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Call key data
Energy Data Space
Funding Program
Digital Europe
Call number
DIGITAL-2024-CLOUD-AI-06-ENERSPACE
deadlines
Opening
29.02.2024
Deadline
29.05.2024 17:00
Funding rate
50%
Call budget
€ 8,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 8,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
The objective is to deploy a reliable and secure common European data space for energy announced in the European Strategy for Data and the EU Action plan on digitalising the energy system.
Call objectives
This data space will broaden access to data needed to develop innovative energy services that will help to balance and optimise the electricity grids and improve the energy efficiency of the built environment. It will play a key role in increasing the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources and thus advancing towards the goals set by the ‘Fit for 55’ package and the RePowerEU plan. The energy data space will be closely linked to other sector-specific data spaces (e.g. mobility and smart communities) and will thus enable actors from various sectors such as building automation and electro-mobility to actively participate in the energy market, deliver energy services, promote sector integration (the linking of various energy carriers - electricity, heat, cold, gas, solid and liquid fuels - with each other) and facilitate electrification of the end-uses such as heating/cooling and transport. This will allow them to contribute to the efficient use of energy, boost the use of renewables, and support the integration, collaboration and information exchange between different sectors as well as create new business opportunities.
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Expected effects and impacts
- (Technical) infrastructures for the common European Energy Data Space covering all the building blocks mentioned above and addressing the identified use cases.
- Fully defined use cases that are deployed through the data space.
- Suitable business models that ensure the maintenance and upscaling of the common European energy data space beyond the lifetime of the project and the accessibility of the federated data.
- Governance system for the common European energy data space.
- Biannual reports on connections between relevant local and national data ecosystems and initiatives at EU level, as well as with other sectoral data spaces. •
- Guidance/training documents to involve stakeholders in sharing data.
- Once the data space is operational, regular reports on usage data and maintenance.
Expected results
Proposal(s) should foresee the deployment of the first version of a common European energy data space and its infrastructure building as much as possible on the results of the ongoing Horizon Europe projects establishing the grounds for the common European energy data space. Any additional existing deployments (federated data sources or data hubs) in the Member States or at European level, should be considered and integrated as far as possible.
Specifically, proposals under this action should address:
- Deployment of a first version of a common European energy data space at scale (in at least 10 Member States) and identification and piloting of at least five use cases (e.g., distributed energy resources (DER) management, provision of flexibility services for electricity grids (e.g., grid balancing, congestion management, voltage control) based on digitally-enabled energy assets, smart and bi-directional electric vehicle (EV) charging (which could include dynamic energy optimization of large EV fleets, etc.) addressing at least two of the three policy priorities (high level use cases described in the EU Action plan on digitalising the energy system).
- Use a commonly agreed reference architecture, replicable and scalable building blocks, e.g., data models and formats, data exchange APIs, data provenance and traceability, metadata and service discovery, identity management /identification and authentication, data access and usage control arrangements, business agreements, operational agreements, governance agreements. In particular regarding data interoperability arrangements, the data space should be based on agreed minimal interoperability mechanisms that will align energy relevant key stakeholders on a set of minimal sufficient capabilities needed to achieve interoperability of data, systems and services between the key players of the energy value chains at all levels (European, national and local). Interoperability with other data spaces (e.g. mobility or smart communities' data space), on the appropriate level, shall be considered from the outset, whenever possible.
- Consider a complete set of common open standards, including semantic standards such as SAREF, ontology and data interoperability, both domain specific and cross-cutting.
- Define suitable business models with the objective to ensure financial sustainability of the energy data space beyond the end of the project.
- Implement a governance system for overseeing the operations of the energy data space according to the defined business models.
The deployment of the energy data space will build on previous actions, in so far as possible, supported under the Horizon Europe programme (as mentioned above) and should leverage on existing national or regional efforts.
The selected proposal(s) will use, in so far as possible and when available, the smart cloud-to-edge middleware platform Simpl. They will also work in close cooperation with the Data Spaces Support Centre in order to ensure alignment with the rest of the ecosystem of data spaces implemented with the support of Digital Europe Programme, in particular in view of a data spaces reference architecture, common building blocks, toolboxes and standards; and data governance models. The project will work in close cooperation with specific stakeholder expert groups on smart energy and energy data established by the European Commission. Right from the outset, the awarded proposal(s) is/are expected to work towards achieving financial sustainability by the conclusion of the action and consider relevant actions in this respect.
Relevant stakeholders to implement this action are all entities which have an active role in managing energy system operations and in energy markets, e.g. an increasing share of SME/midcaps of providers of energy services to consumers (data users) as well as all entities which conclude data agreement(s) in view of providing flexibility services.
The active participation of data providers and users from the project's inception is highly recommended since it will ensure that the data space is designed and structured to meet their needs, making the data space more relevant and leading to increased adoption rates and a stronger sense of ownership of data providers and users by the end of the project’s runtime.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Iceland (Ísland), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Liechtenstein, Montenegro (Црна Гора), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна)
eligible entities
Education and training institution, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
Proposals must be submitted by minimum 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be:
- legal entities (public or private bodies)
- established in one of the eligible countries:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- EEA countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein)
- other countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme (list of participating countries)
Specific cases:
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 — 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 — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.
Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’.
other eligibility criteria
Geographic location (target countries) Due to restrictions due to security: − the proposals must relate to activities taking place in the eligible countries (see above).
Projects involving EU classified information must undergo security scrutiny to authorise funding and may be made subject to specific security rules (detailed in a security aspects letter (SAL) which is annexed to the Grant Agreement).
Financial support to third parties is not allowed.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
36 months
Additional Information
Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section. Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:
- Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) 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):
- detailed budget table/calculator: not applicable
- CVs of core project team: not applicable
- activity reports of last year: not applicable
- list of previous projects (key projects for the last 4 years) (template available in Part B): applicable
- ownership control declarations (including for associated partners and subcontractors): applicable
Proposals are limited to maximum 70 pages (Part B).
Call documents
DIGITAL-2024-CLOUD-AI-06 Call documentDIGITAL-2024-CLOUD-AI-06 Call document(749kB)
Contact
Website
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