Call: Preparatory actions for the data space for tourism

The general objectives of the Digital Europe Programme shall be to support and accelerate the digital transformation of the European economy, industry and society, to bring its benefits to citizens, public administrations and businesses across the Union, and to improve the competitiveness of Europe in the global digital economy while contributing to bridging the digital divide across the Union and reinforcing the Union’s strategic autonomy, through holistic, cross-sectoral and cross-border support and a stronger Union contribution.

The Programme shall be implemented in close coordination with other Union programmes as applicable, and shall aim:

1. to strengthen and promote Europe’s capacities in key digital technology areas through large-scale deployment;
2. in the private sector and in areas of public interest, to widen the diffusion and uptake of Europe’s key digital technologies, promoting the digital transformation and access to digital technologies.

It will reinforce EU critical digital capacities by focusing on the key areas of artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, advanced computing, data infrastructure, governance and processing, the deployment of these technologies and their best use for critical sectors like energy, climate change and environment, manufacturing, agriculture and health. Thus, the Programme shall have five interrelated specific objectives:

1. Specific Objective 1 – High Performance Computing
2. Specific Objective 2 – Artificial Intelligence
3. Specific Objective 3 – Cybersecurity and Trust
4. Specific Objective 4 – Advanced Digital Skills
5. Specific Objective 5 Deployment and Best Use of Digital Capacity and Interoperability.

The Digital Europe Programme is strategic in supporting the digital transformation of the EU industrial ecosystems targeting upskilling to provide a workforce for these advanced digital technologies. It supports industry, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and public administration in their digital transformation with a reinforced network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH). The Programme will accelerate the economic recovery and drive the digital transformation of Europe.

Specific Objective 1- High Performance Computing

The financial contribution from the Union under Specific Objective 1 – High Performance Computing shall pursue the following operational objectives:

1. deploy, coordinate at Union level and operate an integrated demand-oriented and application-driven world-class exascale supercomputing and data infrastructure that shall be easily accessible to public and private users, in particular SMEs, irrespective of the Member State in which they are located, and easily accessible for research purposes, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1488;
2. deploy ready to use operational technology resulting from research and innovation in order to build an integrated Union HPC ecosystem, covering various aspects in the scientific and industrial value chain segments, including hardware, software, applications, services, interconnections and digital skills, with a high level of security and data protection;
3. deploy and operate post-exascale infrastructure, including integration with quantum computing technologies and research infrastructures for computing science and encourage the development within the Union of the hardware and software necessary for such deployment.

Specific Objective 2 – Artificial Intelligence

The financial contribution from the Union under Specific Objective 2 – Artificial Intelligence shall pursue the following operational objectives:

1. build up and strengthen core AI capacities and knowledge in the Union, including building up and strengthening quality data resources and corresponding exchange mechanisms, and libraries of algorithms, while guaranteeing a human-centric and inclusive approach that respects Union values;
2. make the capacities referred to in point (a) accessible to businesses, especially SMEs and start-ups, as well as civil society, not-for-profit organisations, research institutions, universities and public administrations, in order to maximise their benefit to the European society and economy;
3. reinforce and network AI testing and experimentation facilities in Member States;
4. develop and reinforce commercial application and production systems in order to facilitate the integration of technologies in value chains and the development of innovative business models and to shorten the time required to pass from innovation to commercial exploitation and foster the uptake of AI-based solutions in areas of public interest and in society.

Specific Objective 3 – Cybersecurity and Trust

The financial contribution from the Union under Specific Objective 3 – Cybersecurity and Trust shall pursue the following operational objectives:

1. support the building-up and procurement of advanced cybersecurity equipment, tools and data infrastructures, together with Member States, in order to achieve a high common level of cybersecurity at European level, in full compliance with data protection legislation and fundamental rights, while ensuring the strategic autonomy of the Union;
2. support the building-up and best use of European knowledge, capacity and skills related to cybersecurity and the sharing and mainstreaming of best practices;
3. ensure a wide deployment of effective state-of-the-art cybersecurity solutions across the European economy, paying special attention to public authorities and SMEs;
4. reinforce capabilities within Member States and private sector to help them comply with Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council including through measures supporting the uptake of cybersecurity best practices;
5. improve resilience against cyberattacks, contribute towards increasing risk-awareness and knowledge of cybersecurity processes, support public and private organisations in achieving basics levels of cybersecurity, for example by deploying end-to-end encryption of data and software updates;
6. enhance cooperation between the civil and defence spheres with regard to dual-use projects, services, competences and applications in cybersecurity, in accordance with a Regulation establishing the European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre and the Network of National Coordination Centres (the ‘Cybersecurity Competence Centre Regulation’).

Specific Objective 4 – Advanced Digital Skills

The financial contribution from the Union under Specific Objective 4 – Advanced Digital Skills shall support the development of advanced digital skills in areas covered by the Programme in order to contribute to increasing Europe’s talent pool, bridge the digital divide and foster greater professionalism, especially with regard to high performance and cloud computing, big data analytics, cybersecurity, distributed ledger technologies (e.g. blockchain), quantum technologies, robotics, AI, while taking gender balance into account. In order to tackle skills mismatches and to encourage specialisation in digital technologies and applications, the financial contribution shall pursue the following operational objectives:

1. support the design and delivery of high-quality, long-term training and courses, including blended learning, for students and for the workforce;
2. support the design and delivery of high-quality, short-term training and courses for the workforce, in particular in SMEs and in the public sector;
3. support high-quality on-the-job training and work placements for students, including traineeships, and the workforce, in particular in SMEs and in the public sector.

Specific Objective 5 – Deployment and Best Use of Digital Capacities and Interoperability

The financial contribution from the Union under Specific Objective 5 – Deployment and Best Use of Digital Capacities and Interoperability shall pursue the following operational objectives while bridging the digital divide:

1. support the public sector and areas of public interest, such as health and care, education, judiciary, customs, transport, mobility, energy, environment, cultural and creative sectors, including relevant businesses established within the Union, to effectively deploy and access state-of-the-art digital technologies, such as HPC, AI and cybersecurity;
2. deploy, operate and maintain trans-European interoperable state-of-the-art digital service infrastructures across the Union, including related services, in complementarity with national and regional actions;
3. support the integration and use of trans-European digital service infrastructures and of agreed European digital standards in the public sector and in areas of public interest to facilitate cost-efficient implementation and interoperability;
4. facilitate the development, update and use of solutions and frameworks by public administrations, businesses and citizens, including of open-source solutions and the re-use of interoperability solutions and frameworks;
5. offer the public sector and the Union industry, in particular SMEs, easy access to testing and piloting of digital technologies and increase the use thereof, including their cross-border use;
6. support the uptake by the public sector and the Union industry, in particular SMEs and start-ups, of advanced digital and related technologies, including in particular HPC, AI, cybersecurity, other leading edge and future technologies, such as distributed ledger technologies (e.g. blockchain);
7. support the design, testing, implementation, and deployment and maintenance of interoperable digital solutions, including digital government solutions, for public services at Union level which are delivered through a data-driven reusable solutions platform aiming to foster innovation and establish common frameworks in order to unleash the full potential of the public administrations’ services for citizens and businesses;
8. ensure the continuous capacity at Union level to lead digital development, in addition to observing, analysing and adapting to fast-evolving digital trends, and share and mainstream best practices;
9. support cooperation towards achieving a European ecosystem for trusted data sharing and digital infrastructures using, inter alia, services and applications based on distributed ledger technologies (e.g. blockchain), including support for interoperability and standardisation and by fostering the deployment of Union cross-border applications based on security and privacy by design, while complying with consumer and data protection legislation;
10. build up and strengthen the European Digital Innovation Hubs and their network.

Objective:

Tourism is a major economic activity in the European Union with wide-ranging impact on economic growth, employment, and social development. It can be a powerful tool in fighting economic decline and unemployment. Nevertheless, the tourism sector, one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, needs support to face sectoral challenges exacerbated by the recent developments.

The main objective is to prepare for the development of a secure and trusted data space to enable the tourism sector to share and access data allowing for an increase in its economic and environmental performance. The space may also serve common good purposes. The data space is expected to facilitate the sharing, processing and analysis of various types of data produced, maintained and used by the key actors of the sector. The data space will provide easy, cross-border access to key datasets, deploying trust mechanisms (security and privacy by design).

A tourism data space, connected to other sectoral data spaces (e.g. cultural heritage, media or mobility), will provide access to information to the stakeholders in the tourism ecosystem across the EU. This will positively contribute to the competitiveness, greening and sustainability, emergence of innovative business models and upskilling within the tourism sector. It will give the possibility to align the offer with tourists’ expectations, adapting service proposals to new tourist groups, predict a high influx of tourists and thus plan resources more efficiently, and even creating new business opportunities.

Scope:

The project will explore conceptual approaches and possible options for the future deployment of this data space. Provisions for transparent control of data access, use and re-use; development of governance and business models for the data space are to be developed.

This analysis should take into account the evolving regulatory environment, the importance of interoperability and common standards across different data spaces, as well as the ongoing preparation of a Code of Conduct on data sharing in the tourism sector, which is expected before the summer 2022 (more information on the Code of Conduct can be obtained by email at grow-G1@ec.europa.eu).

The preparatory action will establish a multi-stakeholder data governance, an inventory of existing data platforms for tourism and a blueprint for tourism-specific building blocks which could contribute to the long-term convergence of existing and new data-related initiatives in tourism by making use of the Data Space technical infrastructure.

The preparatory action will support the deployment of these data spaces for tourism, and propose sustainable business models and incentives schemes to motivate participants to share data.

The funding will enable the establishment of a data sharing governance mechanism, with a detailed roadmap on how the data space for tourism will connect sectoral and local data at EU level that can be interconnected with other data spaces. The project will grow organically, building on different EU, national and regional initiatives and public data ecosystems, and strengthening EU the connection between existing and future repositories of data. The project will:

• Undertake an inventory of existing platforms sharing relevant data for the tourism sector
• Explore different possible design approaches for the data space (e.g. serving private data sharing and interests that are complemented by public data, or serving private and public interests), and elaborate the advantages and disadvantages
• Engage the community of stakeholders including associations acting at EU/multi-country level representing relevant stakeholders, national entities involved in tourism and public administration and/or governmental bodies
• Develop a multi-stakeholder data sharing governance scheme, bringing together local data ecosystem stakeholders, to jointly identify the data infrastructures to federate in order to enable a data space for tourism at EU level, and the challenges to sharing these sets.
• Elaborate a blueprint for the data space for tourism based on existing EU legislation and data policies, as well as on common principles agreed at sector or local levels.
• Bring an agreed set of priority datasets and data themes, including real-time data into conformity with the new blueprint standards and principles.

The awarded consortium will work in liaison with the Data Spaces Support Centre (see work programme section 2.2.2.1) and the Alliance for Industrial Data, Cloud and Edge, to ensure alignment with the European Data Spaces Technical Framework with and the rest of the ecosystem in work programme section 2.2.1 thereof, notably concerning common tools such as:

• a data space reference architecture, building blocks, common toolboxes and cloud services;
• common standards, including semantic standards and interoperability protocols, both domain-specific and crosscutting;
• data governance models, business models and strategies for running data spaces, with the aim to recommend possible common tools, building on existing data ecosystems.

Expected Outcome:

• Inventory of existing platforms sharing data and repositories relevant for tourism
• An analysis regarding access to as well as gaps and overlaps of data, and identifying potential common building blocks with other data spaces created in the EU together with a priority list of data sets relevant for the tourism data space
• A sustainable data sharing governance as well as a blue print that interconnects existing local data ecosystems and enables public and private stakeholders to develop tourism related data-driven services, including AI-enabled data services, on the basis of many types of data
• A detailed roadmap towards a sustainable Data Space for Tourism, building on national initiatives and interconnecting with other Data Spaces
• A set of technical specifications for interoperability with the European Data Spaces Technical Framework and other sectorial data spaces.

• be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature

• Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).
• International organisations are NOT eligible, unless they are International organisations of European Interest within the meaning of Article 2 of the Digital Europe Regulation (i.e. international organisations the majority of whose members are Member States or whose headquarters are in a Member State).
• EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.

• a consortium of at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) and which complies with the following conditions:
  • minimum 3 independent entities from 3 different eligible countries

• Associations acting at EU/multi-country level representing relevant stakeholders, national and regional or local entities involved in tourism;
• public administration and/or governmental bodies, and/or private bodies, in charge of managing tourism strategy for their territory of competence;
• leading research institutes and organisations with legal expertise and proven expertise in data analytics and tourism management;
• SMEs and industry stakeholders active in the field of tourism, or in sectors immediately affecting the tourism ecosystem

• Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants  and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)
• Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded)
• mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded):
  • list of previous projects (key projects for the last 4 years)
  • ethics issues table
  • ecurity issues table