Specialised education programmes or modules in key capacity areas

Objective:

The action aims at increasing and improving the offer of education programmes and the number of students specialised in key capacity areas. The offer will be expanded in terms of geographical distribution (including outermost regions and other disadvantaged regions), number of opportunities and relevance to latest technological developments. The actions also aim at supporting more inter-disciplinary courses that can equip professionals with relevant advanced digital skills and increase diversity among students and future digital experts (for example data analytics skills for professionals in different sectors). The action will support cooperation between higher education institutions and the private sector, together with research and excellence centres in digital technologies, including those funded in the other actions of the programme. The goal is to encourage organisations to work together and develop ecosystems of excellence able to train, attract and retain the best digital talents, including by contributing to closing the gender gap in these fields (latest available data from ESTAT report that women represent only 18.5 % of ICT specialists in the EU). This action will contribute to the implementation of the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027.

Scope:

The chosen projects shall design and deliver a tertiary degree education programme of 60, 90 or 120 academic credits (The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System - ECTS). The calls in the first two years will address the following topics: Data, Internet of Things (IoT), AI, Blockchain, cybersecurity, HPC, quantum, among others and interdisciplinary courses, including the teaching of the above areas in a non-ICT education field (e.g. AI applications for agriculture or cybersecurity and law etc..). Proposals can address only one technological areas, or more, or only one inter-disciplinary programme, with a specific focus on one sector. Tertiary education institutions in consortia with relevant competence and excellence centres and industry will receive funding to set up and strengthen excellent courses in the above areas. Partners in these consortia will be encouraged to share expertise, facilities, staff and learning material Inter-sectorial mobility between Higher Education Institutions and the private sector is also encouraged. These courses need to reflect the latest state of the art of the technologies, provide opportunities to students to have access to laboratories and testing and experimentation facilities and making use-where appropriate- of the EU data spaces. They will also make use of digital technologies to provide learning experiences that are flexible in time, scope end place, as appropriate. Activities to exchange on good practices to involve and interact with external stakeholders will also be encouraged. Particular attention shall be given to aspects such as green application and environmental impact of these technologies. The projects should also aim at increasing diversity among participants to the courses and ensure that experts will be trained to detect and prevent bias in the future developments.