Deadline: 5 August 2025
The Incubator Call supports public and private organizations of all sizes that would like to embark on ORRI around the topic of “Responsible Digitalization” experimenting with and implementing a thoughtful and responsible approach to the development, use and governance of digital technologies, especially by considering their ethical, legal, and societal impacts.
Specific Challenges
- While the list of challenges is non-exhaustive, two key challenges have been identified for this ORRI Incubator Call under the topic of ‘Responsible Digitalization’:
- Privacy, transparency, and trust in digitalisation tools and services: The deployment of digital technologies demands a continual and built-in adherence to basic human rights and obtaining societal legitimacy in a specific region.
- Misinformation and manipulation: Digital technologies have created new and powerful vehicles for old problems around communication and public debate. It is a key challenge to design/pilot internal organisational or regional processes that aim to institutionalize an ORRI approach that can tackle misinformation.
Funding Information
- For the 5th REINFORCING Open Call (Incubator Call), no more than 12 consortia implementing projects lasting 12 months will be supported with grants of up to 60,000 euros each.
- Applicants are expected to perform different complementary activities within the 12-month period of the supported project, not just one particular activity.
Ineligible Activities
- REINFORCING does not fund :
- Training or consulting activities for institutions, organizations and territories that are not part of the consortium, since institutional changes are requested to be visible and measurable in the funded entities (grantees), at least in the Coordinator (main beneficiary) of the project.
- Activities related to technological developments and/or proof of concepts, while REINFORCING could support co-creation and/or visioning workshops linked to those activities – if coherent with the scope and the requirements of the Call.
- Activities of any kind in which artificial intelligence-based systems or techniques are used or developed. Reflection on AI ethics and responsibility can instead be part of the funded actions – if coherent with the scope and the requirements of the Call.
Eligibility Criteria
- This call is open to public and private organizations of all sizes, including startups and SMEs.
- The consortium should include at least 2 entities based in EU countries (Member State or associated country), including their outermost regions or associated countries eligible to receive Horizon Europe grants, provided that the applicants are not covered by the Council sanctions in force. The main applicant (in terms of budget and activities) – the project Coordinator – must have little or no experience in ORRI.
For more information, visit REINFORCING.
