Horizon Europe: Digital, Industry and Space

About Horizon Europe: Digital, Industry and Space

The investments of the Horizon Europe Digital, Industry and Space Cluster 4 are created to realise the overarching vision of Europe that shapes competitive and trusted technologies for a European industry with global leadership in key areas by enabling production and consumption respecting the boundaries of our planet and maximising the benefits for all parts of society in the variety of social, economic and territorial contexts in Europe.

The Cluster 4 is about upholding EU’s strategic interests and guaranteeing security of supply: Europe’s prosperity and economic competitiveness, and its ability to autonomously source and provide crucial raw materials, technologies and services that are safe and secure for industry.

Europe must develop and deploy technologies and reshape its industries and services, ensuring that industry can become the accelerator and enabler of this necessary change. This is critical not only to be able to compete globally, but also to protect its citizens, deliver services and products of the highest quality, and preserve its values and socio-economic model.

Possibilities with Horizon Europe: Digital, Industry and Space

The Horizon Europe: Digital, Industry and Space Cluster has defined six specific destinations and areas of impact that projects should contribute to:

• Destination 1 – Climate-neutral, circular and digitised production: Aimed at Global leadership in clean and climate-neutral industrial value chains, circular economy and climate-neutral digital systems and infrastructures (networks, data centres), through innovative production and manufacturing processes and their digitisation, new business models, sustainable-by-design advanced materials and technologies enabling the switch to decarbonisation in all major emitting industrial sectors, including green digital technologies. Accelerating the twin green and digital transitions will be key to building a lasting and prosperous growth, in line with the EU’s new growth strategy, the European Green Deal.
• Destination 2 – Increased autonomy in key strategic value chains for resilient industry: Industrial leadership and increased autonomy in key strategic value chains with security of supply in raw materials, achieved through breakthrough technologies in areas of industrial alliances, dynamic industrial innovation ecosystems and advanced solutions for substitution, resource and energy efficiency, effective reuse and recycling as global competitiveness and resilience are two sides of the same coin.
• Destination 3 – World leading data and computing technologies: Globally attractive, secure and dynamic data-agile economy, by developing and enabling the uptake of the next-generation computing and data technologies and infrastructures (including space infrastructure and data), enabling the European single market for data with the corresponding data spaces and a trustworthy artificial intelligence ecosystem. As data becomes the new fuel of the economy and a key asset to address our societal challenges, the EU cannot afford to have the data of its businesses, public sector and citizens stored and exploited largely outside its borders.
• Destination 4 – Digital and emerging technologies for competitiveness and fit for the Green Deal: Open strategic autonomy in digital technologies and in future emerging enabling technologies, by strengthening European capacities in key parts of digital and future supply chains, allowing agile responses to urgent needs, and by investing in early discovery and industrial uptake of new technologies. Electronic and photonic components, and the software that defines how they work, are the key digital technologies that underpin all digital systems.
• Destination 5 – Open strategic autonomy in developing, deploying and using global space-based infrastructures, services applications and data: Reinforcing the EU’s independent capacity to access space, securing the autonomy of supply for critical technologies and equipment, and fostering the EU's space sector competitiveness.
• Destination 6 – A human-centred and ethical development of digital and industrial technologies: Through a two-way engagement in the development of technologies, empowering end-users and workers, and supporting social innovation. The rapid adoption of new technologies offers an immense potential for improved standards of living, safer mobility, better healthcare, new jobs, or the personalisation of public services. At the same time, it presents risks such as skills mismatches, digital divides, customer lock-in, or serious breaches of security or privacy.

Requirements for Horizon Europe: Digital, Industry and Space

There are three primary requirements for a project to be eligible for support from Horizon Europe: Digital, Industry and Space:

• Height of Innovation - the project/technology must be novel and solve a European problem in digital, industry and/or space.
• Elaborated business case and exploitation strategies, including large market potential and/or socioeconomic impact - min. 100M EUR over 5 years.
• The project requires collaboration by at least three partners from three Horizon Europe countries.