European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions

Yes, one institution may be part of many consortia in different proposals. There is no limitation for participation per institution.

The call document can be found here. Moreover, the information day and matchmaking event recordings and relevant info/documentation can be accessed digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu. Depending on the skills, competence and interest of your organization, you may search for consortium partners in line with the requirements of the topic indicated in the call document as linked above. Match making event recordings or the relevant section on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal may help you to reach out to interested partner organisation to form/join a consortium.

Natural persons are NOT eligible to apply to the programme with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person.

Competing teams will have to be composed by students from at least tertiary level education institutions or equivalent. If the training entity and the group of students in questions comply with such requirements they can participate in the competitions.

The compulsory documents are Part A, Part B and the list of previous projects. Any other document uploaded to the system will not be taken into consideration during the evaluation.

The call DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09 including both topics of DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09-LEAGUE-OF-ACADEMIES — ELEVATE and DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09-COMPETITIONS are actual costs grants and the budget needs to follow the actual cost grant budget format. The distribution of cost between Work Packages depends on the design of the proposal and this is the responsibility of the consortium.

There is no such breakdown defined by the call document. The available budget for the funded project under DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09-COMPETITIONS is EUR 7 000 000 in total. Each Consortium will define its own budget breakdown in the proposal.

Part B page limit is 50 pages for Coordination And Support Actions. Part B should follow the pre-defined template that can be found on the Submission system. Regarding the design of the Work Packages, it is left completely to the applicant consortia to decide.

For DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09-COMPETITIONS, 1 project will be funded, with a maximum budget for funding of EUR 7 000 000.

Projects that are being funded under Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) funding can not apply to the topic DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09-COMPETITIONS. Under this topic, no definition of centres of excellence is provided. The common meaning of centres of excellence applies - for example, an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support, or training for a focus area; an entity that has papers accepted in conferences and published in scientific journals on the areas of relevance for the competitions.

The main objectives under the topic DIGITAL-2026-09-COMPETITIONS are the following:

1. addressing a highly relevant European or local societal, technological and/or industry relevant challenge,

2. attracting participation of a large number of students from tertiary level education institutions or equivalent and helping them to develop their skills (with the focus on hands-on advanced digital skills training and/or experiences),

3. raising the students’ awareness and understanding of team and project-based work as well as applied research and innovation in the digital technologies, and

4. developing creative and solution-oriented thinking to drive technological innovation and support the EU’s digital transition. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that both the objective of nurturing and developing students' skills and developing innovative solutions to problems are in scope.

Under DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-09-COMPETITIONS topic it is indicated that the competitions will address highly relevant European or local societal, technological and/or industrial challenges, understood as difficult tasks or problems to be solved. There is no specific requirement on the level of development of the solution - theoretical or practical.

Centres of excellence are listed among the targeted stakeholders. There is no specific requirement regarding their involvement, it will be the same expected from the other targeted stakeholders in terms of deliverables and outcomes of the project.

The requirement for a detailed plan to ensure the financial sustainability of the competitions after the end of the project does not imply that the consortium must continue organising the competitions itself once EU funding ends. The intention is that the proposal demonstrates how the results, structures and formats developed under the project could enable future editions.

Financial sustainability in this context refers to ensuring that the competition model is transferable and can be taken up by interested stakeholders, rather than a commitment by the consortium to fund or deliver future rounds.

The competitions will take place in EU Member States and/or in countries associated with the DIGITAL Programme. Any on-site events linked to the competitions should be hosted in these countries. The communication activities should reach the largest possible audience in as many EU Member States, EFTA countries and countries associated with the DIGITAL Programme as possible.

The selected project will identify at least 3 distinct challenges for each of the 6 competitions in the 6 digital areas, meeting the criteria mentioned in the Scope section of the call documentPDF. In the proposal, challenges do not need to be described in details. The details can be further developed during the project duration and will have to be submitted as project deliverables.