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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.

European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09-COMPETITIONS

The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) has launched a call for proposals 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 European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions initiative will serve as a catalyst for engaging young European people in cutting edge digital technologies. The competitions will support their creativity and connect them to the wider community of research organisations and industry players with the aim to address a highly relevant societal or industrial challenge. There will be six competitions each covering one of the following areas: AI, Virtual Worlds, quantum, semiconductors, the Destination Earth initiative as well as an additional area chosen by the consortium. The selected project will define at least three challenges for each competition. These challenges will address significant European or local societal, technological, and/or complex industrial issues, developed in close collaboration with Europe's leading research institutions and industry partners. Each challenge should involve multiple competing teams. These teams must include students from tertiary education institutions or equivalent, representing at least four different education and training institutions across four different EU Member States or countries associated with the DIGITAL Programme. Teams may also consist of students from a single institution. The active participation of women in the teams is strongly encouraged. The consortium is expected to design challenges, produce rulebooks, develop roadmaps, create communication strategies, organise an Award Ceremony in Brussels, and deliver a sustainability plan to ensure the competitions continue beyond the project's duration. The funding supports coordination and support actions with a 100% funding rate. The expected project duration is 48 months with a maximum available budget of EUR 7,000,000 per project.