Digital Europe Programme

The Digital Europe programme is designed to bridge the gap between digital technology research and market deployment. On this page we summarise the key programme information.

Digital Europe Programme summary

Digital Europe Programme will benefit Europe’s citizens and businesses, especially SMEs. Investment under the Digital Europe Programme supports the European Union’s twin objectives of a green transition and digital transformation while strengthening the Union’s resilience and digital sovereignty.

The Digital Europe Programme will reinforce EU’s critical digital capacities by focusing on the key areas of AI, cybersecurity, advanced computing, data infrastructure, governance and processing, the deployment of these technologies and their best use for critical sectors like energy, climate change and environment, manufacturing, agriculture and healthcare.

General funding information

Total budget: €7.6 billion (2021-2027)

Funding rate: 50%

Eligibility: only EFTA countries that are members of the EEA are associated (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

Scope: It will provide funding for projects in five crucial areas: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society.  The Programme is fine-tuned to fill the gap between the research of digital technologies and their deployment, and to bring the results of research to the market. Included: Supercomputing, AI, Cybersecurity, Advanced Digital Skills

Digital Europe Programme 2023-2024 Work Programme

The ongoing work programme has the following objectives (see work programme for full description:

• Address climate and environment challenges by enhancing Destination Earth, establishing green data space, and enabling circular economy transition.
• Deploy sectorial common data spaces with federated cloud-to-edge infrastructure, support high-impact activities like Exploitation Office, and accelerate cloud-based collaborative platforms.
• Accelerate AI adoption with ecosystem development, compliance with forthcoming AI Act, and focus on healthcare sector applications.
• Strengthen EU’s readiness and response to cyber threats.
• Enhance digital education and training, bridge gender gap in ICT professions, and support digital skills platform.
• Invest in blockchain adoption, interoperable digital public services, and building confidence in digital transformation.

Digital Europe Programme budget allocation

Under 2023-2024 Work Programme the available budget is €983 million allocated across a range of actions according to the objectives.

• €90 million for actions supporting the Destination Earth initiative including the core platform, data lake and related digital twins;
• €377 million for actions supporting actions for AI adoption, compliance mechanism and deployment, as well as the deployment of Common Data Spaces including sectorial data spaces and the supporting Cloud-to-Edge infrastructure and services;
• €35 million for incidence response support and Preparedness of Key sectors in the area of cybersecurity;
• €121 million for actions on advanced digital skills in key capacity areas through specialised education programmes and other actions;
• €202 million for actions related to deployment of digital technologies, such as the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, activities in the area of sectorial IT solutions for justice and consumers, building confidence in digital transformation and deployment of solutions for public services, support to multi-country projects, including EDICs as well as support to Trans-European Services for Telematics between Administrations (TESTA);
• €46 million for supporting Interoperable Europe actions that aim to ensure the development of interoperable trans-European digital public services;
• €10 million for Investment Platform for Strategic Digital Technologies;
• €67 million for Chips Fund
• €35 million for Other actions, including Programme Support Actions, and support of the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act enforcement.