Open Call for Project Proposals from European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) in Associate Countries

The open call, funded under the Digital Europe Programme, has the objective to strengthen and extend the existing network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH), covering all regions of the European Union and Associated Countries, including the EU outermost regions.

The aim is to upgrade these entities to provide the complete set of services of an EDIH, including the necessary infrastructure, covering the needs of the local SMEs, small mid-caps and/or public sector organisations with respect to their digital transformation. In addition, proposals are required to network these EDIHs with each other and with other projects selected in Digital Europe Programme developing capacities in High Performance Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Advanced Digital Skills and accelerating the best use of technologies.

Targeted stakeholders

European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) are single entity or a coordinated group of entities with complementary expertise and a not-for-profit objective to support on a large scale the digital transformation of companies (especially SMEs and small midcaps) and/or public sector organisations. Typical entities contributing to an EDIH will be research & technology organisation (RTO) or university labs offering technology services, which could work in collaboration with partners whose expertise lies in business development, public sector innovation or training such as for example chambers of commerce, industrial clusters, industry associations, the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), incubators, vocational training centres or similar.

Expected Outcomes

• Each selected project will contribute to the digital transformation of local SMEs, small mid-caps and/or public sector organisations, in their geographical area and for the technologies of their competence.
• EDIHs provide services such as testing before investing, training and skills development, support to find investments, networking and access to innovation ecosystems.
• Projects will also contribute to building a network of EDIH, covering all regions in Europe, addressing the needs of the public and private sectors, including all economic sectors, offering a wide range of specialised digital transformation services.

Eligibility Requirements

The call is open only to entities or consortia whose coordinators have been designated by Associated Countries through a national process in accordance with national procedures, administrative and institutional structures. Under this call, Associated Countries include:

• Ukraine
• Türkiye
• Serbia
• Kosovo
• Montenegro
• North Macedonia
• Albania

The selection of the EDIHs will follow a two-step process:

1. Associated Countries are responsible to designate potential EDIHs through a national process
2. The European Commission has launched this call restricted to the selected associated countries and also to the countries that will be in the process of signing an Association Agreement to the programme, pending ratification of the agreement.

All those entities selected after the restricted call will be part of the Network of European Digital Innovation Hubs.

Funding:

• The estimated available call budget is EUR 14 600 000.
• The indicative number of grants is 7.
• Budget is allocated separately for each Associated Country. Each project will be funded from the budget of the corresponding associated country as mentioned in open call document.

Deadline: April 10th, 2024 at 17.00 CET.