ELEVATE: European League of Advanced Digital Skills Academies DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09-LEAGUE-OF-ACADEMIES

The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) has launched the 9th Digital Europe Call for Advanced Digital Skills (DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09) under the Digital Europe Programme to fund projects that strengthen advanced digital skills in line with the EU's Digital Decade and Competitiveness Compass goals. The first topic of the call aims at establishing the European League of Advanced Digital Skills Academies (ELEVATE) — an overarching framework designed to guide governance, enhance coordination, and ensure coherence among various sectoral initiatives. ELEVATE will foster synergies and support the effective implementation of objectives across existing efforts such as the Cybersecurity Skills Academy, the EuroHPC Skills Community, and the newly created advanced digital skills academies in AI, Virtual Worlds, Quantum, and Semiconductors. It will also align with other EU-funded projects focused on advanced digital skills, including DIGITAL-funded specialised education programmes, in order to reduce fragmentation. The consortium is expected to establish an agile governance structure and stakeholder engagement plan, develop quality and certification frameworks for ICT education, create mentoring, fellowship, and alumni networks, conduct market analysis on advanced digital skills supply and labour demand, and implement a communication strategy and repository hosted on the DSJP to share outcomes and best practices EU-wide.