Specialised education programmes in key capacity areas: Join the discussion and find project partners!

Objective:The call seeks to support excellence in higher education institutions, making them world leaders in training the digital specialists of the future and to increase the capacity of the educational offer in the area of advanced digital skills. This should lead to the development of dynamic digital educational ecosystems where higher education institutions as well as innovative partners from industry and research work together to attract and retain the best talents worldwide. Actions funded under this topic will contribute to the target of 20 million ICT specialists in the EU by 2030, as set in the Digital Decade Policy Programme. These actions will also contribute to closing the digital skills gap, as currently, the EU has a significant and systemic gap between market needs and what is offered in terms of skills related to advanced digital technologies.  

Scope: The primary objective of this topic is to support the design and delivery of higher education programme(s) at ISCED levels 6 (Bachelor's or equivalent level), 7 (Master's or equivalent level) or 8 (doctoral or equivalent level) leading to a degree and to develop related self-standing modules (online, hybrid or in-person) leading to a certification. These programme(s) and module(s) need to be co-designed jointly between higher education institutions and industry as well as research partners and other partners in the consortium (if applicable). The choice of the type of programme(s) and self-standing module(s), as well as the precise curricula and the modalities (e.g. bachelor, master or doctoral programme; single or joint degree; academic or professional programme, etc.) is left to the consortium to determine.

Proposals under this topic must address the design and delivery of one of the following types of programmes:

• Type 1: Programme(s) to build up advanced digital skills in one of the following key digital areas:
  a. Virtual worlds
  b. Edge computing
  c. Quantum computing8
  d. Photonics
  e. Robotics and automatization
• Type 2.1: Interdisciplinary programme(s), targeting at the acquisition of advanced green digital skills related to specific technologies such as AI, data analytics, extended reality, robotics, cloud computing, internet of things and machine learning in the following specific sectors related to the green transition:
  f. Agriculture
  g. Transport
  h. Renewable energy
  i. Waste management
• Type 2.2: Interdisciplinary programme(s), targeting at the acquisition of advanced digital skills for:
  j. Government and public sector 

Consortia can deliver more than one programme leading to a degree (irrespectively if they choose type 1 or 2) in the selected digital area or strategic sector (a.-j.) and are required to additionally develop self-standing modules leading to a certification. The proposals should clearly identify the type of programme: type 1 the digital area (a-e.) or type 2 strategic sector (f-j.) as the main focus of their programme(s) and self-standing modules.

Funding: € 55.000.000
Deadline: The application deadline is 21 November 2024 – 17:00:00 CET (Brussels)
Call Text: The call for proposal text can be viewed here. 
Call Information: Available on the Funding & Tender Portal.
Info session: On 5 July 2024, the European Commission will present the DIGITAL Europe Programme call for proposals in a dedicated Info Day and Pitching Event.

Find Project Partners & Prepare Proposals  

Do you want to find consortia partners and participate in this call?  

Simply use the Comments feature at the bottom of this tread to introduce your organisation, express your interest in creating or joining a consortia, indicate your desired role in the project, and provide a link to your Member Profile on the platform or your personal email address. You can see some organisations have already added their profiles below, so feel free to follow their lead! 

You can also message Community Members directly using the new Private Messages feature, just click the Messages button on the top right of the screen when you are logged in as shown in the screen grab below. This is an excellent way to contact potential partners in a secure and discrete manner. 

If you want to receive email notifications with the latest comments and posts by potential partners just click the Subscribe button beside the title of this thread: 

If you have questions or comments our Community Team are ready and waiting to help.  

Best of luck with your proposals!