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Pact for Skills
  • Call for proposals
  • Open

European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions

The European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions project will design and launch six high-impact student challenges in cutting-edge digital fields to foster innovation, collaboration, and skill development across Europe.

Details

Status
Open
Publication date
10 November 2025
Opening date
Deadline model
Single-stage
Deadline date
3 March 2026, 17:00 (CET)
Industrial Ecosystem
  • Digital
Level of funding
  • EU level

Description

Overview

Objectives

The European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions will engage young Europeans in cutting-edge technologies through project-based challenges developed by top research and industry consortia. Held across the EU, competitions span six digital areas and aim to foster creativity, collaboration, and innovation while tracking progress toward strategic digital transformation goals.

Activities/actions supported

This initiative will develop six challenges for the European Digital Skills Competitions across key digital areas, engaging students in societal and industrial issues. It aims to promote skill-building, teamwork, and innovation through tournaments and prize schemes. Collaboration with academies, industry, and EU initiatives ensures broad impact and effective dissemination across Europe.

Anticipated outcomes

The project will deliver well-defined, timely challenges for the European Advanced Digital Skills Competitions, a comprehensive rule book for participants and jury, a detailed implementation roadmap, and the full roll-out of six competitions. It will also include sustainability plans to ensure long-term impact beyond the project’s completion.

Institution providing the funding

Digital Europe

Size of funding

EUR 7 200 000

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

Eligible applicants must be legal entities established in EU Member States, listed EEA countries, or countries associated with the Digital Europe Programme. Natural persons and most international organisations are excluded. Entities must register in the Participant Register and be validated.

Overview of award criteria

Projects are evaluated on relevance, implementation, and impact. Relevance assesses alignment with EU digital goals and policy contributions. Implementation examines project maturity, planning, and applicant capacity. Impact measures expected outcomes, societal and environmental benefits, and competitiveness.

Procedures

Application procedures

Sample of application form

Online manual

More information on the application procedure is available in the text of the call below.

Application support available

IT helpdesk

Useful links

Link to funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info