The speaker, Uroš Malbašić, an experienced project manager, talked about the three main programs within the Digital Europe program. These programs are designed to strengthen the digital capabilities of the European Union, with a particular focus on the implementation and validation of solutions built on key digital technologies.
The Main work program aims to deploy and test innovative solutions in real-world operating environments in areas such as energy, healthcare, urban planning and mobility. The second program, High Performance Computing, supports the development and deployment of supercomputing and quantum computing infrastructures. The third program, Cybersecurity, focuses on innovative cybersecurity solutions, incident response, and regulatory compliance.
The webinar outlined the general project requirements for Digital Europe's calls, emphasizing the need for expertise in this area. The program focuses primarily on deployment, testing, demonstration, and validation of existing innovative solutions rather than research and development. Interoperability and integration with existing core platforms and infrastructures are critical aspects, and collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders is encouraged.
Financially, projects funded under the Digital Europe program are substantial, with funding starting at €1 million and often exceeding €5 million. The funding rate varies, but generally ranges from 50% for large companies to 75% for SMEs.
The webinar also provided an overview of specific open calls, such as the Digital Product Passport, Developing Citiverse and Uptake of innovative Cybersecurity solutions. Different types of grants were explained, including Simple grants, CSA actions, and SME support actions.
Finally, upcoming calls for proposals were presented, covering opportunities in areas such as Data spaces, which include sectoral data spaces such as Green Deal, energy, skills, manufacturing, and agriculture. The Support for Implementation of EU Legislation on Cybersecurity and Large-scale pilots for cloud-to-edge services were mentioned as promising funding opportunities. The webinar concluded by encouraging participants to explore these opportunities and to reach out to Tiko Pro presenters for assistance as needed.
CHECK OUT THE WEBINAR VIDEO HERE.