EU Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL-2026)

ELEVATE: European League of Advanced Digital Skills Academies

Expected Outcome: • Contributing to European digital sovereignty and open strategic autonomy in the domain of virtual worlds; • Contributing to development of innovative and interoperable virtual worlds solutions; • Contributing to the creation and promotion of EU regulatory sandboxes for virtual worlds. Objective: The main objective is to increase productivity and innovation capacity through state-of-the-art virtual worlds technologies. The Virtual worlds test beds will support testing, experimentation and integration of Virtual Worlds, immersive and extended reality technologies in specific sectors, targeting both industrial and societal applications. The virtual worlds test beds will focus on testing and integrating mature technologies and solutions that have already been tested in the labs with the objective to be validated in real-world environments. They will also cover the aspects of interoperability and transferability between Virtual Worlds. The Virtual worlds testbeds will seek to maximise the uptake of virtual worlds solutions in industrial and societal applications and boost competitiveness of the sectors they are applied. Scope: For this action, support to two world-class sectorial testbeds through two projects is envisaged: one for industrial applications (such as manufacturing, construction or industrial design) and one for societal applications (such as education and training, cultural heritage and other cultural experiences, public administration or healthcare). Each testbed should create a network of facilities with critical mass across at least three different Member States or associated countries. Proposals are expected to focus on either industrial or societal applications. The area should be clearly identified within the proposal. The test beds will provide all necessary expertise and infrastructure for the design and implementation of the testing methodologies, combining physical world and virtual worlds facilities.

Expected Outcome: • 1+MG data storage strategy. • Secure federated data storage and processing capacity for 1+MG data infrastructure. Objective: This action contributes to boosting the capacity of Member States to sequence human genomes through scaling up dedicated secure data storage and processing environments. Data volume is crucial in genomics analytics, and efficient storage and management of large data sets, such as genomics, is essential; to ensure efficient processing, genomic data storage solutions should be flexible and scale with needs. Genomic data, once curated, must not only be stored safely, but also be processed in secure processing environments, which is a particular challenge with the highly voluminous genomic data. This action relates to the potential creation of a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium for genomic data (Genome EDIC) and supports the activities related to operating the 1+MG data infrastructure established with the support of Digital Europe under Work Programme 2021-2022 (GDI project), including its alignment with the requirements, technical specifications, and processes established by the EHDS Regulation to ensure a smooth functioning within the HealthData@EU infrastructure. As part of the 1+MG initiative implementation, this action builds on the outputs and results of the 1+MG implementing projects, and will establish a collaboration agreement with the Genome of Europe ( GoE project , supported under Digital Europe Work Programme 2022-2023), to contribute ensuring safe storage and processing capacity for the European reference genome data within the 1+MG data infrastructure. Scope: This action supports the acquisition and set-up of a secure federated data storage and processing capacity for the 1+MG data infrastructure, which is expected to be operated by the relevant EDIC. It should include “hot storage” working in synergy with secure processing environments aligned with the EHDS requirements, such as compliance checks for secure processing environments and detached long-term storage for curated data made available to the 1+MG by the data providers, including the Genome of Europe dataset. The data storage capacity should be designed based on an agreed data storage optimisation strategy, and balancing between storage costs and data depth/breadth/versioning while considering the most appropriate data storage architecture, technology and legal aspects, and ensuring scalability.

Expected Outcome: • Tools to perform automated data and metadata curation / inclusion / minimisation by data providers, foster data quality assurance and enable compliance checks and risk/security management developed, tested and deployed in the 1+MG data infrastructure in alignment with agreed 1+MG requirements and related standards and procedures, as well as with the legislative and technical framework of the European Health Data Space and European Digital Identity Framework. • Tools, APIs and interfaces developed, tested and deployed in the GDI, covering well documented needs of users from research, healthcare and public health policy, in alignment with the European Health Data Space. • Citizens’ portal, allowing at least management of GDPR rights of citizens and citizens’ engagement, to be established and operational at month 12 at the latest. Objective: This action aims to enhance the European genomic data infrastructure by supporting the deployment of advanced tools for data curation and use and its alignment with the European Health Data Space (EHDS). Data quality and volume are key success factors for health data infrastructures supported under the Digital Europe Programme, such as the one developed by the Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) project implementing the 1+ Million Genomes (1+MG) initiative of the Member States. The availability of thoroughly curated genomic data and related clinical and phenotypic information is a prerequisite for accelerating the move to the next level of multi-modal data modelling and deployment as well as health sector innovation in Europe. 1+MG and the projects implementing the initiative have worked and agreed on common data standards and ontologies, data quality criteria and thresholds, data inclusion policies and the necessary standard operational procedures. On that basis, data holders will need to quality-check and curate the datasets that they will be making available to 1+MG and EHDS (HealthData@EU) to ensure their interoperability and high value for users. Wide accessibility of the data and user-friendliness of the tools and services facilitating the access to data are critical success factors of the 1+MG data infrastructure. While such functionalities for research purposes have been already largely covered in the deployment project GDI, application in other use scenarios, in particular healthcare and public health policy, requires additional tools, application programming interfaces (APIs) and interfaces to address the corresponding specific user needs and requirements. The citizen perspective must be also factored in to ensure, through appropriate IT tools, full compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules regarding citizens’ rights on personal data protection. This action relates to the potential creation of a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium for genomic data (Genome EDIC) and supports the activities related to operating the 1+MG data infrastructure established with the support of Digital Europe under Work Programme 2021-2022 (GDI project), including its alignment with the requirements, technical specifications, and processes established by the EHDS Regulation to ensure a smooth functioning within the HealthData@EU infrastructure. Scope: Data tools for the 1+MG data infrastructure should be based on common standards and as automated as possible, and should enable data quality check at source, benchmarking, annotation and enhancement on the data provider end and by the operator of the data infrastructure, as appropriate. This covers the whole process of data inclusion, integration and access provision, as well as compliance assessment, risk management and data security assurance on the side of data infrastructure. All steps and functionalities should be designed to support the needs and requirements of three main use scenarios, i.e. research (largely already covered by the GDI project), and clinical care and public health policymaking. They should follow and implement the standards and procedures agreed within the 1+ Million Genomes initiative (1+MG Framework) and be compliant with the EHDS Regulation. For example, data curation tools should facilitate the description of datasets using a metadata standard compatible with the one required for the EU Dataset Catalogue of the EHDS (Health DCAT-AP), including its data quality and utility label as defined in the project QUANTUM . Metadata should also cover information about legal conditions and enablers for sharing the respective dataset. Moreover, the action should leverage best practices and strategies for linking clinical and genomic data at individual level, within the framework of EHDS where appropriate, to maximise access to data while preserving the security and privacy of data subjects (e.g. sampling, anonymisation and pseudonymisation techniques, data gap filling). Data minimisation tools should support compliance with the respective GDPR rules. Moreover, this action covers piloting and the deployment of tools, APIs and interfaces to provide high quality data services to the users of the 1+MG data infrastructure for healthcare and public health policy purposes as well as addressing any remaining user needs in research not yet covered by other projects. For example, APIs and interfaces for data discovery, and federated analysis and modelling in a secure processing environment will enable users to find, access and integrate the data at the required level of data protection safeguards to serve their projects, clinical questions or policy development. Adequate data de-identification/synthetisation methods and support to multi-modal data discovery and analysis across the data infrastructures (e.g. linking up with the Cancer Image Europe and HealthData@EU infrastructures) should also be considered and implemented. The tools delivered and deployed should be user-friendly and clearly support high uptake of the data infrastructures and their services. Furthermore, the action is expected to establish a citizen portal for 1+MG enabling citizens to exercise their GDPR rights, such as obtaining information about their data inclusion / processing and their legal basis, manage the consent, requesting data access, rectification or erasure. All solutions deployed by the project should be compatible with the Simpl middleware platform , where appropriate, and ensure interoperability with the HealthData@EU infrastructure. Tools related to authentication should be eIDAS-compliant. While fully respecting the prerogative of participants within the 1+MG data infrastructure to determine who can access what data and under which conditions, suitable links to the AI Factories should be envisaged. The project should include a description of data access and usage arrangements.

Expected Outcome: The action is expected to contribute to the following outcomes: • Improved and professionalised NCP services across Europe, leading to: • Effective and efficient access to Digital Europe Programme calls. • Adapted services to the different Specific Objectives of the programme, including matchmaking activities, online and in-situ meetings as appropriate, and dissemination of information regarding security and ownership control rules in the Digital Europe Programme. • Better participation of new applicants in the programme. • Raising the average quality of proposals submitted. Dissemination and exploitation of results, promotion of the use of the digital capacities and services emerging from the programme, and creation of synergies with complementary dissemination and communication initiatives (including from other programmes). • Optimal trans-national co-operation and exchange of best practices amongst NCPs of the programme. • Possibility for DEP NCPs (one per participating country) to take part in annual meetings among the network and with the European Commission, organised as hybrid events with importance given to physical presence, and supported by a dedicated budget for travel and organisation. • Strengthened outreach through improved tools, platforms, or communication channels as needed to support the visibility of the programme and engagement of stakeholders. Objective: Support the coordination and capacity-building of National Contact Points (NCPs) for the Digital Europe Programme, the preparation and execution of actions that maximise awareness of funding opportunities that can boost the implementation of EU digital policies, the visibility and impact of the programme, and the long-term dissemination and exploitation of results. The action should strengthen the capacity of all NCPs to deliver on their mandate, enhance peer learning and knowledge-sharing, and foster the development of an interactive and cohesive community of practice. Particular relevance will be placed on ensuring inclusiveness and comprehensive geographical coverage in relation to membership of the network. The action will thus reinforce the transnational character of network activities, with the aim of further encouraging collaboration among NCPs and potential applicants. Finally, the action will provide support to NCPs in amplifying awareness of the Digital Europe Programme and EU digital policies within their respective domains of competence. The selected project will provide support for all specific objectives of Digital Europe Programme. Scope: Proposals will contribute to the NCPs network for the Digital Europe Programme. Proposals should facilitate transnational cooperation amongst NCPs, encouraging cross-border activities, sharing good practices and raising the general standard of support to programme applicants. The consortium should provide a framework that will support participation in and will maximize overall awareness of the Programme, also facilitating the participation of new applicants. It will provide tailored activities supporting Digital Europe Programme communication (including the organisation of info days for stakeholders), dissemination and exploitation activities, and related material. Special attention should be placed on enhancing the competence of NCPs, including helping less experienced NCPs rapidly acquire the know-how built up in other countries. Where relevant, synergies should be sought with existing networks.

Expected Outcome: • Strategic roadmap for digital technology developments for automotive, including software, hardware, AI models and solutions and autonomous driving technologies, across different projects and initiatives; • Definition of agreement on high-level architectures and interfaces for software, hardware, AI models and solutions and autonomous driving technologies; • Nurturing of a dynamic ecosystem of contributors and participants adopting the initiative’s outcomes; • Operational digital platform(s) supporting joint developments under the initiative; • Definition and implementation of processes, agreements and roles ensuring a clear pipeline for building blocks from relevant projects funded at EU and national level towards integration by companies in series production, leveraging organisations like ECLIPSE SDV, COVESA, or alike. • Establishment of a sustainable organisational and governance structure. Objective: The action will help reinforce the competitiveness and innovation leadership of the European automotive sector and accelerate its digital transformation. It will contribute to the implementation of the Industrial Action Plan for the European Automotive Sector. It will support the objectives of the announced European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance (ECAVA), which focuses on the following key areas: • Developing a software platform for software-defined vehicles (SDVs); • Developing an in-vehicle computing architecture for software-defined vehicles; • Developing innovative AI solutions for the automotive industry; • Creating a large-scale distributed pilot facility; • Accelerate the transition towards autonomous driving. The action will build on the ongoing industry-driven collaboration on a European software-defined vehicle initiative and expand into the other areas of the ECAVA, supporting concrete collaborations building on the strategic guidance and advice from the ECAVA. The action will coordinate and steer relevant projects and initiatives in the area of software, hardware, AI and autonomous driving technologies. It will drive alignment on common standards and interfaces. It will contribute to the management of a strategic industry-driven collaboration in these areas, by incubating, orchestrating and helping maintain joint developments. It will provide a collaborative digital platform to support efficient common development and promote the broad uptake of the initiative’s outcomes. It will lay the basis for a sustainable industry-driven collaboration. The collaboration platform aims at consolidating existing coordination mechanisms in an inclusive way and expanding them by supporting the role of a maintainer for emerging open-source building blocks and software stacks as well as sustainability of the ecosystem. Scope: The action will implement the following activities: • Support the management and coordination of joint developments under the ECAVA by: • Steering, coordinating and supporting research, innovation and deployments projects, including EU-funded (e.g. under the Chips JU, CCAM and 2ZERO Partnerships, potential future Joint Undertakings), national-funded and industry-driven projects and initiatives (e.g. projects under the Eclipse SDV Working Group, AUTOSAR, COVESA, ...). Consolidate or orchestrate existing coordination mechanisms under FEDERATE, Eclipse SDV, Autosar, COVESA, etc.. • Defining and supporting key roles and responsibilities for project management, including a high-level ambassador to ensure dialogue and exchange with senior automotive decision-makers in companies; a team of chief operations officers and a team of chief architects to ensure coherence and alignment. • Drive the alignment and consensus on common technology platforms: • Define and update a long-term strategic roadmap and vision across companies’ initiatives for joint, largely open-source, developments. • Support the alignment across companies on common high-level architectures, building blocks, standards, interfaces and tools for key digital technologies in the scope of the Alliance. This shall include software, hardware, and interfaces with cloud infrastructure. • Help identify and define non-differentiating areas for beneficial collaborations regarding automotive AI development, including approaches for data sharing and pooling to support joint AI development. • Follow and contribute where relevant to standardisation activities including at international level. • Support the incubation of joint developments, notably by: • Supporting the rollout of the common strategic roadmap, providing a drumbeat to ensure speedy implementation, and an efficient transfer of outcomes from relevant projects, aiming towards rapid integration in series production. • Setting up certification and labeling processes for the outcomes of joint developments under the initiative. • Disseminating outcomes and help to build a dynamic ecosystem, based on an open-source plan and leveraging existing communities. • Support the integration and maintenance of core joint developments based on a collaborative digital platform: • Supporting the operation of a repository and developer platform for jointly developed building blocks, interfaces, tools, models, etc. and of a digital platform for collaboration, building as far as possible on existing mechanisms, which support Europe’s strategic autonomy. • Supporting, where relevant, the maintenance of common stacks by relevant organisations(s), such as ECLIPSE SDV, for instance through reference implementation and pre-integrations.

Expected Outcome: The Secretariat of the ECAVA will support the successful operation of the ECAVA, assisting the European Commission and the ECAVA’s members in making the Alliance a sustainable stakeholder platform. It will deliver on the following outcomes: • Development and promotion of the ECAVA’s Strategic roadmap. • Organisation of the annual ECAVA General Assembly and Forum, as well as of the meetings of working group and Steering Committee, in close collaboration with the European Commission. • Promotion of the Alliance’s outcomes, including through the operation of a website and by creating and publishing relevant communication content. Objective: The action will help reinforce the competitiveness and innovation leadership of the European automotive sector and accelerate its digital transformation. As part of the Industrial Action Plan for the European Automotive Sector[1], the action will support the objectives and activities of the announced European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance (ECAVA) by acting as its Secretariat. The purpose of the ECAVA is to provide a discussion and advisory forum to coordinate and accelerate technological developments and investments in software-defined, AI-powered, connected and autonomous vehicle technologies. It will bring together a critical mass of Original Equipment Manufacturers, automotive suppliers, technology and tool providers, start-ups, academia, research and technology organisations, as well as relevant industrial associations active in the sector. The Secretariat will contribute to the success of the ECAVA by allowing it to function smoothly and effectively. Scope: The Secretariat shall support the effective set-up, functioning and day-to-day work of the ECAVA. It should function in an agile and efficient way, with clear processes and roles and a capacity to adapt to evolving circumstances. It will work with the members and participants of the Alliance and with the European Commission. The tasks of the Secretariat will notably include: • supporting the organisation and work of its General Assembly, working groups, Steering Committee, Alliance Forum and other meetings, including by editing the documents produced. • Supporting the administrative processes of the ECAVA, notably by assisting the European Commission in the management of applications. • Disseminating outcomes of the Alliance, notably through the creation and maintenance of a website, and building a dynamic ecosystem. • Supporting the members of the Alliance in the development and update the ECAVA’s yearly roadmap. • Providing the needed expertise, for instance legal expertise on competition rules. The Secretariat will work in close collaboration with the action on the “Collaboration Platform for the European connected and automated vehicle of the future” (see section 2.2.2.9 of the Digital Europe Work Programme). While the Secretariat will focus on facilitating the organisation and processes of the Alliance, the Collaboration Platform will focus on coordinating joint developments in the area, driving the alignment on common technology platforms, and supporting the incubation, integration and maintenance of joint developments. The Secretariat shall agree on working arrangements with the Collaboration Platform.

Expected Outcome: Each EDIH will support the digital transformation of SMEs, mid-caps, and public sector organizations within its geographical area and area of expertise, while also aiming to extend its impact beyond its immediate region. An EDIH can select to focus on specific group(s) of clients (e.g. mainly SMEs or mainly public sector). Each selected project will provide the four core types of services (testing before investing, training and skills development, support to find investments, networking and access to innovation ecosystems) covering a wide range of digitalisation needs, from mainstream technologies and AI capacities to specialised technologies. The services will be provided seamlessly, through proxies when required, maintaining consistency and accessibility for stakeholders. EDIHs complement and build synergies with existing regional and national initiatives, collaborate with the EU AI Innovation infrastructures and will become a central point for companies and public sector ensuring a flexible and seamless digital journey and referring them to the services provided by these AI innovation infrastructures where appropriate. All together, EDIHs will contribute to consolidation of a balanced network of EDIHs, ensuring the broadest coverage of regions in Europe, addressing the needs of public and private sectors across all economic sectors, fostering cross-regional collaboration and resource sharing and offering a wide range of digitalisation services, from mainstream to specialised technologies. Each EDIH will carry out Digital Maturity Assessments for their clients, using the tools provided by the Commission and DTA, and deliver services leading to greater digitalisation of their clients as well as to their adoption of AI. While not all services need to be preceded by a Digital Maturity Assessment, EDIHs are encouraged to use it as often as practically possible. Objective: 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 by strengthening its performance and capacity to meet local, regional, national and European digitalisation needs. With increased experience and capacities, the EDIHs will continue providing the complete set of services of an EDIH, including the necessary infrastructure, focusing primarily on specific geographical areas and covering the digital transformation needs of local SMEs, mid-caps and/or public sector organisations. Considering the transformation potential of AI technologies, these will be a reinforced focus of EDIHs’ operations under this call. 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. This approach not only enhances the resilience of Europe’s industry but also boosts its strategic autonomy. With its enhanced presence in countries associated to Digital Europe, the EDIH network will help bridge technology gaps, and support competitiveness and economic convergence. Scope: 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. 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 and implementing the Apply AI strategy. These helpdesks by EDIHs shall further coordinate with the DTA on replies and new questions on the AI Act. 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.

Expected Outcome: Deliverables: • Well defined, up to date and relevant challenges that will serve as the challenges for the European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions • Competitions rule book for participants and jury • Competitions implementation roadmap • Implementation and roll-out of the six competitions • Sustainability plans for the proposed competitions after the end of the project Objective: The European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions will serve as catalysts for engaging young European people in cutting edge digital technologies. They will support their creativity, exposing them to project-based research and training, and connect them to the wider community of research organisations and industry players. Each competition will centre around a challenge addressing a highly relevant societal or industrial challenge that has been developed by a consortium of Europe’s most prestigious research institutes and industry partners. The consortia will work in close cooperation with the respective Sectoral digital skills academies and Initiatives to ensure buy in and support from the relevant stakeholders in the ecosystem. The competitions will take place in the EU. To launch the competitions, teams of students will compete in six digital areas, represented by the newly established Sectoral digital skills academies, the Destination Earth initiative and an additional area to be chosen by the consortium. Furthermore, it is expected that the competitions will lead to greater innovation, which will allow to measure and compare progress towards the ambitious goals set under each challenge. Scope: The scope of this topic is to develop six challenges for the European Digital Skills Competitions in the four digital areas corresponding to the Sectoral digital skills academies (Quantum, GenAI, Chips, Virtual Worlds), the Destination Earth Initiative (see topic 4.2 of the DEP Work Programme 2025-2027) and one additional area to be developed by the consortium. The challenges will be designed to target three clear objectives: each will address a European societal-, technological or industrial-relevant challenge, attract a large participation of students and help them develop their skills, and raise their awareness and understanding of team and project-based work as well as applied research and innovation in the respective digital technologies. Special attention will also be given to design local and major tournaments. The consortium will also design attractive prize schemes and award for the best challenges from the six areas. The selected project will cooperate closely with the Sectoral digital skills academies, the Destination Earth sectoral Initiative and the respective industrial communities for the design of the competitions. It will as well collaborate with the European League of Advanced Digital Skills Academies (see section 4.3 of the DEP Work Programme 2025-2027) for dissemination, communication and public relations purposes concerning these competitions. Synergies should also be sought with other relevant initiatives, e.g. the Digital Education Hackathon.

Expected Outcome: Deliverables The awarded proposals are expected to deliver: • Solutions that allow the collection of large, high-quality data from real industrial environments, from different manufacturing systems/sectors. • Solutions that allow access to these large datasets to train Generative AI models that respond to real-world industrial needs and challenges, preferably relying on trusted third parties hosting data and training compute on behalf of authorized AI developers. • Agreements with specific AI factories providing information on the data sets available and the conditions for using them for training AI models. • Interoperability and governance framework of manufacturing data spaces including from national industrial data spaces to ensure that mechanisms to aggregate data for training AI could be taken up at EU level. Objective: Aligned with the previous WP, this action aims to support the continued uptake and further expansion of the data space for manufacturing. The primary objective is to develop legal, technical and business solutions to pool sufficient data and enable authorized AI developers to have direct or indirect data access to train generative AI models specifically for the manufacturing sector. This initiative seeks to reinforce the role of the data space for manufacturing as a major productivity enhancement and collaboration mechanism within the EU. Scope: This initiative will support up to three data-collection projects, with around EUR 3 million co-funding from Digital Europe each, focused on manufacturing use cases to unlock advanced AI models, for example, predictive maintenance, process automation, supply chain management, product design and development and sustainability in production, and increase productivity in industrial environments such as purchases, logistics, resource planning and production halls. These projects aim to collect massive, high-quality data from real industrial environments, ensuring proper labelling where relevant, that could be used to train or finetune generative AI models for the manufacturing sector. The data collection has to be relevant for developing AI applications that can significantly benefit major EU manufacturing sectors (such as automotive, chemical, aeronautics and energy-intensive industries). The project proposal has to clearly identify the target sectors, the stakeholders, and have preliminary agreements about the intended data exchange. The data-collection projects will develop both technical and business solutions to enable authorized AI developers to have direct or indirect data access and utilize these large datasets while fully respecting the data holders' control over their data. Each data-collection project should propose clear use cases to ensure alignment with real-world needs and challenges. Ideally, the AI developers interested in using such data should be already identified in the proposal. The proposal will also ensure technical and legal solutions to make the generated datasets available to users of AI Factories. This will also enable AI Factories to leverage these datasets for the development of AI applications. To this extent, the inclusion of AI Factories in the project will be considered an advantage. Consortia are encouraged to use data intermediaries, as outlined in Chapter III of the Data Governance Act, or other appropriate mechanisms to manage the secure access to and processing of these datasets. The initiative must also work in close partnership with the Data Spaces Support Centre to ensure alignment and interoperability with the broader ecosystem of data spaces implemented with the support of the Digital Europe Programme. Additionally, the action must coordinate with AI Factories to ensure that the datasets generated can be effectively used in conjunction with data already available facilitating in this way collaborative approaches for the development of advanced AI models. Considering financial sustainability from the outset is crucial in the development of Common European Data Spaces to ensure their long-term viability and effectiveness. By establishing a sound financial model, developers can secure the resources necessary to adapt to evolving technological landscapes and user needs, ensuring that data spaces remain robust and beneficial over time.

Expected Outcome: • Contribution to the replication and scalability of piloted GenAI solutions across public administrations and Member States, demonstrated through the ability to adapt them to new users, administrative levels or service areas. This contribution will be supported through concrete tools such as starter kits, a repository of replicability assessments as well as tailored guidance, documentation and outreach. • Targeted support to national procurement processes, where relevant, possibly by a helpdesk. • Pooling of demand for European GenAI solutions by public administrations in the form of among others technical benchmarks. • Bringing together public administration and start-ups based on common needs and capabilities as defined in technical benchmarks etc. • To complement the outreach strategy of the pilot projects, support to outreach and awareness-raising activities by public administrations, including communication materials. • Strengthened integration of public administrations into the broader European AI ecosystem, through synergies with the AI-on-Demand Platform, EDIHs, the AI Factories and other relevant initiatives as well as ensured synergies with Commission-led initiatives that support AI adoption in public sector. Objective: Broadly speaking, the objective of this action is to coordinate and support the pilot projects delivering Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) solutions fully integrated into the operational workflows and IT systems of participating public administrations. First, this action should prioritise to enhance the scalability and replication of successful GenAI pilot solutions. This includes the projects' capabilities to be duplicated by other public administrations and to adjust efficiently to a growing number of users, public administrations, or application areas. Second, it will identify common needs from public administrations for GenAI solutions “Made in Europe”, facilitating the pooling of demand at EU level for European start-ups. As a result of these efforts, the action will deepen collaboration among public administrations across Member States, laying the foundation of a sustainable GenAI community. Through the dissemination of knowledge, tools, and mutual learning experiences, this community will help accelerate adoption and reinforce trust in European GenAI solutions. Scope: The selected consortium will be responsible for enhancing the scalability and replication of successful European GenAI pilot solutions, through activities that foster knowledge sharing, community building, and capacity development. Such activities could consist, for example, in implementing software documentation best practices, facilitating peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and experience exchange, deploying targeted training and support programs, and establishing a community of practice. A helpdesk can be set up to support pilot projects and other interested public administrations on technical, organisational and legal – such as procurement – matters. Importantly, the CSA will seek to identify common needs with the overarching goal of pooling demand from public administrations for GenAI solutions “Made in Europe”. Towards that end, the CSA will define benchmarks and minimum requirements at the technical level. It will work closely with and contribute to the innovation procurement hubs initiative[1], in particular to public procurement of innovation (PPI) and pre-commercial public procurement work strands. Furthermore, the CSA will raise awareness among European start-ups for its demand-pooling exercise through outreach activities targeted to start-up communities in Europe, conducting where relevant matchmaking exercises between public administrations and European start-ups. The CSA will play an important role in ensuring the pilot projects have a European dimension. This will be done by supporting the pilot projects with scalability and replicability. They will complement their planned actions with additional measures to maximise the reach and impact. Moreover, the European dimension will also be ensured by reporting on the pilot project’s activities, aggregating their KPIs and relevant figures to provide an overview on the use of GenAI by public administrations in Europe.

Expected Outcome: • New data services and user tools for the Cancer Image Europe platform covering data curation / inclusion by data providers, data quality assurance and compliance checks, and risk/security management in alignment with agreed standards, procedures and requirements, including the framework of the European Health Data Space. • Multi-centre validation of AI-driven solutions in the field of medical imaging, including also evidence generation for clinical utility and cost efficiency. • Deployment of multi-modal, cutting-edge AI-driven solutions in the field of medical imaging in healthcare and research settings, leveraging different types of data (at least one imaging modality and one other data type e.g. genomics, other omics, laboratory results, real-world data etc.) and building on the achievements of the Cancer Image Europe platform. • Training and upskilling of medical imaging personnel and/or healthcare professionals for the deployed technology and further use. Objective: • Accelerate the uptake of EU AI-driven solutions that are ready to be deployed in healthcare settings for patient care and for research purposes. This will facilitate the paradigm shift in the digital transformation of healthcare towards personalised medical solutions; • Facilitate the deployment of EU cutting-edge AI-driven solutions in medical imaging, combined with other health data, for increased efficiency and better patient outcomes, leveraging the Cancer Image Europe platform; • Further develop the data, testing and validation services and user tools of Cancer Image Europe platform in alignment with the legal and technical framework of the European Health Data Space, also towards supporting the development and uptake of EU cutting-edge multi-modal AI-based solutions in medical imaging (including Deep learning and Generative AI solutions) for healthcare; • Ensure alignment and inter-operability of the Cancer Image Europe platform with the HealthData@EU infrastructure of the EHDS; • Conduct multi-centre validation studies of promising medical imaging-based and multi-modal AI solutions for screening, early detection, diagnosis and care, generating evidence for clinical utility and cost effectiveness of tested solutions. Scope: By building on, extending and leveraging the Cancer Image Europe platform, this action is expected to facilitate the uptake of EU AI-driven solutions in medical imaging (including Machine Learning and Generative AI), towards their deployment in clinical settings. It should also include upskilling of healthcare professionals and evidence generation to evaluate the performance of the deployed AI-driven solutions and engage patients. The action should also contribute to upgrading and enhancing the uptake of the Cancer Image Europe platform through deployment of tools, application programming interfaces (APIs) and interfaces enabling high-quality data services for the users of the Cancer Image Europe platform. The solutions should cover, at least, data quality assessment, including security, data access and analysis, as well as services for AI developers supporting their regulatory compliance pathway, including the EHDS Regulation, if applicable. Moreover, data services will cover comprehensive data quality assessment—including security, data access, and analysis. Specifically, tools will be deployed to ensure that datasets federated in Cancer Image Europe are fully compliant with EHDS, utilizing Health DCAT-AP for metadata descriptions and adhering to the data quality and utility label standards set by the EHDS Regulation. Moreover, the action should consider synergies and cross-fertilisation of tools with other relevant health data infrastructures: HealthData@EU, 1+Million Genomes (1+MG), Intensive Care Unit data infrastructure, the European Virtual Human Twins Initiative, and UNCAN.eu platform to further facilitate the integration and processing of different types of health data. Also, the outcomes of EU-funded projects dealing with other imaging modalities, such as digital pathology (e.g. BigPicture project), should be considered. Finally, synergies with the ongoing AI related activities of the Health Data Access Bodies (HDABs) in the EHDS, the SHAIPED project and the TEF-Health project should be leveraged.

Expected Outcome: Deliverables EDMO will continue to maintain and further support a platform for joint activities to analyse and respond to the phenomenon of disinformation. EDMO will be carrying out and coordinating various activities in this field, including investigations, targeted research, monitoring as well as media literacy and communication activities throughout Europe and across the national/multinational research hubs. Objective: The EU supports the capacity of a multidisciplinary community to understand, monitor and counter disinformation. The objective of this topic is to maintain and further develop a platform supporting the operations of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), as well as deepening the language coverage and operational capacity of fact-checking in Europe. In particular, the topic will support the operational cooperation between fact-checkers, researchers and media literacy practitioners across the EU through EDMO and support fact-checkers, with the aim to contribute to the fight against disinformation, to gain further insight on disinformation, monitoring of the disinformation space, debunking disinformation through the network of fact-checkers, and increasing the resilience of media professionals and citizens to disinformation. Scope: The funding will support further consolidation of EDMO’s role as a key player in the fight against disinformation in Europe, in particular: • operation of a platform composed of a set of tools and services responding to the needs of the EDMO community composed of researchers, fact-checkers, media literacy practitioners and other relevant stakeholders, including services and actions to support and protect these communities when carrying out their work; • fostering and coordinating research activities and open-source investigations on disinformation at European level focused on detecting and analysing, in an agile and practice-oriented way emerging and prominent issues related to the disinformation landscape; • carrying out activities for monitoring disinformation trends and narratives across the EU, including through pre- and debunking; • investigating and fostering the development and use of novel tools such as Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI to respond to addressing current challenges in the disinformation landscape, including AI-generated disinformation and deepfakes, and in this respect also collaborate with ongoing Horizon Europe projects working on AI-tools to fight disinformation; • monitoring and reacting to disinformation threats related to crisis situations and elections – including by pre- and debunking - as well as to emerging disinformation waves, including giving assistance to neighbourhood countries through dedicated actions, targeted communication and awareness raising campaigns; • supporting targeted activities to facilitate access to data for researchers to allow conducting research activities on disinformation; • supporting activities related to the implementation of the 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation; • coordinating and carrying out tailor-made media literacy activities and campaigns at European level, targeting both the general public and vulnerable groups; • carrying out proactive communication and outreach activities through various channels (including by traditional and online media, podcasts, social media etc.) to a broad audience, including the general public, to increase societal resilience to disinformation; • conducting targeted communication campaigns about EDMO’s activities.

Expected Impact: To effectively progress in developing and testing elements necessary for cross-border digital public services and pave the way towards seamless digital public services across the Union. Objective: The objective of the action is to allow Member States to work together, jointly identify needs and develop interoperability assets needed for cross-border digital public services, leveraging collective resources and expertise to achieve impactful results unattainable by single entities. The MCP supports the implementation of the Interoperable Europe Act by enhancing collaboration among stakeholders to contribute to the priorities of the Interoperable Europe Agenda, focusing on improving public services through seamless data exchange and addressing interoperability challenges. This effort aligns with the EU’s Digital Decade goal of ensuring full online access to public services and secure eID solutions by 2030. Scope: Citizens and businesses demand user-focused, inclusive digital public services that are accessible through multiple channels and align with European values. Public administrations are urged to become more data-driven and adopt integrated approaches while ensuring safe use of AI. The MCP aims to improve interoperability by supporting existing and developing new solutions, enhancing collaboration among stakeholders for cross-border services, and scaling up innovative solutions. It also focuses on implementing EU policies, particularly on AI and Data Spaces, to streamline processes and improve interoperability across networks with common data standards.

Expected Outcome: Deliverables: ​​​​​​ • Three open calls for pilots (at least one call per year) launched and managed providing financial support to third parties to at least 20 EdTech start-ups/SMEs from across Member States and eligible countries. A minimum of 60% of the total budget should be spent on Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP) and the maximum amount per third party can amount up to 150.000 EUR to allow short pilots testing in real education or training environments; • Developed and implemented a yearly 12-months incubation and acceleration programme providing a mix of mentoring, networking services, consultancy, training and/or business and access-to-market support to the selected companies; • Short pilots implemented in real education and training environments to gather impact assessment data of the selected solutions. Human-centric design methods involving users and strong linkages with learning design methodologies are recommended for the piloting phase. • European-wide communication and awareness raising activities; • At least one big event per year organised to reach a large number of investors, market partners, ministries of education (or other ministries), education establishments, learning content providers, training providers, and other stakeholders in the field. Objective: During recent years, the education and training landscape has been significantly impacted by rapid technological advancements. Innovations like generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), robotics, or extended Reality, to name a few examples, have significant power to reshape the way we teach and learn. There is a crucial need to support the Education Technology (EdTech) sector in Europe, and in particular European start-ups and SMEs, to develop innovative solutions and technologies meeting European values in terms of ethics, inclusion, accessibility, privacy, security and strong pedagogical foundations . This is particularly crucial given the fast-developing technological landscape. This topic is expected to contribute to the nurturing of an EdTech ecosystem in Europe that drives innovation, creates jobs, and fuels economic growth, while also ensuring pedagogically driven solutions that reach clear educational outcomes. The purpose of this topic is therefore to assist European EdTech startups and SMEs in transforming concepts for educational solutions into products ready for the market. This topic will also help support the effective and ethical application of GenAI technologies to education and training, in alignment with the objectives of the GENAI4EU initiative. [1] This call will contribute to the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) and in particular its objective to support the private actors in the digital education ecosystem. This action should also take into consideration previous work done by the Digital Education Hub Accelerator. 1 The ‘GenAI4EU' initiative aims to support the development of novel use cases and emerging applications in Europe's 14 industrial ecosystems, as well as the public sector. Application areas include robotics, health, biotech, manufacturing, mobility, climate and virtual worlds ( Commission launches AI innovation package ). Scope: The scope is to encompass the establishment of an EdTech-specific environment for nurturing and accelerating growth, providing both business guidance and access to markets for chosen startups and SMEs. Additionally, the scope involves streamlining the integration of the supported solutions into the educational and/or training landscape, which includes schools, universities, training facilities, and other informal learning environments. This integration is crucial for empowering end-users, particularly teachers/trainers and students, along with other stakeholders, in the development and application of educational solutions. Furthermore, testing of these solutions in real educational or training settings should be included for obtaining impact assessment data through short-cycle piloting.

Expected Outcome: 1. Comprehensive support to EDICs, the Commission and Member States by: •  the provision of legal and operational advice to established EDICs, including on the compliance with the DDPP Decision, other EU legislation and where applicable national legislation; and maintaining a repository of thereof; • support the Commission and Member States on the EDICs in preparation and in identifying and mobilising new EDIC initiatives, pursuing outreach activities and reporting progress in the State of the Digital Decade Report; • creating and maintaining of consolidated data and information repository on EDICs, including best practices and data promoting EDIC results (quantified where possible), and reporting; accessible to relevant stakeholders; • liaising and coordination between EDICs as well as between EDICs and other MCP implementation mechanisms and other relevant stakeholders, • based on the collected data, propose milestones or avenues for future strategic development of EDIC ecosystem aligned with EU digital policy objectives, • other support activities necessary to help achieve the objectives of the call. 2. The setting up of an EDIC’s community of practice, including knowledge-sharing activities, collaborative projects, outreach and other events, and knowledge management to build expertise and shared understanding. 3. The organisation of an Annual EDIC Gathering, addressed to the EDIC Community and other relevant stakeholders, following the policy steering provided by the European Commission. 4. Annual impact report, covering the project as a whole, as well as each of the European Digital Infrastructure Consortia, the proposed milestones or avenues for future strategic development of EDIC ecosystem aligned with EU digital policy objectives. The timing of the report should be such that this can feed into the State of the Digital Decade Report of the European Commission. Objective: The objective of the action is to establish an EDIC Support Hub in order to: • Ensure that EDICs have the access to comprehensive legal, operational, coordination and support. • Contribute to the consolidation and long-term sustainability of EDICs. • Enhance transparency, outreach and access to consolidated information on EDICs, strengthen links with society, the economy and European competitiveness. • Support the Commission and Member States in creating a steady pipeline of new EDIC initiatives. • Gather and generate evidence (data promoting EDIC results, quantified where possible) to support the analysis informing the future strategic development of a coherent and resilient EDIC ecosystem aligned with EU digital policy objectives. Scope: The EDIC Support Hub should provide support to the EDICs, the Member States and the European Commission in their work towards further consolidation, strengthening and ensuring long-term sustainability of the EDIC ecosystem, in particular by: • Providing comprehensive legal, operational, coordination support to the EDICs, and strategic support to the European Commission. • Strengthening governance and compliance of EDICs with the Digital Decade Policy Programme (DDPP) Decision and other relevant EU and national legislation and improving coordination among EDICs and with key stakeholders. • Improving accessibility of consolidated information on EDICs, strengthening links with society, the economy and European competitiveness. • Working with the Commission and Member States on identification and mobilisation of new EDIC initiatives. • Processing the data gathered, aiming to generate evidence (data promoting EDIC results, quantified where possible) to inform the future strategic development of a coherent and resilient EDIC ecosystem aligned with EU digital policy objectives.

Expected Outcome: At a general level, the project should achieve a strong, visible and recognised impact in scaling, facilitating and accelerating research and analytical efforts focussing on the information environment and information integrity. The main outcomes of the awarded project will be: • The technical solutions created or supported • The insights generated from supported research and monitoring projects • The proof of concept and lessons learnt for the support of shared infrastructures to support research on the information environment Project applications will formulate their own deliverables in accordance with their needs analyses and proposed means to address them. At the minimum, deliverables should include: • A suite or network of solutions capable of addressing Specific Objectives 1 and 2 (c.f. section 2 ‘Scope – Specific Objectives 1 and 2’) • A methodology and dissemination plan for creating access to the created resources (c.f. section 2 ‘Scope – Specific Objective 3) • A sub-granting methodology in line with the scope set forth in the section above (c.f. section 2 ‘Scope – Specific Objective 5’) • A final report detailing lessons learnt and identifying clear paths for future actions Objective: The overarching objective of this action is as follows: Creating a common research framework with the necessary infrastructure to enable advanced research and analysis on information integrity in the EU. In order to achieve this overall objective, the action rests on the following specific objectives: • Securing or setting up necessary infrastructure, comprising both hardware and software capacities, needed for advanced research on information integrity, that can be accessed by third parties across the EU • Supporting, acquiring or creating a set of dedicated tools to facilitate research on information integrity and the analysis of information manipulation • Making the dedicated tools and computational capacity accessible to researchers and civil society, where needed through a transparent and effective access mechanism, and promoting its solutions in the relevant communities • Contributing to the DSA’s data access regime by collecting views from the research community on the data access API’s of very large online platforms required by the DSA, documenting best practices and shortcomings, and representing the research community in efforts to improve the capability of API’s • Set up and implement a grant structure to distribute funds to third parties from the research and civil society communities, funding as the eligible activities: • Third party tools or capabilities that support the delivery of Specific Objectives 1 and 2 • Research projects that utilise the outputs established under Specific Objectives 1 and 2 Scope: Applying consortia must convincingly detail how they will achieve the objectives and deliverables set forth in this call for proposals. Proposals must be clearly and well-defined, researched and fully developed taking all time-schedule and budget considerations into account. This action is a grant for financial support, which foresees both the delivery of a set of actions by the awarded consortium co-funded at 100% as well as the distribution of a majority of the funds to third parties based on fair and transparent selection criteria (c.f. section 6 ‘Eligibility – Eligible Activities’). Proposals must allocate at least 60% of their proposed budget to the financial support to third parties. The below details the scope for the activities of the consortium, as well as for the provision of grants to third parties. Two important, cross-cutting considerations apply to these descriptions on scope: Firstly, all provided examples for concrete means of implementation should be considered as indicative illustrations only, and thus not mandatory elements for grant applications. Rather, applying consortia will need to base their proposals on a clear, evidence informed needs analysis that is centred on the demands from the relevant research and civil society communities. The sophistication of the logical links between needs analysis and activities will form a key part of the evaluation process. Secondly, proposals should focus on quality over quantity: The proposal of a more limited, but highly impactful set of actions is preferable over spreading resources on an overly wide set of actions that could undermine practical feasibility. Thirdly, an emphasis on long-evity is essential. Activities should be planned in a manner that caters to the long-term interests and needs of the relevant communities. A focus on elements such as transferability of outputs will be an important part of the selection process.

Expected Outcome: Deliverables: Provision of the four key elements required of a Safer Internet Centre, namely: • A centre for raising awareness among children, parents/carers, teachers and educators as well as other relevant professionals working with children about online opportunities and risks for the under 18s, producing and promoting localised age-appropriate resources to address current and emerging risks and opportunities. • A helpline to give advice and support to parents and children on issues related to children's use of digital technologies and services; to provide assistance on mental health issues relating to the exposure to age-inappropriate content online, including pornographic and violent content; to strengthen support to victims of cyberbullying, close cooperation with the national Child Helpline 116111 service is required. • A hotline for tackling the spread of online CSAM (i.e., receiving, analysing, and processing reports of such material). Closer cooperation with law enforcement and the private sector should be further explored in the context of the EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse and the proposed Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse and recast of the Directive 2011/93/EU on child sexual abuse. • A youth panel to engage directly with children from different demographic groups, including the organisation of regular youth participation activities, allowing them to express their views and pool their knowledge and experience of using online technologies. Adequate turnover, geographic balance and an open selection of participants is required. Objective: The objective of the topic is to contribute to protection and empowerment of children online, a key EU priority, through comprehensive geographical coverage of national Safer Internet Centres (SICs) network in the EU. Notably: It seeks to enhance geographical coverage by engaging Safer Internet Centres that have not received EU funding under the previous call DIGITAL-2025-BESTUSE-08-NETWORKSICs. Only one Safer Internet Centre will be co-funded per country. SICs may be composed of one or more NGOs, government bodies/agencies, and/or private sector organisations and they provide online safety information, educational resources, public awareness tools and counselling and reporting services (through dedicated helplines and hotlines) for young people, teachers/educators, and parents/carers. The activities performed by the SICs help minors tackle online risks and become media-literate, resilient, digital citizens. The hotline work strand allows the public to anonymously report suspected online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) for assessment and takedown. The Safer Internet Centres also address the needs of children with specific or special needs, including those with disabilities and those hailing from disadvantaged and vulnerable backgrounds, to ensure no child is left behind. Considering the new role for the Commission as an enforcement body for the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs), the Safer Internet Centres will strategically assist the Commission and cooperate with the DSCs in this role, in particular through data collection in the EU member states. Scope: The funding will ensure the continuation of the well-established European network of national SICs, by enabling the awarded consortia to provide at least: • A centre for raising awareness among children, parents/carers, teachers and educators as well as other relevant professionals working with children about online opportunities and risks for the under 18s. The focus will be to identify and address: • • specific and general known risks (e.g. harmful and illegal content, cyberbullying, age-inappropriate content; sexual extortion, addictive design and manipulation, disinformation); • specific and general emerging risks (e.g. new apps, games, online challenges and trends; AI and generative AI, including AI generated pornographic and violent content such as CSAM; virtual, augmented and extended reality; the internet of things and other technological changes raising new social and ethical challenges that impact children); • issues such as mental and physical health risks related to the use of technologies (e.g. self-harm, cyberbullying, risky online challenges, promotion of eating disorders, screen addiction, social isolation, exposure to age-inappropriate content online, including pornographic and violent content, and sexual extortion); • risks facing children as young consumers (e.g. nudges to spend money, aggressive marketing strategies, lootboxes). • A helpline to give advice and support to children and adults around them on issues related to children's use of digital technologies and services; to provide assistance on mental health issues relating to the exposure to age-inappropriate content online, including pornographic and violent content; to strengthen support to victims of cyberbullying, close cooperation with the national Child Helpline 116111 service is required. • A hotline for tackling the spread of online CSAM (i.e., receiving, analysing, and processing reports of such material). Closer cooperation with law enforcement and the private sector should be further explored in the context of the EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse, proposed Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse and recast of the Directive 2011/93/EU on child sexual abuse. • A youth panel to engage directly with children from different demographic groups, including the organisation of regular youth participation activities, allowing them to express their views and pool their knowledge and experience of using online technologies. Adequate turnover, geographic balance and an open selection of participants is required. SICs shall strengthen their support to children in vulnerable situations (such as children with disabilities, children from a minority, racial or ethnic background, refugee children, children in care, LGBTQI+ children, as well as children from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, who all may face additional challenges in the digital environment). For example, to address the digital divide, they should offer non-formal education and training to these groups and communities. In addition, SICs will: • support the monitoring of the impact of the digital transformation on children’s well-being in cooperation with the BIK platform; • support the implementation of relevant EU strategies and legislation; • promote the distribution of relevant online training modules (MOOCs) for teachers; • expand the role of BIK Youth Ambassadors and BIK Youth Panels to support peer-to-peer activities at national, regional and local level; • provide trustworthy resources for and carry out campaigns targeting children, parents, carers and teachers, educators and other relevant contacts working with children (e.g. sports coaches, club leaders). Training on children’s rights online should also be included in these initiatives to create a stronger awareness that children’s rights online are the same as offline, as stipulated by UN General Comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment (CRC/C/GC/25), and as protected under the DSA, as well as awareness of help and reporting resources and pathways; • act as a one-stop-shop for reliable and age-appropriate information; • provide digital literacy training in formal and informal education settings (e.g., youth participation activities, workshops, classroom visits, competitions, peer to peer activities). • support parents, carers, teachers, educators and other professionals working with children to better understand the risks and opportunities of children accessing digital content and services (e.g., information sessions, train the trainers programmes, and online and offline material); • identify emerging risks through the helpline service,

Expected Impact: na Expected Outcome: Outcomes and deliverables • One or more proofs-of-concept of replicable, scalable cloud-based AI/GenAI systems for analysis of medical imaging data in a healthcare setting, with demonstration of the role of the clinicians in validating AI/GenAI findings and reports showcasing seamless integration of the system into clinical workflows. • Evidence-based analysis of (cost-)efficiency of the piloted solutions for healthcare systems for regulatory and HTA purposes. • Two or more events or workshops organised per year and per project for the European network of AI-powered advanced screening centres. The agenda should include lessons learned from the project activities, as well as other items relevant to the network. Participant satisfaction rates should be measured for the events and workshops. • Medical centres in the consortium joined the European network of AI-powered advanced screening centres under the Apply AI Strategy. • A plan for obtaining regulatory approval for application of the AI/GenAI solutions in real life scenarios and clinical settings. This includes the required risk management and compliance activities, as well as clinical evaluation plans and post-market clinical follow-up. • Detailed data protection and cybersecurity plan, with measures to secure sensitive health data, mitigate cybersecurity risks, and comply with EU legal and ethical frameworks. • Sustainability plan for the uptake of the systems across the EU. • Stakeholder engagement and dissemination report with measurable actions (KPIs). Scope: Each project awarded in this action should implement a scalable cloud-based AI/GenAI system running European trustworthy and safe AI/GenAI algorithms that were developed, trained and validated using very large sets of patient data. They should put in place a secure, privacy-preserving cloud environment required for the health data analysis tasks, with appropriate access and identification tools for authorised use only, and implement the whole system as described under this topic, seamlessly integrated in regular clinical workflows of the care settings involved. Interoperability and the need to communicate with the health IT infrastructure (e.g. the electronic health record (EHR) of the patient, Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), Radiological Information Systems (RIS), etc.) need to be addressed. The projects should demonstrate the integration and large-scale validation of cloud-based AI/GenAI systems, following a thorough assessment and testing over a large number of patient test cases in real healthcare settings. The proposers are expected to choose the types of health data, the AI/GenAI algorithms that are trustworthy and secure, and the medical use cases, with the focus disease areas being cancer and cardiovascular. The projects should perform technical and clinical validation of the systems, generating evidence on AI systems’ performance and usability in different clinical settings. They shall use the AI systems for screening in clinical settings, perform local performance evaluation and post-deployment monitoring of the solutions, including evidence generation on cost-efficiency in view of regulatory requirements and health technology assessment (HTA). Whenever relevant, each project should deploy AI/GenAI solutions already tested and validated within the TEF for Health.

Expected Outcome: • Optimisation of the operational framework for D&E for the Digital Europe Programme taking into account the elements mentioned under “scope”, with solid methodological and practical approaches. • Identification of distinct types of adopters and the creation of a taxonomy articulating their respective interests and needs. • Support to projects in the preparation and execution of D&E activities, including valorisation and uptake of results via advisory, business support and acceleration services • A plan to deliver on the operational framework backed by monitoring and evaluation metrics. • The delivery of actions implementing the operational framework and involving stakeholders as appropriate, including sector specific and programme-wide events. • The means and tools to facilitate the delivery of the operational framework, including functional and technical requirements for a dedicated results platform. • A plan for the sustainability of the operational framework and the actions implemented by the project. • The dissemination and exploitation of results (including the access to infrastructures) in the specific context of security restrictions and the protection of EU interests overall. • Produce a data base with concrete cases of DEP results, across all Specific Objectives and Implementing bodies, with exemplary dissemination and use of results. Objective: Maximise the impact of the Digital Europe Programme and the take up of its results through a Dissemination and Exploitation (D&E) operational framework and the implementation of practical actions supported by appropriate tools. The action will leverage programme-level D&E efforts already in place and enhance them. The Digital Europe Programme seeks to improve the valorisation of project results and their effective uptake. Dissemination and Exploitation (D&E) activities are therefore expected to make a substantive contribution to the achievement of the Programme’s objectives. The actions funded by the programme need to implement efficient and targeted dissemination and exploitation activities to increase the impact of EU funding. Beyond the D&E works of individual projects, the programme funds support activities in certain thematic fields which support the projects in the respective area. Additionally, there is a clear need for a programme-wide perspective on D&E. An ongoing coordination and support action ( DEDEP.eu ) is designing a conceptual and operational framework for the implementation of effective D&E activities in the programme, helping funded projects to strategically share results with relevant stakeholders and building a corpus of reusable materials and tools. The programme is now entering a pivotal phase in which many initiatives are delivering tangible results. Placing a strong emphasis on the dissemination and exploitation of these outcomes will ensure the wider uptake of existing and forthcoming results, and significantly amplify the overall impact of the programme. Scope: The action will address, at least, the following dimensions: • the overall programme, its Specific Objectives (SO) and areas therein, down to topics and projects where appropriate, across funding instruments in particular grants, procurements and financial instruments; • the capacity building and use strands of Digital Europe Programme, taking into account the type of result and its dissemination and exploitation audience; • the different types of organisations participating in the programme; • the different stakeholders, including final adopters and/or users of the results; • the stages of the project lifecycle and the reporting obligations; • the security and strategic autonomy specificities of the programme, including the implications in the use of critical infrastructures and exploitation of results; • coordination within EU and beyond when relevant, taking into account the policy priorities and initiatives; • within the Digital Europe Programme itself, identifying and exploiting complementarities of projects among SO and topics, including SO specific coordination and support actions and project aggregators; • between the Digital Europe Programme, other EU programmes and national/regional programmes; • of the different programme’s implementing bodies, e.g. European Commission, Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), Joint Undertakings (JUs) and similar bodies, taking into account their specificities in the handling of results resulting from their actions. The action will complement and enrich the D&E activities of the programme’s projects. The action will provide means that can help deliver its objective, including leveraging already existing tools, e.g. of other EU programmes, and the use of innovative approaches to D&E. The action will promote the uptake of Digital Europe Programme results beyond the entities directly involved in the programme’s projects.

Expected Outcome: Deliverables: • Initiatives implemented for the target audience to collect knowledge on learning needs in the area of AI uptake in health. • Training programmes in the area of advanced digital skills for AI uptake in health, designed jointly by higher education institutions, VET providers, research organisations, businesses and other stakeholders in digital health, in collaboration with the network of AI-powered advanced screening centres. • Training catalogue with detailed course planning and timetable, regularly updated. • Final analysis of the completed training and the achievement level reached in improved skills. • A landing page integrated into the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform, showcasing existing and forthcoming education and training initiatives and promoting training offers to the relevant audience. Objective: The academic offer in the area of advanced digital technologies in the EU is still lagging behind other regions of the world, especially when compared to the United Kingdom or the United States [1] even though the number of both bachelor’s and master’s programmes in the EU has increased through the years. Furthermore, apart from delivering excellent programmes in specific digital technologies, there is also a growing demand for interdisciplinary programmes to equip sector specialists with the digital skills to deploy and use advanced digital technologies. The actions under this topic aim at tackling the lack of academic training offer in advanced digital skills in key digital areas, while triggering a new way of delivering education programmes and training, building partnerships between education and training providers, businesses and research across the EU, and supporting the digital skills necessary for the deployment of digital technologies in strategic sectors. 1 This represents an increase of 8% in the number of bachelor programmes and an increase of 14% in the number of master programmes in the area of advanced digital skills. The dataset by the Joint Research Centre on the ‘Academic offer of advanced digital technologies 2022-2023’ is available here: JRC Data Catalogue - Dataset - European Commission Scope: This topic aims to expand the offer of education and training in Artificial Intelligence in health jointly designed between higher education and training institutions, research organisations and industry. The content must reflect the latest policy developments, notably the Apply AI Strategy [1] and the European Health Data Space [2] . It should cover developments in and application of AI and related digital health technologies. The target audience is healthcare professionals, as well as computer and data scientists, programmers, and software developers working in the healthcare sector. Trainings must reflect the learning needs of the target audience and will vary in depth and technical complexity to accommodate different levels of expertise and learning preferences. To this end, the proposed project(s) should design and deliver the trainings in cooperation with the Apply AI Strategy flagship “European network of AI-powered advanced screening centres” [3]. The training courses should be made available to members of the “European network of AI-powered advanced screening centres” at least quarterly. The training sessions and material should be available in English and other EU languages, considering the needs of the target audience that need to be established. The training catalogue and content should be adapted regularly, according to target audience feedback. Whenever applicable, the projects should foster the use of the HealthData@EU infrastructure and other European health data infrastructures (Genomic Data Infrastructure, Cancer Image Europe, the European Virtual Human Twins advanced platform, ICU data space), explore synergies and build on relevant education and training activities developed and provided in the context of those initiatives, as well as in the relevant projects funded by EU4Health or Erasmus+ providing digital skills training for the health workforce [4]. 1 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/apply-ai 2 https://health.ec.europa.eu/ehealth-digital-health-and-care/european-health-data-space-regulation-ehds_en 3 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/apply-ai 4 https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/projects-details/43353764/101056563/ERASMUS2027

Expected Outcome: Deliverable: • Connected National Coalitions for Digital Skills and Jobs to the Core Platform. Objective: The Digital Skills and Jobs Platform provides a single point of information related to digital skills in Europe. At EU level, the Platform gathers all relevant information and funding opportunities for stakeholders to benefit from. At national level, it connects to National Coalition websites, establishing a mutually enriching exchange with relevant content and data on digital skills and jobs. In 2024, 22 national websites are connected to the Platform. Additional Member States websites will be connected by the ongoing project on National Coalitions for Digital Skills and Jobs [1] by 2026. The Platform also hosts the Cyber Security Skills Academy and will host other relevant sectoral academies and initiatives. The objective of this topic is to consolidate and uphold the operation of the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform, including corrective and adaptive maintenance. This topic will also sustain and extend the activities related to the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, as well as deepening the exchange between the National Coalition websites and the core Platform. This topic aims to further increase the number of National Coalitions, to get existing and new National Coalitions to be more active and engaged, and to increase the number of members of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition. Synergies should be sought with the EIT Campus, EIT Digital’s (d)Academy Skills Passport Platform, the EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative (DTTI) and other relevant initiatives. 1 Project selected under the call DIGITAL-2024-ADVANCED-DIGITAL-06-SKILLS. Scope: The action under this work-strand will aim to further extend the activities of National Coalitions’ websites established under CEF calls in 2019 and 2020 and DIGITAL call of 2024, as well as support the creation of new websites in Member States who do not have any National Coalition or website yet. Activities under the second work strand will: • Develop and connect the infrastructures (websites) of National Coalitions that are not yet connected to the Core Platform through interoperable interconnections, integrating and enabling exchanges with the Core Platform components. • Provide access to national/regional/local actors and practices, building interoperable links to provide services relevant to the local context. • Expand and engage National Coalitions that are already connected to the Core Platform. The support to Nation Coalitions in a given Member State can take the form of Financial Support for Third Parties (FSTP) of a maximum amount of 150.000 EUR per third party to allow sufficient funding for the implementation of their activities.

Expected Impact: The objective is to deliver three to four projects that demonstrate the streamlining of regulatory reporting through automated and trusted sharing of compliance data. Each project will address the governance, technical, legal, and processing aspects of the solution. Objective: Specific Objective 2 of the Digital Europe Programme aims to reinforce the EU’s core Artificial Intelligence (AI) capacities as a crucial driver for the digital transformation of the public and private sectors. The vision is to make Europe an AI continent, thriving on the development, integration and adoption of AI. As one of the financial instruments of the upcoming Apply AI Strategy, SO2 will support the development of world class AI models in the EU and foster the integration of AI technologies into EU’s most strategic sectors, including healthcare, energy and research. It will stimulate new industrial uses of AI and improve the delivery of various public services. In addition, it will support the deployment of new digital solutions for regulatory compliance through data. The objective is to reduce the administrative burden of enterprises by applying advanced digital technologies to automatise the reporting process. Objectives This objective will support projects testing digital solutions for transmitting information relevant for compliance with EU legislation (e.g. regulations on environmental issues) and automate the compliance process for a number of pilot use cases. These projects will target regulatory reporting requirements, from aggregate data (e.g., company balance sheets) to detailed data (e.g., transactions, events, and product registrations). The aim is to leverage advanced technologies, including data capturing technologies, automatic transmission, analysis, cloud storage, and encryption, to ensure data security, confidentiality, and regulatory compliance. The strong focus should be given to privacy-preserving technologies to ensure trust between the reporting entity and regulatory authorities, safeguarding data confidentiality while enabling secure and efficient compliance processes. Additionally, the projects will identify burdensome administrative challenges in the selected sectors that could be addressed by automated data-driven solutions, while close collaboration with reporting entities will be essential to enable direct communication with regulatory agencies for automated updates and ensure compliance with evolving regulations. The approach will prioritize access controls and audit trails to enhance transparency and reduce the risk of non-compliance and penalties. Furthermore, the projects could incorporate the European Digital Identity Wallet, when available, to securely identify individuals and legal entities in data spaces, alongside trust services like electronic seals and ledgers. Scope: The activities funded under this initiative will focus on the following aspects: Technical aspects: • Utilize advanced technologies such as privacy-preserving technologies, data capturing technologies, automatic transmission and analysis, cloud storage and encryption for data security and compliance with regulations. • Implement comprehensive APIs to enable real-time compliance and self-compliance checks. • Employ machine learning algorithms for automated monitoring and reporting. • Where possible , use precisely defined concepts available in the data catalogue entries of Common European Data Spaces enabling deterministic data collection. • Establish direct communication channels with regulatory authorities for automated updates and reporting, keeping the system updated with changing regulations (e.g. by expressing the reporting requirements in machine readable and executable way). • Ensure robust access control and maintain audit trails for transparency and accountability. • Minimize the risk of non-compliance and potential penalties through these technological and procedural safeguards. • Integrate the European Digital Identity Wallet for secure identification of individuals and legal entities, when available. • Collaborate with providers of data space services and technology, with a particular emphasis on open-source solutions, such as the European Commission's Simpl programme. • All systems must incorporate robust data privacy and security measures. • Proposers must ensure that the systems developed are open source, interoperable with existing government data systems and adhere to European data standards and specifications. • The system must be scalable to handle large volumes of data and high transaction rates. • The system must be designed with end-users in mind, ensuring ease of use and accessibility. • A comprehensive data governance framework must be established. This should include policies for data quality management, data stewardship, and data lifecycle management. • Proposals should target legislations that have clear, quantifiable compliance metrics that can be automatically assessed using data analytics and they should ensure no overlaps with ongoing initiatives (e.g. Digital Product Passport, Customs reform). • This call aims to explore sectors with significant administrative burden such as agriculture, environment, manufacturing, healthcare and energy.