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Call key data
Backbone connectivity for Digital Global Gateways - Works
Funding Program
Connecting Europe Facility - Digital
Call number
CEF-DIG-2024-GATEWAYS-WORKS
deadlines
Opening
22.10.2024
Deadline
13.02.2025 17:00
Call budget
€ 128,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
max. € 20,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
CEF Digital will support the deployment or upgrade of backbone networks, particularly submarine cable infrastructures, that meet any of the following conditions: 1. connect at least two Member States; 2. connect a Member State with one or several of its islands, outermost regions, or overseas countries and territories; 3. connect one or several Member States and third countries, including accession and neighbourhood countries, directly, or indirectly via other cable infrastructures linked to the Union.
Call objectives
CEF Digital will not support projects that concern routes already served by at least two present or credibly planned submarine cables capable to deliver performances matching the current and foreseeable demand and compliant to EU security standards, in particular regarding ownership and high risk suppliers as described in section 8 of the CEF Digital Work Programme. Only in projects concerning territories (e.g. small islands, hard to reach mountainous regions or territories with limited population density) where backbone connectivity needs can be served using satellite infrastructure, will this technology be taken into account when assessing the lack of redundancy.
In case of co-funding from national funds (including Cohesion Funds), State aid rules apply (see section 10 of the Work Programme for details).
The proposed project should be self-standing by providing connectivity according to the objectives of the call, even if the action is part of or will contribute to a wider objective (e.g. a section of a longer cable). The proposal will be evaluated on the basis of its specific objectives as well as its potential contribution to the wider system (existing or credibly planned).
For works, the total project costs required to construct and deliver the described networking solution for the foreseen system lifetime, from end to end, including cable landing stations and the connectivity towards them are covered by the scope of this call. In the case of satellite backbone solutions, only the costs linked to the construction of satellite ground stations and their interconnection with local networks are within the scope of the call. Furthermore, the proposal should justify the planned satellite constellation infrastructure on which the ground station will rely upon so that the sustainability, security and resilience of the end-to-end connectivity is also evaluated.
Costs related to an “Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU)” would normally be classified as rental/leasing of the equipment/infrastructure/asset according to the full cost option foreseen under Article 6.2.(c)(2) of the MGA, but may exceptionally be assimilated to the costs of purchasing equipment, infrastructure or other asset where the rental/lease is concluded effectively for the lifetime of the equipment during which it will be fully depreciated if justified by: (1) the nature of the action, (2) the context of the use of the equipment or assets and (3) its contribution to the achievement of the specific policy objective of the Call. Every situation will require a case-by-case assessment. The proposal must include some form of infrastructure building or upgrading, equipment installation or deployment, in addition to costs corresponding to the IRU.
In any case, the assessment of the quality of the proposal will consider the infrastructure to be built or upgraded.
The proposal must describe in section 0 of the application form the technical specifications of the planned infrastructure along with the detailed price breakdown, to justify its cost-effectiveness. Any costs for operating the infrastructure during its lifetime and extra components at the landing sites not required for the basic end-to-end connectivity such as data centres, hosting facilities and other services will be excluded under the call. Exceptionally, costs covering construction of the local access network can be eligible in order to take advantage of the reinforced backbone infrastructure, in areas where there is no access network capable of supporting gigabit connectivity and when such infrastructure is unlikely to be developed in the near future. Project costs may include ancillary costs required to construct the local access network if these solutions address the identified market failure and provide a sufficient step change. In such a case, costs related to the deployment or significant improvement of the access network must not exceed 5% of the entire project costs.
Costs related to ”smart” cables are in the scope of this call. Where possible, the deployment of “smart” cable systems may enable applications such as:
- Sensing of seismic, volcanic eruptions and tsunami events, giving possibility for an early warning to civil protection;
- Monitoring of critical energy (e.g. gas pipes, electric cables) and digital infrastructure which can be disrupted by natural cause, involuntary activity, or sabotage;
- Monitoring of events occurring along roads, railways, waterways that are nearby the deployed “Smart” digital infrastructure;
- Monitoring environmental conditions (e.g. temperature, currents) and marine fauna, for research purposes;
- Gathering information in areas where there are no, or limited means, to observe (e.g. deep waters, arctic region) and analyse data relevant for environmental monitoring, climate change or the observation of endangered species;
- Detection of abnormal events provoked by accidental or deliberate malevolant activity, security threats and detection and prevention of sabotage.
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Expected effects and impacts
The expected benefits go beyond those directly related to supported projects and contribute to bridging the digital divide and ensuring widespread access to Gigabit networks for all EU citizens and businesses. Moreover, this connectivity infrastructure can cross-facilitate the implementation of other topics supported under CEF Digital, such as the availability of HPC-related facilities, etc.
Additionally, the use of data from “smart” cables could have a positive impact for the society in other policy areas such as environmental monitoring (particularly for the climate change), civil protection (for major incidents such as earthquakes and tsunamis).
Key performance indicators for this topic will include: i) the total length of the backbone or, for wireless solutions, the distance between transmission/reception stations, and ii) the additional (significant) transmission capacity created as a result of the projects supported by CEF. For submarine cables the number of fibre pairs, the current capacity per fibre pair, as well as the technology chosen and whether the system is repeated or unrepeated should be mentioned in the proposal, too.
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Expected results
Activities identified as studies are also eligible for funding under this topic when included in a proposal for Works. This includes preparatory work required prior to signing a contract with a supplier, such as marine ground surveys for submarine cables and application for required permits. When applicants submit a proposal to the Works topic which includes studies and works, the studies’ component should be necessary for the proposed works. Applicants cannot submit the same studies activities to the two topics (Studies and Works) under this call.
Studies activities should be executed in separate work packages and can then benefit from the funding rate specific for studies (see Form of grant, funding rate and maximum grant amount). Note that the higher funding rate for works in outermost regions (see Form of grant, funding rate and maximum grant amount) does not apply to studies activities if included in the same proposal.
Proposals’ activities must take place in the eligible countries. Pursuant to Article 16(a) of the CEF Regulation, activities may take place in the territory of third countries and associated expenditures may be eligible if the project of common interest (article 8, article 9 (4) (d) and point 3 of the CEF Regulation Annex Part V) involves the territory of one or more third countries as referred to in Article 5 or Article 11(5) of this Regulation or international waters. Furthermore, the activities taking place in the third countries shall be indispensable to the achievement of the objectives of the project. The security declaration of the beneficiaries should cover, amongst others, the compliance of the activities performed in the third country/ies with the call security requirements.
Beneficiaries can be operators, utilities, authorities, investors and vendors i.e., entities supplying hardware (including cables, equipment, devices) or systems (including software) that are essential for the project.
Proposals funded under this topic may include synergetic (ancillary) elements relating to another sector of the CEF programme, i.e. energy and transport. When these synergetic elements allow to significantly improve the socio-economic, climate or environmental benefits of the project, funding may be provided as long as the cost of these synergetic elements does not exceed 20% of the total eligible costs of the project.
All proposals must describe, in section 0 of the application form, the ownership of the supported infrastructure after completion of the project and describe the mechanism that will be used to provide services, including business models. In particular, any arrangements foreseen to guarantee the provision of services on a non-discriminatory basis to access seekers, as well as the operational relationship(s) between the different participants in the value chain for providing services should be elaborated in the proposal.
The evaluation of proposals shall prioritise those offering the higher level of wholesale access to third parties. Proposals must therefore include also in section 0 of the application form a description of whether or how they intend to provide such wholesale access. Amongst others, this description may indicate the range of access products, the duration of the access, the method to determine access prices and the business model implemented (wholesale only or others). These elements will be taken into account in the evaluation of the proposal, in particular to assess its expected impact on competition.
To demonstrate their financial sustainability, proposals must present their financial analysis. The proposals must describe, under the financial gap section of the application form part B, whether the project has other sources of public or private funding, as well as the magnitude of revenues generated over the lifetime of the infrastructure. The financial analysis must be supported by the calculation sheets and credible forecasts.
The applicants furthermore have to describe in detail in the section 5.1 of the application part B the level of market failure observed in the concerned geographical location or route, why it is dependent on co-financing to make this project happen (financial gap), and what percentage of co-financing is necessary. To demonstrate how the CEF funding will help overcome the financial gap, the applicants should describe also other possible private, regional, national, EU and international co-funding sources and how they plan to engage them if they have not done it yet.
Moreover, applicants are encouraged to demonstrate in their proposals that:
- the proposal aims to fill a gap in backbone infrastructures, supported by evidence (e.g. mapping), which may address the need to establish new or alternative secure routes, or to increase the capacity and resilience of existing infrastructures, remove risks, vulnerabilities or dependencies on unsecure infrastructures;
- the proposal contributes to a significant increase of the supply chain security through measures to include in the selection of any supplier to ensure the availability of components, technologies, systems and knowhow required in the planning, acquisition, construction, operation, maintenance and repair of the backbone infrastructures;
- the proposal should have geostrategic importance, in view of the interests of the Union and its Member States, notably to ensure a high level of security of the EU backbone infrastructure;
- the proposal fulfils connectivity needs that will not be met by private investments alone, due to the risks involved;
- the proposal combines budget from other funding programmes such as NDICI, ERDF or IPA III;
- the proposal increases the sustainability of backbone infrastructures by reducing their climate, energy and overall environmental impact.
Proposals that address the connectivity needs of a region or he whole EU, integrating complementary routes that improve redundancy and include state-of-the-art technological solutions, with clear benefits in terms of cost-efficiency and synergy between actors (stakeholders, regions, Member States, etc.), are encouraged. Cooperation with other actors to achieve the aforementioned benefits is encouraged and may be based on the reuse or extension of existing studies or works, sharing or upgrading capacities to fulfil the needs of the concerned stakeholders.
Priority will also be given to proposals with a smaller climate and environmental negative impact among proposals servicing similar areas, or with similar scores.
Please consult p. 11-13 of the call document for more information regarding the digital security requirements.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
eligible entities
Education and training institution, International organization, 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
No
Project Partnership
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- 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))
- non-EU countries (except for topics with restrictions; see below): countries associated to the CEF Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries)
Please note however that this call is subject to restrictions due to security reasons. This means that only the following countries are eligible: EU Member States. Participation in any capacity (as beneficiary, affiliated entity, associated partner, subcontractor or recipient of financial support to third parties) is limited to entities from eligible countries (see conditions for PCI involving the territory of one or more third country in Section 2). Project activities (included subcontracted work) must take place in eligible and target countries (see section geographic location below and section 10). The Grant Agreement may provide for IPR restrictions (see section 10).
Specific cases:
- Entities from other countries (not listed above) are exceptionally eligible for projects of common interest, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action.
- Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legalpersonality separate from that of the natural person).
- International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.
- Entities without 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 guaranteesfor the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.
other eligibility criteria
There are no specific eligibility conditions concerning consortium composition for this call.
Financial support to third parties is not allowed.
The available call budget is split between two calls: CEF-DIG-2024-GATEWAYS-WORKS and CEF-DIG-2024-GATEWAYS-STUDIES.
The costs will be reimbursed at the funding rates fixed in the Grant Agreement (maximum 50% for the costs of studies, maximum 70% for the costs of works in outermost regions, and maximum 30% for all other costs categories (‘project funding rate’)). You can apply for a higher project funding rate if your project concerns: strong cross-border dimension: maximum 50%.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
36 months
Additional Information
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & 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 parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.
The application form will have threeparts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), and the summarised budget for the project
- Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.
- Part C (to be filled in directly online, for Works topic only) containing additional project data
Mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded)
- detailed budget table per WP (template available in the Submission System)
- activity reports of last year (unless exempted from operational capacity check; see section 7)
- list of previous projects (key projects for the last 4 years) (template available in Part B)
- timetable/Gantt chart (template available in the Submission System)
- letters of support from all MS benefitting from the project (MS agreement) (template available in the Submission System)
- ownership control questionnaire, including for subcontractors and associated partners (template available in the Submission System)
- security declarations signed by the participating entities (for Works proposals only)
- security guarantees approved by the respective authorities of the associated third country or other third country, in case of third country entities participation (template available in the Submission System). Exceptionally, should a third country require more time to provide its approval, the applicants must submit, by the call deadline, a copy of the security guarantee and the acknowledgment of receipt of the request by the third country. In this case, the security guarantees approved by the third country must be sent by the proposal coordinator to HADEA-CEF-DIGITAL-CALLS@ec.europa.eu by 11 April 2025, 17:00:00 (Brussels time) at the latest, identified with the proposal ID in the email subject.
- declaration from the coordinator, on behalf of the consortium, that the planned backbone infrastructure addresses a market failure in terms of lack of redundancy, capacity or another type of market failure as described in section 2 (to be uploaded in the Submission System in “Other annexes”)
- business plan financial spreadsheet (for Works proposals only, template available in the Submission System)
- other annexes.
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 120 pages.
Call documents
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