Last week, the European Commission opened new calls for proposals under the 2023-2024 Work Programmes of the Digital Europe Programme to strengthen digital capacities across the EU. The calls are open to businesses, public administrations, and other entities from the EU Member States, EFTA/EEA countries, and associated countries. Over €12 million has been allocated for projects under these calls focusing on continuing support for the creation of data spaces, a cornerstone of the EU data strategy.

• These Digital Europe Programme calls will see €8 million in grants for projects and follow the Commission’s recent communication on the building blocks for a common European tourism data space. The European tourism data space is a key deliverable of the tourism transition pathway, making the tourism ecosystem more resilient, digital and sustainable. The data space will boost data-sharing among tourism businesses, destinations and public authorities, which will have an impact on productivity, greening and sustainability, innovative business models and upskilling. This will help tourist destinations understand what tourists are looking for and tailor their offerings accordingly, predict when tourists are likely to come, and allow destinations to plan.
• There will also be a further planned investment of €4 million for the deployment of a data space for cultural heritage. This will make more high-quality European cultural content available, particularly in 3D, foster the reuse of digitised cultural resources and provide more opportunities for the community to offer enriched services, thanks to the use of advanced technologies.

Under the previous Digital Europe 2021-2022 Work Programme, the foundation was laid for the development of 12 data spaces in key areas of public interest. The opening of these Digital Europe programmes calls for proposals under the 2023-2024 Work Programme ensures the continuation of this work, in particular as regards the further deployment of sectorial data spaces. More information as regards applying for grants for these calls for proposals is available online.

Further calls under the 2023-2024 Work Programme will be published later this year.