Partnerships

28Digital (EIT)

28Digital (EIT)

Partnership website: https://28digital.eu/

28digital is the new name of EIT Digital since 2025. This is however not just a rebranding exercise but also signifies a moderate shift in their approach. It will from now on be centered around 3 keywords:  

  • Talent: development of digital skills and entrepreneurship
  • Tech
  • Trust and build relationships with the other members of 28Digital: it has the same kind of structure as before with a  headquarter and regional hubs. These offices liaise with their ecosystem which consists of European corporations, SMEs, startups, universities and research institutes, where students, researchers, engineers, business developers and investors address the technology, talent, skills, business and capital needs of digital entrepreneurship. This way new promising businesses are created or there is collaboration on EU-projects.

If you want to know more about their guidance, training,  financing, etc. or if you want to become a partner, please have a look at their website. if you want to know more about their open and upcoming calls you can click here

background information: The European Commission finances each knowledge and innovation community (KIC) of the EIT for a period a maximum 15 years. Afterwards it needs to finance itself through the benefits of its investments and other sources of funding. EIT digital reached this milestone in 2025 and to mark this transition, they decided to rename themselve. The name 28DIGITAL draws inspiration from this idea of a ‘28th regime’ (alternative to the regime/rules of the 27 member states). It is meant to be a truly European framework where digital innovation, talent and entrepreneurship can thrive across the Single Market. The number 28 also symbolises perfection in mathematics, as it is equal to the sum of its divisors (1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28) – a concept rooted in number theory, the foundation of cryptography, quantum algorithms, and supercomputing benchmarks.  

What are partnerships?

Partnerships group the EC and private and/or public partners, to coordinate and streamline the research & innovation initiatives and funding in some selected key domains.

How to use partnerships?

  • orientation
    Partnerships publish strategic documents, e.g. outlining the main research and innovation challenges or key focus points.
  • networking
    Partnerships often organise events, such as info days, brokerage events, etc. Meet potential partners and learn about the nuances that are not visible in the official documents.
  • ecosystem analysis
    Partnerships typically have an advisory board, and publish impact studies of previous actions. These are good sources of information to uncover the main R&D&I players in the domain.
  • steering the agenda
    Partnerships collaborate with the EC on outlining the strategy and the future funding opportunities in their domain, based on input from industry, academia, and other stakeholders.
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Pascal Verheye

pascal.verheye@vlaio.be

Testimonial

Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

The Miricle project, ‘Mine Risk Clearance for Europe’, obtained funding under the European Defence Industrial Development programme call ‘Underwater control contributing to resilience at sea’. The main objective of the project was to achieve a European and sovereign capacity in future mine warfare and create a path for the next generation ‘made in Europe’ countermeasure solutions. In order to realise this objective, Miricle addressed various stages: studies, design, prototyping and testing. These stages inter alia included the successful testing of an XL Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, a protototyped mine disposal system and multiple innovative systems to detect buried mines. Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), was one of the five Belgian partners in the consortium. Within the project, VLIZ was able to forward its research on the acoustic imaging of the seabed to spatially map and visualize buried structures and objects - in this case buried mines - in the highest possible detail. VLIZ also led the work on ‘Port and Offshore Testing’, building on the expertise of the institute in the field of marine operations and technology.