Deadline Date: March 03, 2026
The European Commission has launched a call to support the continued uptake and further expansion of the data space for manufacturing through the development of legal, technical, and business solutions that enable authorized AI developers to access high-quality industrial data for training Generative AI models.
The focus is on developing legal, technical and business solutions to pool sufficient data and enable authorized AI developers to have direct or indirect data access to train generative AI models specifically for the manufacturing sector. This initiative seeks to reinforce the role of the data space for manufacturing as a major productivity enhancement and collaboration mechanism within the EU.
This action aims to support up to three large-scale data-collection projects, each with around EUR 3 million in co-funding from the Digital Europe Programme. These projects will focus on manufacturing use cases that unlock the potential of AI models in predictive maintenance, process automation, supply chain management, product design, development, and sustainability in production. The initiative will promote data collection from real industrial environments, ensuring that the datasets are properly labeled and relevant to key EU manufacturing sectors, including automotive, chemical, aeronautics, and energy-intensive industries. The total estimated available budget for this call is EUR 9,000,000.
Each project must develop both technical and business mechanisms to allow AI developers to utilize data while respecting the rights and control of data holders. Clear use cases will be proposed to align the collected data with real-world needs, and collaboration with AI Factories will be encouraged to ensure that datasets are effectively used for developing AI applications.
The projects will also work closely with the Data Spaces Support Centre to ensure interoperability within the broader ecosystem of European data spaces. Partnerships with data intermediaries and adherence to the Data Governance Act will ensure the secure management of data access and processing. Financial sustainability will be considered from the beginning to guarantee long-term effectiveness and adaptability of the Common European Data Spaces.
Eligible applicants must be legal entities established in EU Member States, including overseas countries and territories, or in eligible associated countries under the Digital Europe Programme.
For more information, visit European Commission.
