Ukraine joins "Digital Europe" EU programme. What does it mean?

The EU programme "Digital Europe" provides funding for the digitalization of European countries. The goal is to accelerate economic recovery and digital transformation.

 

The total fund of the Digital Europe Program is 7.5 billion euros. Ukraine will have access to 4 out of 5 capacity areas with a total budget of about 6 billion euros (for the period 2021-2027):

High-performance computing - 2.2 billion euros. Funding will be provided to projects that compute large amounts of data for solutions in the field of economy, health care or defense industry.

Artificial intelligence, data and cloud services — 2.1 billion euros. These are projects that create products based on artificial intelligence to facilitate the work of enterprises, state administrations or research institutions.

Digital skills - 580 million euros. Projects that create opportunities for acquiring new skills in the IT field are submitted under this direction.

The use of digital technologies in the economy and society - 1.1 billion euros. Projects implementing digitization in business or in the field of e-government, health care, environment, education and culture, Smart City technologies can be submitted here.

 

The EU also cancelled paying contributions for participation in the programme during 2021-2022 for Ukraine. We also received a 95% discount on financial contributions during the years 2023-2027.

 

Participation in the programme brings Ukraine closer to the EU's Single Digital Market. This is an opportunity to adopt the experience of EU countries, to share our own, as well as to strengthen joint digital capabilities and more effectively counter russian aggression. The programme will contribute to the development of Ukrainian companies, researchers and state authorities with the EU through the construction of joint digital infrastructures, and will also contribute to further digital transformation.

 

Ukrainian enterprises, organizations and state administration bodies have the opportunity to submit their projects and receive funding. This autumn, available work programmes, competitive proposals and details on how to apply will appear on the official website of Digital Europe.