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
Central objective of the action is to empower SMEs with advanced computational capabilities on the basis of HPC, enabling them to drive innovation, enhance competitiveness, and overcome challenges in the digitisation of R&D and business processes. By promoting HPC adoption, the action will unlock new opportunities, accelerate growth, and foster economic development for SMEs.
Stimulating the HPC innovation potential of SMEs aims to position SMEs as technology leaders, fuel their success, and contribute to the overall advancement of industries and economies.
Detailed Call Description
Proposals are expected to define an outreach approach for identifying and attracting SMEs whose innovation potential and competitiveness will be significantly increased by the uptake of advanced HPC services. A mechanism involving financial support to third parties through open calls will adequately stimulate such innovation potential of SMEs participating in the action. The action supports SMEs to solve specific business challenges through uptake of HPC.
The action will implement at least three open calls with two topics:
- Uptake of HPC by SMEs to address specific business challenges
- Adoption of large scale HPC resources (e. g. pre-exascale and exascale supercomputers) for the development of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) models such as foundation models and Large Language Models (LLMs) of the action should prioritise SMEs where the adoption of advanced HPC services will create the highest business impact.
Topic 1 – Uptake of HPC by SMEs to address specific business challenges
The maximum financial support per party within topic 1 should be limited to €150 000 for all calls under this topic. Grants awarded to third parties under this topic should target SMEs without prior use of advance HPC services and an SME should receive a maximum of one grant during the action.
Topic 2 – Adoption of large scale HPC resources for the development of generative AI models
SMEs must demonstrate an existing business model in the field of generative AI including operational capacity and all relevant other requirements to implement the proposed action. This includes qualified staff with the necessary expertise in generative AI, professional software development, and data processing. Moreover, applications under this must clearly and convincingly demonstrate a business concept that significantly benefits from the adoption of most advanced and large scale HPC resources. The availability of a suitable training data set is critical for the quality of model, its innovation potential, and business impact. Therefore, applicants are expected to include a description of the used data set, its availability and quality, which should be considered in the evaluation. Calls for proposals should encourage specifically SMEs developing foundation models which will benefit from the intake of advanced HPC expertise and resources and create broad impact.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
The EuroHPC JU considers that a contribution of between €25 000 000 up to €30 000 000 would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. The project budget (maximum grant amount) is €30 000 000 per project. One project is expected to be funded under this call.
The proposal will define the process of selecting SMEs for which financial support will be granted. Overall, at least 80% of the requested funds should be allocated to financial support for these third parties.
Thematic Categories
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Information Technology
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
Eligibility for Participation
- 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 or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature
The successful consortium is expected to address two topics for the open calls. While an SME may receive funding only from one of the calls in topic 1, SMEs applying for topic 2 should be eligible to apply for all subsequent calls under this topic, provided the preceding funding phase has been successful. Due to the different focus of topic 1 and topic 2, participation of an SME is considered mutually exclusive with respect to the two topics.
Consortium composition – Proposals must be submitted by:
- a consortium of a minimum of 3 independent entities (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries
- consortium members are expected contribute to the project with a share of at least 10% of the total declared personnel resources and the number of partners should not exceed eight.
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