The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) is an initiative designed to enhance the EU's
industrial competitiveness and reinforce European sovereignty by focusing on the development and
manufacturing of critical technologies. STEP aims to bolster investments within three strategic sectors:

• Digital technologies and deep technology innovation,
• Clean and resource efficient technologies,
• Biotechnologies.

STEP also supports projects growing the skills necessary to develop those critical technologies. STEP
introduces a new STEP Seal – an EU label for high quality projects granting STEP projects visibility and
facilitating their access to other possible sources of funding.

Knowledge of underlying EU policies and legislations is a key element in Digital Europe proposals as they play an important role in the “relevance” evaluation criterion. This Policy Briefing is one of several briefings prepared by DEP4ALL, the NCP Network for the Digital Europe programme, to support applicants with summaries of relevant EU initiatives.