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Call key data
Green and digital skills and training needs for a just transition
Funding Program
Horizon Europe - Cluster 4 - Destination 6: A Human-centred and Ethical Development of Digital and Industrial Technologies
Call number
HORIZON-CL4-2023-HUMAN-01-54
deadlines
Opening
08.12.2022
Deadline
29.03.2023 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 2,500,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
around € 500,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
The Commission has proposed to make 2023 the European Year of Skills. The development and dissemination of innovative training programmes which equip the labour force with green and advanced digital skills has to be part of the solution. Proposals may focus on the skills needs of occupations in one or more specific industrial sectors.
Call objectives
In order to tackle climate and environmental-related challenges, Europe is committed to transform its economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and becoming climate neutral by 2050. Delivering on the green transition can have a positive effect on the total number of jobs in the EU with almost 1 million jobs being added with the right policies in place. However, in order for the transition to be successful and fair, existing and new workers need to be equipped with the right skills. In order to do that, they should have access to lifelong learning and dedicated up-skilling and reskilling programmes.
In a similar way, advanced digital skills require more than mastering coding or having a basis of computing sciences. With emerging technologies around quantum, AI, big data and other key technologies, the need for ICT specialist is increasing. For example, there were only 7.8 million ICT specialists in 2019 with a prior annual growth rate of 4.2%. If this trend continues, Europe will be far below the projected need of 20 million experts e.g. for key areas underlying its competiveness and enabling the green transition. More than 70% of businesses report a lack of staff with adequate skills as an obstacle to investments.
In light of these needs, the Commission has proposed to make 2023 the European Year of Skills. The development and dissemination of innovative training programmes which equip the labour force with green and advanced digital skills has to be part of the solution. Proposals may focus on the skills needs of occupations in one or more specific industrial sectors. They should build on the existing Erasmus+ Blueprint Alliances for sectoral cooperation on skills where available (introduced in the 2016 New Skills Agenda for Europe, and gradually rolled out for an increasing number of sectors), as well as on the existing large-scale skills partnerships in industrial eco-systems under the Pact for Skills following the 2020 European Skills Agenda. Where relevant, outcomes from this call should feed into the Deep Tech Talents Initiative, for instance through cooperation with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in designing a mechanism to monitor and report on deep tech skills that support the green and digital transition, the related education and training programmes and its dissemination in Europe.
Skills development should take into account the twin green and digital transition and support labour markets with the aim to increase EU growth potential, including by fostering deep-tech solutions.
Proposals should address at least two of the following aspects:
- Identify, along with relevant stakeholders, specific green or digital skills, defined as those needed to underpin the ongoing and upcoming digital and green transition of the economy to climate neutrality by 2050 and the 2030 digital decade targets, with a particular focus on those that are in shortage; this should take account of the work in the action on skills to support the twin transitions in the European Skills Agenda, in particular the taxonomy of green skills in ESCO;
- Devise, test and implement scalable (e.g. through ESF+ or EIT) skills development programmes and trainings to endow the labour force with the identified green or digital skills, with the aim to skill, re-skill and up-skill the workforce as stated in the European Skills Agenda and the new European Innovation Agenda;
- Where possible, such trainings should be designed with a particular focus on the needs of workers that are at risk of becoming redundant due to structural transformations related to the green or digital transition or whose task profiles are expected to change significantly, or currently unemployed people;
- Develop deep tech skills and training programmes in the fields critical for the green and digital transitions, such as circularity, raw and advanced materials, energy-intensive and manufacturing industries, clean-tech, and digital technologies;
- Support certification and recognition of the green and digital skills and competences, where possible within the relevant accreditation model such as the EIT Label.
Proposals should have a clear strategy for identifying the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed training. Proposals should also indicate the number of beneficiaries they expect to reach with the project outcomes: both during the initial project duration, and in a possible follow-up project/during scale-up. They should anticipate questions related to the scalability and dissemination of the resulting output, for instance by involving suitable stakeholders.
Where relevant, the proposals should build on and feed into the mechanism developed and applied by EIT such as the Deep Tech Talent Initiative (DTTI), a pioneering programme that aim to skill one million people within European deep tech fields over the next three years. The important dimension of the EIT DTTI is to ensure that companies and industry representatives are part of the curricula development and that curricular elements are continuously updated in line with the changing labour market needs in the technology area.
Proposals should also explain how the activities support transferability, certification and recognition of the skills and competencies, following relevant industry standards or horizontal models, such as EIT Label for non-degree education and training.
Proposals should envisage collaboration and synergies with related projects such as Bridges 5.0.
All output material should be published with a ‘Creative Commons license’ to allow further use free of charge.
This topic requires the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.
Social innovation is recommended when the solution is at the socio-technical interface and requires social change, new social practices, social ownership or market uptake.
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Expected results
- Reduce skills gaps that hold back the green and digital transitions, by developing and disseminating suitable skills development programmes and training modules, including to prepare future scale-up e.g. through ESF+ or the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
- Support collective action on skills development by companies and providers of education and training, and hence support deep-tech innovation; and contribut=e to the European Year of Skills 2023, to the large-scale skills partnerships in key industrial ecosystems under the Pact for skills, and to the flagship to skill, re-skill and up-skill talents in the deep tech fields outlined in the Commission’s new European Innovation Agenda.
- Support the training of advanced ICT-specialist skills or other key digital technologies’ skills that would contribute to industrial leadership and strategic autonomy and rely on advanced specialised know-how, and to reaching the digital decade targets.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
EU Body, Education and training institution, International organization, Natural Person, 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
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
- third countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries
Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
- at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
- at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
- Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
- 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 to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- Joint Research Centre (‘JRC’)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible
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)
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 two parts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
- 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.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 33 pages.
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum.
To ensure a balanced portfolio covering skills in the different areas, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking, but also to projects covering different areas, provided that the applications attain all thresholds.
Call documents
HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 4, Destination 6HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 4, Destination 6(799kB)
Contact
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