Introduction

The European Commission has proposed the Digital Europe Programme 2021-2027 (DEP), with a planned (decision on the overall budget is still pending and might be subject to changes) overall budget of €9.2 billion, which will shape and support the digital transformation of Europe’s society and economy. It will focus on building the strategic digital capacities of the EU and on facilitating the wide deployment of digital technologies like supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring a wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society.

One mechanism for implementing these objectives are the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH). They can help ensure that every company, small or large, high-tech or not, can grasp the digital opportunities that Europe  has to offer. EDIHs act as one-stop-shops where companies - especially SMEs, startups and mid-caps - can get access to technology-testing (“test before invest”), financing advice, market intelligence and networking opportunities.

Member States and regions should invest in the creation or reinforcement of EDIHs that support their national/regional digitalisation strategies. The EU supports the collaboration of EDIHs to create an EU-wide network. With the current budget proposal for Digital Europe, it is foreseen to support between 130 – 260 hubs within the EU (and between 3 - 7 in Austria).

European Process

To build up this network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) it needs a strong collaboration between Member States (MS) and the European Commission (EC). In preparation of the first call on EDIHs in the Digital Europe Programme, Member States are asked to identify a number of potential EDIHs that are geographically spread across the country and are able to respond to industrial and public sector demand. The MS shall designate, in accordance with their national procedures, a list of hub candidates to the EC. All received designated entities will be evaluated on their eligibility by the EC who will adopt a Commission Decision under Article 16(3) DEP (examination procedure) listing the names of all eligible entities that will form part of the initial network.

As a next step, all designated hubs listed in the initial network, will be invited to respond to a restricted call for proposals on EDIHs.

National Process – Expression of Interest (EoI)

Therefore the BMDW in cooperation with the BMK and with support of FFG invite entities, after reviewing the following information, to participate in the Expression of Interest (EoI) and to propose their concept for a European Digital Innovation Hub. The Call is open from 15.06.2020 until 24.07.2020, 12:00 and it can be participated by submitting the online questionnaire at the end of this information page. After the submission of the EoI and before forwarding the list of potential entities towards the EC, a quality check as well as validation step will be executed by BMDW, BMK as well as FFG.

Eligible target groups - Expression of Interest (EoI)

Eligible for raising their EoI are Austrian organisations that received funding in the last 5 years within the following national funding schemes:

• COMET – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies (K1 and K2),
• Christian Doppler Labors,
• Josef Ressel Zentren,
• national Digital Innovation Hubs,
• Pilotfabriken (manufacturing as well as process industries),
• test regions (eg AAL, automated driving, smart grids)
• Urban Mobility Labs
• Leitprojekt in Thematic Programmes
• regional funding schemes (Bundesländerförderung)

Austrian core partners have to describe their competence in relation to EDIH functions but also identify the lacks of expertise needed to make a EDIH fully operational. Partners filling up these gaps can be identified at a later stage. The concept for a EDIH should have a clear defined thematic focus within the thematic objectives of the Digital Europe Programme. Given the importance of Artificial Intelligence and its wide applicability in all sectors, the EC expects that at least one of the hubs nominated in each country will be specialised in AI. The anchorage in a regional ecosystem must be shown. Proposing “trans-national hubs”, serving neighbouring regions in different countries, is also allowed, as long as this hub is proposed by all of these countries.

Organisations submitting a national EoI shall already now orientate on the eligibility criteria for the upcoming restricted call (see details in: European Digital Innovation Hubs in Digital Europe Programme -Draft working document (05-05-2020)).

Other interested parties

Organisations that are at this point of time not eligible for this call for EoI, but are interested to joint  a project at later stage, are invited to register for the FFG Newsletter by sending with an eMail to [email protected], subject “newsletter”. You will be kept up to date on the recent development in the EDIH process and get information about events (eg brokerages to join a consortium) and new opportunities.

Essential background information

For submitting an EoI, we strongly recommend to get familiar with the applicable draft documents and discussions relevant for European Digital Innovation Hubs. The main draft working document is the “European Digital Innovation Hubs in Digital Europe Programme” (version: 05-05-2020) containing essential information about e.g. functionalities of EDIHs, eligibility and selection criteria or investment principles. Although addressing mainly policy makers, useful information on better understanding the policy context, or a step-by-step approach for creating a new DIH, can be found in the “Handbook and good Practices for European Digital Innovation Hubs” (version: 14-04-2020). All documents can be found in draft on the EC Website “Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in Europe” and in the download centre.

Disclaimer

The EoI are non-binding and serve as a basis for the Austrian candidate list of potential EDIH, which will be provided to the EC in autumn 2020.

Submitting an EoI is not a commitment for subsequent funding. BUT submitting an EoI is mandatory to be on the Austrian candidate list and this is a prerequisite (after passing the EC eligibility check) to be in the initial network eligible for the restricted call.

All documents provided in the download centre are draft documents and may be subject to changes and supplements.
 
Please refer to the questionnaire for more information
>> to the EDIH Expression of Interest form