Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.

In its first year, the Deep Tech Talent Initiative has already developed its courses’ catalogue, pledger community and Initiative offerings. The main goal of the Deep Tech Talent Initiative is to skill one million people within deep tech fields over the next three years (2023-2025). Deep tech innovations – cutting-edge technological solutions combining fields of science and engineering in the physical, biological and digital spheres – are indispensable in addressing the most pressing global challenges. The Deep Tech Talent Training Prize rewards excellence in addressing Deep Tech training challenges. Awards are given to applicants who demonstrate excellence in addressing a challenge in a Deep Tech Talent Initiative area group in one of the two prize categories: Partner Training and Targeted Training around the Deep Tech Talent Initiative area groups. Such challenges may vary from an organizational, sectoral, or population specific need to a regional or even pan-European challenge.

• Education and training
• Information Technology
• Research, Technological Development and Innovation
• Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness

• Economically Inactive Women
• Educational Institutions
• Employers
• Large Enterprises
• Legal Entities
• Natual person / Citizen / Individual
• Other Beneficiaries
• Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
• Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
• State-owned Enterprises
• Training Centres

Entities eligible to participate:

Horizon Europe regulation
Any legal entities are welcome to apply, provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific prize category. A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality, and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations.

To be eligible for the prize award, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:

• the Member States of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
• the EU Outermost regions linked to the Member States of the European Union.
•  the countries associated to Horizon Europe and the low- and middle-income countries9;

To be eligible for the Deep Tech Talent Training Prize all applicants

• must have successfully completed their pledge registration10, including signing the pledge document, and received the confirmation;
• must have registered and submitted the courses with which they are using to apply for the prize and passed the quality check for said courses.

The above submissions are done in sequence (e.g., first pledge registration then quality check)

• The trainings and subsequent persons trained (required KPI) must have occurred between 1 January 2023 to 31 October 2023 (or submission of application).
• cannot have received funding from Horizon Europe related to the same action.

Partner Training: Partnerships are a cornerstone of the Deep Tech Talent Initiative and developing and fostering deep tech talents and technologies in Europe. Such partnerships come in many forms including collaborations between training providers and employers, regional actors coming together to address regional innovation ecosystem needs, or ecosystem actors coming together to address a specific market or societal need. Partnerships in this category are open to all organizations who meet the pledge criteria and can demonstrate how their partnership, training and results demonstrate excellence in addressing a deep tech training challenge. For this category there must be a minimum of two entities represented in the application and all partners in the consortium must have signed the Deep Tech Talent Initiative Pledge by the time of the application deadline, 31 October 2023.
Examples include:

• Employer /Training Provider partnerships;
• Two training providers partner and pledge together bringing complementary courses;
• University/ Industry partnership;
• Innovation & Entrepreneurial (I&E) Ecosystem Integration: partners from across the knowledge triangle come together to provide and/or deliver training;
• Connections across regional deep tech innovation valleys across Europe.

Targeted Training: This category is for individual training providers who have demonstrated excellence in a specific targeted approach to address challenges in deep tech training. The target approach may address targeted audiences that are often underrepresented in deep tech fields (e.g., women, disadvantaged background, individuals re-entering the job market, etc.) or may address an immediate market or training need that is underdeveloped.
Examples include but not limited to:

• Inclusivity promotion in various areas such as: gender, disadvantaged background, and supporting unemployed individuals re-entering the job market;
•  Sector specific: demonstrate need in specific sector or lack of available training (e.g., photonics, distributed ledgers, etc.);
• Individual training: Individual training providers addressing challenges in a deep tech field.

Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/

Contact Persons:

George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy

Nedi Kaffa
Scientific Officer
Email: nkaffa@research.org.cy

All applicants may contact EIT Deep Tech Talent to ask questions and clarify any points on general or technical procedures and call content by sending an email message to info@eitdeeptechtalent.eu.

• Call announcement page. The rules of contest can be downloaded from the call announcement page.