This event represented a joint initiative of the Digital Large-Scale Partnership and its member Skills Alliances – Artificial Intelligence Skills Alliance, Blockchain Skills for Europe Alliance, and Cybersecurity Skills Alliance – and brought together research and innovation stakeholders to explore collaborative ventures for the development of educational programmes in key digital sectors.

It focused on the opportunities offered by two open calls for proposals under the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes, namely:

• HORIZON-EIE-2024-CONNECT-02-01: Expanding Academia-Enterprise Collaborations (Deadline: 19 September 2024 17:00 CEST)
• DIGITAL-2024-ADVANCED-DIGITAL-07-KEYCAPACITY: Specialised Education Programmes in Key Capacity Areas (Deadline: 21 November 2024 17:00 CEST)

Participants also had the chance to engage in one-to-one meetings and pitch their project ideas, receive feedback, and explore potential collaborations during an online matchmaking session. 

• HORIZON-EIE-2024-CONNECT-02-01: Expanding Academia-Enterprise Collaborations: This action fosters the creation of innovation ecosystems with educational and research institutions or strengthens their existing links. Proposals should outline activities for supporting educational and research institutions to take a greater entrepreneurial role, e.g. through boosting innovation and entrepreneurship within their activities. Learn more about this call for proposals here.

• DIGITAL-2024-ADVANCED-DIGITAL-07-KEYCAPACITY: Specialised Education Programmes in Key Capacity Areas: The primary objective of this topic is to support the design and deliver a higher degree education programme(s) at ISCED levels 6, 7, 8 (doctoral or equivalent level) in selected key digital areas and for the acquisition of advanced digital skills in specific strategic sectors: virtual worlds, edge computing, quantum computing, photonics, and robotics and automatization. Learn more about this call for proposals during a dedicated info day on the 5th of July here.