A human-centred and ethical development of digital and industrial technologies (2023/24)
This destination will directly support the following Key Strategic Orientations (KSOs), as outlined in the Strategic Plan:
Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway contributing to the following expected impact:
The priorities in this domain are aligned with the objectives of the Digital Decade to build secure and sustainable digital infrastructures and to support the digital transformation of businesses and public services. It will directly support individual innovators (researchers, developers, high-tech SMEs and start-ups, etc.) engaged in developing the technologies for a trustworthy and human-centric digital environment, building on a more resilient, and decentralised internet architecture and enabling new social and business models respecting European values.
In particular, the Digital Decade and its compass set a target 80% of citizens using a digital ID solution by 2030. In order to achieve this target, Europe needs to build an Internet of Trust empowering end-users with more control over their data and their digital identity. The Internet of Trust will also mobilise innovators towards more sustainable and secure internet infrastructures, supporting the Digital Decade objective of setting up 10000 climate neutral highly secured edge nodes. Finally the R&I priorities in this domain will fully support the international dimension of the digital decade by promoting the EU human-centred approach with key international partners.
As Europe takes the lead in the green and digital transitions, workers, regions, and societies are faced with extremely fast transformations, and will be differently affected by these changes, creating opportunities for inclusive technological and social development, but also carrying the risk of increased inequalities. 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.
As Europe sets off on its path to recovery towards a greener, digital and more resilient economy and society, the need to improve and adapt skills, knowledge and competences becomes all the more important. All communities have the right to benefit from these new digital and green developments, leading to a more inclusive society, increased trust and a better adoption of new products and services. Developments in digital and enabling technologies have the potential to enhance social inclusion, can inform up-skilling training programmes and ensure a two-way engagement with society with regard to developing technologies.
The issue of trust has become central in the use of technologies, following revelations about the exploitation of personal data, large-scale cybersecurity and data breaches, and growing awareness of online disinformation. As outlined in the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence (COM(2020)65), for AI technologies, trust requires in particular improving transparency (explainability, expected levels of performance). For the Internet, increasing trust requires new tools and services to ensure that GDPR is a reality for end-users.
It is also an opportunity for Europe to re-gain presence on the consumer electronics market, by developing new interactive applications in various sectors with solutions meeting European values and requirements in terms of privacy and security. The COVID-19 crisis has also shown how important distance and innovative learning is for society.
Actions under this Destination will support EU objectives of inclusiveness, by supporting a human-centred approach to technology development that is aligned with European social and ethical values, as well as sustainability. These actions will further contribute to addressing the challenges faced by European industry and support the creation of sustainable, high-quality jobs by targeting skills mismatches, the need to empower all workers, and ethical considerations relating to technological progress.
Actions should devote particular attention to openness of the solutions and results, and transparency of the research process. To ensure trustworthiness, public awareness and support, wide adoption by user communities for the benefit of society, actions should promote the highest standards of transparency and openness. Actions should ensure that the processes and outcomes of research and innovation align with the needs, values and expectations of society, in line with Responsible Research and Innovation.
This Destination is structured into the following headings, which group topics together with similar outcomes to address a common challenge:
The objective of this heading is to ensure autonomy for Europe in AI, leading the way in research, development and deployment of world-class technologies that are beneficial to humans individually, organisationally and societally, and that adheres to European values, such as the principles reflected in our fundamental rights and environmental sustainability. Technologies need to be developed that industries and citizens will trust, so and that they could be applied in a wide range of applications and industrial sectors. Trustworthy AI is particularly key in applications such as (but not limited to) healthcare or in diverse critical infrastructures such as energy and transportation.
Some topics of this heading are under the co-programmed Partnership ‘AI, Data and Robotics’.
Proposals are encouraged to link with relevant European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), in particular the EIT Digital.
EIT Digital plays role in shaping technologies and innovations that work for people. At least two of its focus areas, Digital Wellbeing and Digital Cities, address directly topics such as ethical artificial intelligence, predictive analytics or augmented and virtual reality that are relevant to this areas. The solutions will benefit from the increasing will of citizens to participate in the sharing economy. EIT Digital, through projects with cities for example, improves engagement and inclusiveness of the citizens and of the visitors by increasingly organising and exposing data, especially in real time and along with analytics and machine learning. Augmented and virtual reality of the cities are another facet of exposing or simulating city data from the past, present or future to the benefit of citizens.
The issue of trust in the internet has become central, following revelations about the exploitation of personal data, large-scale cybersecurity and data breaches, and growing awareness of online disinformation. A 2019 survey[[]] shows that half of the global internet users are more concerned about their online privacy compared to a year previously. Distrust in the Internet is causing people to change the way they behave online, for example by disclosing less personal information. Users also express an increasing level of distrust of social media platforms.
The objective of this heading is to develop a trustworthy digital environment, built on a more resilient, sustainable, and decentralised internet, to empower end-users with more control over their data and their digital identity, and to enable new social and business models respecting European values.
Due to its low presence in the consumer electronics industry, Europe is increasingly dependent on external providers in this area. This raises concerns about its digital sovereignty in crucial domains such as digital interaction services that are being adopted by a growing number of European users and industries. The COVID-19 crisis has shown how important distance and innovative learning is for society, our children, their parents and their teachers, maintaining social and educational links under challenging circumstances. Emerging technologies such as virtual reality, eXtended Reality or immersive environments provide numerous opportunities for personalised, innovative, efficient and inclusive learning, for learners of all ages, gender and condition
The objective of this heading is to gain industrial leadership in eXtended Reality technologies and immersive environments, while ensuring the European values of privacy, ethics and inclusiveness. It also aims to support the digital transformation of education through these technologies in particular.
This heading promotes various systemic approaches to encourage creativity and make the most of the technologies developed elsewhere within society and industry. They include testing ideas in local communities; support for IP, standardisation and industry-academia exchanges; art-driven design; and assessments of complex socio-economic systems. These are complemented by support for a network of National Contact Points (NCPs), with a special emphasis on engaging with new actors.
Activities beyond R&I investments will be needed to realise the expected impacts: testing, experimentation, demonstration, and support for take-up using the capacities, infrastructures, and European Digital Innovation Hubs made available under the Digital Europe Programme; further development of skills and competencies via the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, in particular EIT Digital and EIT Manufacturing; upscaling of trainings via the European Social Fund +; use of financial instruments under the InvestEU Fund for further commercialisation of R&I outcomes; and links to the thematic smart specialisation platform on industrial modernisation.
The Digital Decade policy programme (“The Path to the Digital Decade”), sets a European approach for its digital transformation based on values and technological leadership.
In parallel, there is still a lack of systematic approaches to ensure a constructive role of culture in technology development in the spirit of methods to integrate non-technology innovation and social innovation.
Efforts will be pursued to help ensuring people are at the centre of the digital transformation, in line with our values and principles.
The Communication ‘Updating the 2020 Industrial strategy: towards a stronger Single Market for Europe’s recovery’ made clear that global leadership in technologies goes hand-in-hand with leadership in standard-setting and ensuring interoperability across the EU industrial ecosystems. EU industry needs European and international standards that underpin its twin digital and green transition. A minimal set of standards will also enable the creation of a soft layer for data sharing and exchange amongst EU industrial ecosystems and underpinning data spaces. Establishing global leadership in key priority standards such as cyber-security is also a critical matter for the competitiveness and resilience of EU industries. Global convergence on the same international standards helps reduce adaptation costs and strengthens EU and global value chains. Thus the topic of standards is an essential cross-cutting issue when it comes to the twin transition of the industrial ecosystems and making European industry more resilient.
Several digital decade targets for 2030 are addressed like tech up-take facilitated by interoperability standards, climate neutral highly secure edge notes and ethical principles for human-centred algorithms through international endorsed standards.
Standardisation can be an important factor for valorising EU R&I projects, allowing new technologies to enter into a more mature phase, favouring their applicability on a larger scale and hence promoting their uptake.
Bringing the research and innovation community early on into the standards-making process is key to identify the issues and priorities, share views on future developments and stakeholder needs, and to provide recommendations to the European Commission and European standardisation organisations for future standardisation needs. Putting standards into science is very important to anticipate and prepare the standards-development process in future areas.
The proposed international coordination and support actions are aligned with the Commission’s international priorities. They will help build strong international digital partnerships, and promote a human-centred digital agenda. International cooperation will further a level playing field and reciprocity while delivering new solutions to digital challenges. The proposed actions will be involved in trade and industrial policy aspects by promoting European technologies in key international markets. They will also support digital dialogues with partner countries.
Cooperation will be prioritised with Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore as part of our digital partnerships with countries in the Indo-Pacific region. The resulting project will foster links with relevant research institutions on R&I activities in the field of digital. It will also support the newly announced Trade and Technology Council with India.
Cooperation with countries in sub-Saharan Africa will stimulate R&I cooperation with the EU and promote EU values for a human-centric digital transformation. Cooperation between Africa and EU will expand on the existing outcomes of Africa-EU cooperation especially in the field of Innovation Hubs cooperation[[See in particular ICT 58 Call : https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/ict-58-2020]], sustainability of African digital ecosystems, reinforcement of the African private sector and contribution to Africa’s economic growth (including SDG attainment). It will also contribute to the overarching objectives of our continental partnership in full alignment with the principles of the Global Gateway.
Cooperation with Latin America will aim at exploiting the potential of the newly established BELLA network and implement the outcomes of EU-LAC dialogues in the context of digitalisation and R&I.
Additionally, international collaboration is encouraged or targeted in several thematic areas may also be addressed within the respective Joint Undertakings (Smart Networks and Services, EuroHPC, and Key Digital Technologies).
Expected impact
Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to a human-centred and ethical development of digital and industrial technologies, and more specifically to one or several of the following impacts:
Innovation Actions — Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions in any capacity. Please refer to the Annex B of the General Annexes of this Work Programme for further details.