Deadline: 2-Sep-25
The European Commission (EC) has launched the Sectoral Digital Skills Academies: Quantum Skills Digital Academy Program to establish a sectoral academy in quantum.
Objectives
- The objective of the Quantum Skills Digital Academy is to serve as a single, central contact point and to provide specialised quantum technologies training and hands on experience at different quantum education levels. It will play an important role in contributing to the objectives of the European Declaration on Quantum Technologies in the domain of quantum skills development and training.
- The academy will also identify gaps in existing academic and training activities in the quantum sector, develop new opportunities, scale up successful examples and create a quantum education ecosystem in the EU to improve its capacity to nurture and attract talents. It will thus tackle both the supply side of the training offer by proposing up-to date and flexible education and training pathways to reinforce the number of specialists and the demand side by promoting the uptake of trainings.
- Moreover, the academy will act as a catalyst for industry to promote careers in the quantum technologies sector, including by promoting the access of women.
- The academy will support and strengthen the EU’s strategic needs and technological sovereignty.
Scope
- Proposals are expected to focus on the following activities as listed under the three pillars below:
- Pillar 1: Knowledge, Education, and Training
- Collaboration with academia, training institutions, the research community, and industry partners to design and deliver educational programmes and self-standing training modules in an interdisciplinary approach addressing training and skills gaps in the EU in quantum technologies, covering both technical and non-technical profiles.
- The programmes to be designed and delivered include common curricula at ISCED levels 7 (Master’s or equivalent level) or 8 (doctoral or equivalent level) leading to a degree, which use the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)
- Design and delivery of a number of self-standing training modules, aimed at both students and professionals from different sectors, academia, start-ups, and SMEs as well as the public sector, including public administrators and education professionals.
- Organisation of tutorials and hands-on activities for non-quantum experts to gain practical experience on a quantum device and development of activities like summer schools that enable STEM students who do not have quantum mechanics or quantum related subjects in their curricula to acquire specialised knowledge in quantum technologies.
- Facilitation and promotion of practical experience, such as internships, fellowships, work placements, laboratory experiences, and twinning opportunities.
- Pillar 1: Knowledge, Education, and Training
- Pillar 2: Building the Ecosystem
- Building the Ecosystem
- Establishing partnerships and collaboration frameworks between academia, industry (including SMEs), and research institutions to facilitate and promote the large-scale European-wide roll-out of academic programmes and short or longer-term trainings.
- Facilitating joint (practical) educational initiatives and events with industry, such as on-the-job experiences in companies’ premises, mentorship schemes, internship programs, summer schools, bootcamps, visits to facilities, career days.
- Implementing support, integration, and visibility schemes with particular attention to the participation of female students and female professionals in education and training activities, as well as talented young people from less quantum-developed regions and people with disabilities.
- Designing and delivering training initiatives for teaching staff, such as ‘Teachthe-Teacher’ modules for university and secondary education instructors, are highly recommended. To further enhance their skills, organizing visits to quantum laboratories will provide valuable firsthand experience, allowing them to convey more effectively knowledge to students.
- Scaling Up and Dissemination
- Organising communication and awareness-raising activities, e.g., through social media, including career orientation activities or “technology deep dive sessions” targeted at secondary education students and the general public.
- Collaborating between Member States and eligible third countries in outreach activities and exchange of best practices.
- Creating a dedicated landing page integrated in the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform, where all activities, events, and initiatives of the academy are disseminated.
- To increase the impact and ensure the continued delivery of the designed educational and training programmes, the proposals are expected to foster as wide as possible the dissemination and promotion of the designed curricula in the main European Universities and Technological Institutes.
- Building the Ecosystem
- Pillar 3: Measuring progress
- It is expected that the academy will develop a robust methodology to monitor the evolution of the labour market and the progress achieved in closing the respective skills gaps. Therefore, activities could include the definition and monitoring of relevant indicators to better address the needs and directed funds towards achieving them.
- Proposals are highly encouraged to cover the following points explicitly under the relevance criterion:
- Alignment with EU’s strategic needs and technological sovereignty: The academy should demonstrate how it will support and strengthen the EU’s strategic needs and technological sovereignty in the field of quantum technologies.
- Complementarity with existing actions and initiatives: The academy should demonstrate how it will complement existing actions and initiatives in quantum technologies.
- Interdisciplinary approach: The academy should demonstrate its ability to integrate quantum physics, computer science, and engineering in its educational programs and activities.
Funding Information
- The estimated available call budget is EUR 27 000 000.
- Quantum Skills Digital Academy: EUR 10 000 000
Duration
- 48 months
Outcomes and Deliverables
- The Quantum Skills Academy will produce the following set of deliverables:
- Comprehensive academic curricula designed across different levels of quantum technologies education (according to the European Competence Framework for Quantum technologies) and for different target groups, implemented at European level.
- Self-standing training modules curricula designed and piloted trough relevant training courses at regional or local levels, including targeted training for SMEs and public sector.
- All training materials of the academic curricula and the self-standing training modules need to be developed in English for accessibility reasons. The use of any other additional languages is welcome.
- Partnerships and collaboration frameworks established between academia, training institutions, industry (including SMEs) and research institutions to facilitate and promote the large-scale European-wide roll-out of the academic programmes and self-standing training modules. Joint (practical) educational initiatives and events with industry facilitated, such as on-the-job experiences in companies’ premises, mentorship schemes, internship programmes, summer schools, bootcamps, visits to facilities, career days.
- Support, integration, and visibility schemes implemented, with particular attention aimed at the participation of female students and female professionals in education and training activities, as well as talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and people with disabilities.
- Training initiatives addressing teaching staff, such as “Teach-the-teacher” training modules targeted at university and secondary-education teachers developed and implemented.
Eligibility Criteria
- 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
- listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme
- Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
- Other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc
For more information, visit EC.