEs, mid-caps and the public sector will be able to demonstrate, prototype and test the technologies proposed, including where relevant their environmental impact, and the feasibility of applying these technologies to their business before further investing in it. Likewise, EDIHs will harness the potential of green digital technologies, advancing Europe’s collective climate and environmental goals.
EDIHs will also provide access to finance services including providing information and facilitating access to public and private funding sources as well as to public and private investors.
The EDIHs will be active in networking with other hubs, sharing best practices and specialist knowledge, in bringing companies into contact with other companies of their value chain, and in seeking synergies with innovators and early adopters that test solutions in novel experiments and can foster the adoption of digital technologies, and notably AI, in working and business environments in a more human-friendly way. EDIHs will also play a brokering role between public administrations and companies providing e-government technologies.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
50%
Project budget (requested grant amount): between €1.000.000 and €3.000.000 per project.
The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.
Thematic Categories
- Education and training
- Industry
- Information Technology
- Public Administration
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
Eligibility for Participation
- Businesses
- Chambers
- Legal Entities
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
- non-EU countries:
- listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme (list of participating countries)
Consortium composition
Proposals must be submitted by candidate European Digital innovation Hubs originating from existing EDIHs funded by the Digital Europe Programme and EDIHs with a Seal of Excellence as listed in the Commission Implementing Decision 2023/1534 establishing the Initial Network of EDIHs.
The candidate EDIH will indicate as previous proposal the number and acronym of the original EDIH as listed in the Annexes of the Decision. In the case of several EDIHs submitting a joint proposal, the proposal will list all the original EDIHs from which it originates.
A candidate EDIH may change the composition of the original consortium, and/or the coordinating entity of the EDIH.
Two or more EDIH proposals may be submitted from the same original EDIH consortium. However, in this case, after evaluation, only one candidate EDIH at most will be retained as successor of the original EDIH.
Furthermore, after consulting with Digital Europe Programme Committee, proposals must be submitted by eligible EDIHs from the following territories only: a) Austria / b) Belgium / c) Bulgaria / d) Croatia / e) Cyprus / f) Czechia / g) Denmark / h) Estonia / i) Finland / j) France: the regions of Bretagne, Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France, NouvelleAquitaine, Pays de la Loire, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur; / k) Germany / l) Hungary / m) Ireland / n) Latvia /o) Lithuania /p) Malta /q) Netherlands /r) Poland / s) Romania /t) Slovakia /u) Slovenia /v) Spain /w) Sweden /x) Iceland /y) Norway.
Targeted stakeholders:
A European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) is a single entity or a coordinated group of entities with complementary expertise and a not-for profit objective to support on a large scale the digital transformation of companies (especially SMEs and mid-caps) and/or public sector organisations.
Typical entities contributing to an EDIH will be tech and business developers with experience in digitalisation and digital innovations, research & technology organisation (RTO) or university labs offering technology services (beyond academic R&I), which could work in collaboration with partners whose expertise lies in business financing, public sector innovation or training such as for example chambers of commerce, industrial clusters, industry associations, local Enterprise Europe Network centres (EEN), accelerators, vocational training centres or others.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy
Directorate of Research and Innovation
Eleana Gabriel
Telephone: +357 22 691918
Email: egabriel@dmrid.gov.cy