On September 5, 2022, the European Commission signed an agreement on the accession of Ukraine to the Digital Europe Program as an associated country. The Digital Europe Program – a program complementary to the Horizon Europe program – started in 2021 and will continue until 2027. It is aimed at providing enterprises, citizens and state administrations with digital technologies.
The agreement will contribute to the rapprochement of Ukrainian companies, researchers and state authorities with the EU in the field of building joint digital infrastructures. And it will also strengthen joint digital capabilities and reduce challenges caused by Russian aggression.
Ukraine "demonstrated extraordinary resilience and technological prowess in the fight against Russian invasion and in the digital space. Thanks to this agreement, the EU and Ukraine will benefit from each other's know-how and expand our digital capabilities," explained Margret Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Era, the essence of the agreement.
In general, the Digital Europe program is designed to respond to the challenges facing Europe by supporting projects in five key areas: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cyber security, advanced digital skills and ensuring the widespread use of digital technologies in the economy and society, in particular through digital innovation hubs.
The first four working programs implementing digitization are:
- DIGITAL Europe - EDIH Work Programme 2021-2023 (.pdf), specifically dedicated to the European Digital Innovation Hubs
- DIGITAL Europe - Cybersecurity Work Programme 2021-2022 (.pdf)
- DIGITAL EUROPE - High Performance Computing (managed by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking) Decision No 07/2022 - Work Programme and Budget Amendment no. 2 (.pdf) and Decision No 01/2021 - Amended EuroHPC Work Plan 2021 and budget 2021 (.pdf)
In addition to the four specific programs mentioned above, all activities will be implemented through tenders of the general program DIGITAL Europe Work Programme 2021-2022 (.pdf).
The next competitions will be announced soon.
Learn more about participating in competitions and receiving funding
According to information from the Informatics Department of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine