The European Commission opened a new set of calls for proposals under the 2023-2024 Work Programmes of the Digital Europe Programme to strengthen digital capacities across EU. These calls are open to businesses, public administrations, and other entities from the EU Member States, EFTA/EEA countries, and associated countries. The budget for this set of calls is over €176 million.
This round of investment includes €74 million of further support for the creation of sectoral data spaces, a cornerstone of the EU data strategy, as well as other projects in the area of data. Linked to this, projects concerning cloud-to-edge infrastructure will receive €30 million in grants to better integrate different edge solutions from the telecom and industrial sectors, ensuring they work together effectively.
A further €67.5 million will be invested in artificial intelligence (AI). One example is the Alliance for Language Technologies announced in the recent AI innovation package. This will support the creation of European large language models and generative AI. This will enrich European linguistic diversity in the field of generative AI, as well as providing better autonomy for the use and sharing of European data.
Calls will also be launched to invest €4 million in advanced digital skills, with investment in the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform to help adults achieve basic digital skills, and a project on ‘girls and women in digital’ to feed better policy in achieving gender convergence in the ICT sector. A further €1 million in grants will be made available for a project to further collaboration on the deployment of cross-border digital public services.
The deadline for these calls is 29 May 2024.
More information on the activities being supported by these calls is available here. More information as regards applying for grants for these calls for proposals and the relevant topics is available online. Further calls under the 2023-2024 Work Programme are tentatively planned to be published later this summer.
Source: European Commission | News & Views (https://shorturl.at/avDVZ)