The Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) is an EU funding programme focused on bringing digital technology to businesses, citizens and public administrations. The Digital Europe Programme provides strategic funding to answer these challenges, supporting projects in 5 key capacity areas: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring a wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society, including through Digital Innovation Hubs. A new capacity area on semiconductors was added in September 2023 as the Chips Act entered into force. With an overall budget of €8.1 billion, it aims to accelerate the economic recovery and shape the digital transformation of Europe’s society and economy, providing benefits to all, but particularly to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Yes, countries participating in the Digital Europe Programme appoint National Contact Points (NCPs) who contribute to the promotion of actions and policies supported by the programme. These contact points provide on-the-ground guidance to potential applicants and beneficiaries throughout the project lifecycle. They also collaborate with NCPs in other participating countries to facilitate networking and cooperation among stakeholders. You can reach the national contact points in Türkiye at: https://dijitalavrupatest.sanayi.gov.tr/iletisim. Additionally, contact details for NCPs in other programme countries can be found via the Funding and Tenders Portal.

Co-funding is based on actually incurred costs. The EU funding rate of 50% applies to the action’s eligible costs that have actually been incurred within its duration (see Article 6 of the General Model Grant Agreement for more information on the cost eligibility conditions). Moreover, as stated in section 13 of the call document, grants may not give a profit (i.e. surplus of revenues + EU grant over costs). Any given action may receive only one grant from the EU budget and cost items may under no circumstances be declared to two different EU actions (except under EU Synergies actions).

Proposals must be submitted online before 17.00 CEST on the day of the call deadline. A step-by-step guide can be found on the Funding and Tenders portal. Do: Start on time - there are actions to undertake before submission (find partners, register an organisation). Don’t: Wait until the last moment to submit your proposal. Note that you can submit as many times as you want. Every submitted version will overwrite the previous one (which will be erased and cannot be retrieved). The call closing date and time are fixed.

The applicants eligible to apply for programme calls, application conditions, target group, number of consortium members, etc. may vary depending on the call and are defined in the relevant call guidelines for each call. The institutions eligible to apply for each call vary. Generally, public and private sector organisations, SMEs, universities, and NGOs can apply for programme calls. Applications without a consortium partner can be submitted for calls that do not require a consortium. For calls requiring a consortium, which were first opened on 17 November 2021, it is generally expected that the consortium will be structured with three partners from three different countries. However, in some calls, this number may be structured with five or six partners. Detailed information on the calls and application conditions is available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/fundingtenders/opportunities/portal/screen/programmes/digital.

Third countries may participate in the Programme as Associated Countries. However, Article 12(5) of Regulation (EU) 2021/694 establishing the Digital Europe Programme states that legal entities established in Associated Countries may be excluded from participating in all or certain actions under Specific Objective 3: Cybersecurity, due to security reasons. This provision will be applied restrictively, and unless otherwise specified in the Work Programme, entities from third countries will not be eligible to apply for calls in the field of cybersecurity. Similarly, Article 12(6) of the Regulation provides that legal entities established in Associated Countries may participate in all or certain actions under Specific Objectives 1 and 2, namely HPC (High-Performance Computing) and AI (Artificial Intelligence), provided that the participation guarantees the protection of the essential security interests and classified information of the EU and its Member States.

You can search for calls and tenders and access detailed information about the application process through the Funding and Tenders Portal. In addition, you can also access the open calls under the Programme via the “Open Calls” section on our website.

The call document provides more details than the topic description originating from the work programmes, and constitutes the main reference for evaluation.

Funding is provided for the different activities explained in the work programme and the call for proposals. We provide funding to beneficiaries who implement those activities via reimbursing costs incurred by the beneficiary in connection with the action. A patent for a product is not a condition to participate in the Programme nor is it the main objective of the Programme to finance products, which received a patent, but it can be part of an action if the activity is in the scope of a call. You can also mention procurements and other activities if you intend to.