56 projects selected for up to €389 million under 4th CEF-Digital calls

The European Commission has selected 56 projects from the fourth round of calls for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital programme. The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) is now finalising the signature of the grant agreements, paving the way for projects to receive funding.

The selected projects have been awarded up to €389 million to deploy cutting-edge digital infrastructure. This includes the rollout of safe and resilient high-performance digital backbone networks (typically submarine cables), 5G large-scale pilots for transport corridors and Smart Communities, as well as secure quantum communication infrastructure (EuroQCI).

The 56 projects involve 220 partners from 28 countries, demonstrating the EU’s capacity to foster digital sovereignty in critical infrastructures.

The calls for proposals supported projects under the following topics:

• Backbone connectivity for Digital Global Gateways: terrestrial and submarine cables within the EU and with third countries (including overseas countries and territories).
• 5G large-scale pilots: equipping motorways and railways along cross-border segments of the TEN-T transport corridors (5G coverage along transport corridors), as well as 5G networks and edge cloud infrastructures in areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture, tourism, port and airport logistics, and manufacturing (5G and Edge for Smart Communities).
• European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI): cross-border fibre cables between national quantum communication networks of Member States, and/or satellite ground stations linking EuroQCI’s terrestrial segment with the pan-European space constellation (IRIS²).

Background

The EU’s financial contribution takes the form of grants with co-financing rates ranging from 30% to 75% of the total project cost. The CEF-Digital programme funds both feasibility studies and deployment projects across the EU.

Under the CEF-Digital programme, €1.5 billion has been made available from the EU’s 2021–2027 budget to co-fund projects in Europe. CEF-Digital is part of the wider Connecting Europe Facility programme, which also supports energy and transport infrastructure.

Next steps

The Commission adopted the formal selection decision on the list of selected projects on 3 November 2025. On this basis, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) proceeds with the signature of the grant agreements and pre-financing of the selected applicants.

List of selected projects