CEF Telecom: Over €20 million EU investment to boost European digital networks

The evaluation of the second 2017 CEF Telecom call for proposals (CEF-TC-2017-2) has concluded and 64 projects in the areas of Cyber Security, eDelivery, eHealth and eProcurement have been selected to receive co-funding by the European Union. The funding comes from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme in the telecommunications sector. The successful projects include participation of entities from 26 EU Member States plus Norway (EEA country).

CEF Telecom funding is dedicated to Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) delivering networked cross-border services for citizens, businesses and public administrations. Supported projects will contribute to improving the competitiveness of the European economy, promoting the interconnection and interoperability of national, regional and local networks and access to these networks, thus supporting the development of a Digital Single Market. CEF Telecom has an overall budget of €1.04 billion (2014-2020).

The outcome of the second 2017 CEF Telecom call can be found below:

- Cyber Security: €7.9 million will be granted to 12 proposals with applicants from 15 EU Member States, to create, maintain or expand national capacities of national and/or governmental (n/g) Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs)/Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) to run a range of cyber security services

- eDelivery: the 3 selected proposals receiving over €630,000 in funding and including applicants from seven EU Member States, will promote the uptake of the eDelivery technical specifications amongst both public and private entities, allowing for secured, traceable, cross-border transmission of electronic documents;

- eHealth: 45 proposals worth almost €7.5 million with applicants from 15 EU Member States have been selected to improve access to care and quality of care using information and communication technologies (ICTs), namely in the areas of ePrescription & Patient Summary, as well as the European Reference Networks (ERNs)

- eProcurement:  4 proposals have been selected for funding aiming at helping Member States complete the transition to eProcurement, particularly by facilitating cross-border bidding and simplified public procurement procedures. Applicants are from eight EU Member States + Norway and the total funding granted is €4.2 million.

The list of projects selected for funding and rejected proposals is available here:

The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) manages the calls for proposals and follows up the technical and financial implementation of the projects with the beneficiaries, providing technical expertise and high quality programme implementation. INEA will now begin the preparation of the individual grant agreements with the successful beneficiaries.

Follow INEA on Twitter @inea_eu with the hashtag #CEFTelecom & LinkedIn to stay informed about the latest call developments.

About Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs)

• CEF Telecom funding supports projects of common interest for the deployment of Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) across the EU. These are based on mature technical and organisational solutions to support exchanges and collaboration between citizens, businesses and public authorities. The objective is to create European networks of digital services that will make the Digital Single Market work in practice.
• The CEF programme supports basic and re-usable digital services, known as building blocks, as well as more complex digital services. The building blocks can be combined with each other and integrated with more complex services.
• Building blocks supported include: eIdentification, eSignature, eInvoicing, eDelivery, and eTranslation. Consult the full catalogue of reusable digital services.
• More complex digital services being supported include areas such as Safer Internet, access to reusable public sector information, cyber security, eHealth, and online dispute resolution.
• The list of digital services supported by CEF is available in the Annex of the Telecom Regulation.

More information

CEF Telecom 2017 call for proposals

Commission Implementing Decision

CEF Telecom 2017-2 results