Cloud IPCEI: 12 EU Member States and around 180 companies enter next phase

The matchmaking process for the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on cloud technologies will be launched in Ljubljana today, involving around 80 projects and 180 companies from twelve EU Member States. In the coming weeks, these proposals are to be merged into a joint project for the whole of Europe.

Economic Affairs Minister Peter Altmaier said: "The next European large-scale project is ready to take off. Together with eleven EU partners, we want to establish a European cloud infrastructure that will set new benchmarks in terms of openness, real-time capability, energy efficiency and cyber security by contributing 22 projects from Germany. The cloud of the future will open up new possibilities for digital business models in European industry – for instance in autonomous driving, climate change mitigation and Industrie 4.0. The Industrial Cloud IPCEI will pave the way for the EU to become the technological leader on an important forward-looking and growing market."

Each Member State provides funding for its own country’s projects and companies participating in IPCEIs. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has earmarked up to €750 million for the 22 German projects which want to participate in the Industrial Cloud IPCEI. Today’s event marks the beginning of an intensive dialogue between the Member States involved, the European Commission and the participating companies. The aim is to pool ideas for projects from all over Europe to establish a value creation network. The notification to the European Commission is to begin in December, and the projects are to start in mid-2022.

The aim of the 12 Member States participating in the IPCEI on Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI-CIS) is to set up an open and scalable digital infrastructure, as industrial users need to share data to be able to tap the full potential of digitisation and Industrie 4.0. This requires the most advanced cloud solutions which ensure real-time capability, data sovereignty, security and energy efficiency.
You can find further information about the Industrial Cloud IPCEI at www.ipcei-cis.eu.