19 sections from the Description of Action (Part B)
innovation capacity, including the potential for: .................................................................................................. 22
contribution to their skills development
Employment sectors. DIGITAL DCs’ will receive training to prepare them for careers in academia (such as top
universities or research institutions) or industry (e.g., reputable companies). In the finance industry, the number of
jobs in data science, information systems, and modelling analysis will increase by 67% over the next decade.47
Therefore, DIGITAL fellows will contribute to the digital transformation of the European financial industry by
working for research centres, educational institutions, FinTech, banks, asset management, and regulators, or by
providing consulting services to these organisations. Due to DIGITAL's training capacity, extensive scientific
training, resources, and intersectoral experience, the doctoral candidates it trains will have a distinct advantage over
those trained at other European institutions.
DIGITAL will enhance the career perspectives and contribute to their skills development fully in line with the
European Charter for Researchers48 and contribute to the European Policy on digital skills and jobs.49 Increased
Employability. DIGITAL’s DCs have the unique opportunity to get access to a world-leading consortium, including
multinational companies and the European Central Bank. The scientific training program combines courses with
specialised content in various scientific fields (such as mathematics, statistics, financial economics, and data science)
with courses on transferable skills that support personal development and enhance practical experience. In addition
to collaborating with industry partners and engaging in real-world finance, doctoral candidates collaborate with
industry partners and work on their IRPs. DCs gain teamwork experience, expand their network, and develop soft
skills through this combination. They retain the freedom to direct their own projects concurrently. With this
combination of multidisciplinary training, candidates are well-equipped to lead teams in finance, conduct
47 https://www.onetonline.org/
48 https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/european-charter
49 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-skills-and-jobs
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Project: 101119635 — DIGITAL — HORIZON-MSCA-DN-2022
postdoctoral research, or join the faculty of any top university as an assistant professor (for example, in
business, financial engineering, or computer science).
The training provided by DIGITAL cannot be found elsewhere. With cutting-edge infrastructure, DIGITAL unites
specialists from numerous fields. As a result of being co-led by finance professionals, fellows are able to conduct
meaningful applied research while leveraging the resources of numerous research institutes and laboratories, thereby
increasing their chances of securing high-quality employment in both academia and business.
Lastly, the program's intersectoral and international components will guarantee that candidates trained in DIGITAL
have excellent communication and transferable skills. This will facilitate the expansion of their network and aid
global job searches. Working with foreign researchers and non-academic partners will also heighten awareness of
international career opportunities. All partners have already expressed their substantial interest to hire our DCs
once they have completed their studies. Many of our DCs will have a secondment at the European Central Bank,
which will grant them access to virtually all of the world's most prestigious government institutions.
Impact on short- and long-term career perspectives. In the short-term, DIGITAL DC’s will be able to freely
choose between top level job offers both from industry and academia (assistant professorships, postdoc
fellowships at internationally leading universities). In the long-term, the broad skill set will prepare them either for
leading senior-level management positions or for full professorships.
dissemination and exploitation plan, including communication activities
economic impacts (project’s pathways towards impact) ...................................................................................... 27
extensively through different cooperation. As a result, a significant amount of preliminary work has been done
within the research objectives which has further defined (to a certain extent) the envisioned research methodology
for the IRPs
and innovation activities (WP 1 - 5). All network research will monitor diversity issues. We will consider whether
developed models and solutions benefit all stakeholders regardless of gender and background. One key research
objective (WP 3) of DIGITAL is to build human-centric AI models for financial applications that are explainable,
trustworthy, and unbiased, especially for gender-sensitive use cases.
supervisory team. This will adhere to the requirements of the research ethics committee and legal counsel service of
the beneficiary and permit online access to databases via NDA and VPN tools.
detect systematic data biases and error-affected client groups (WP 3). To ensure fairness, artificial intelligence will
be monitored and optimised, and stakeholders can challenge the model's decisions. DIGITAL's AI tools will promote
green AI. We train AI algorithms in subsets of variables that predict a dependent variable to reduce training time and
energy consumption (i.e., carbon footprint) (WP 4). AI tools we develop will be Human-Centric AI, having the
Finance industry and end users in mind.
project management (ASE), Research Ethics and Sustainable Research Management (BFH), Environmental
Aspects (UNA);
innovation capacity, including the potential for:
Substantial contribution. Each DC will spend 18 months in the non-academic sector and four months in our
research centres and government agencies (European Central Bank, Bank for International Settlements, ARC,
Fraunhofer Institute, EIT Digital). All non-academic partners have committed three to six employees to this network,
will make their in-house training facilities available to all DCs, and will contribute to research training (30% of all
such activities), transferable skills training (90% of all such activities) and our network-wide training activities in
particular.
As shown in Tables 1.3.b, c, and d, non-academic partners will host DCs, give industry perspectives on digital finance,
open their digital labs, and give many network-wide training lectures. This will give doctoral candidates a clear
industrial perspective on their IRP activities and facilitate knowledge transfer by linking their industry activities to
their formal academic training.
Improved inter-sectoral collaboration. DIGITAL's multinational corporations' R&D departments are often
larger than university R&D departments. They also have data and infrastructure needed by universities in that
field. However, industry needs university and research centre knowledge due to the research-intensive fields of
Digital Finance. Our network has very high intersectoral mobility, with 80% of our network's members having
pre-existing close ties to industry and academia.
Enhanced employability and non-academic career opportunities. Due to their prior experience, doctoral
candidates from DIGITAL are well-equipped for any R&D position in Europe's rapidly expanding digital industry.
They will have numerous options for prestigious employment (large government organisations such as ECB, BIS,
ESM; all high-profile consulting companies such as McKinsey et al; all large financial companies as well as
innovative Fintech companies). In fact, our non-academic partners require more than 100 trained PhD
candidates in Digital Finance annually, but are unable to fill their vacancies due to a severe labour shortage.
The employability of our DCs has been validated by the industry's leading headhunters. Our network alone will be
able to hire a multiple of the candidates we train.
Sustainable Research Training Programmes. Already today, all academic partners adhere to the Salzburg II
Recommendations and Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training46 in their entirety. All doctoral programs in
our network are research-based, with an emphasis on employment beyond academia. Professional career development
opportunities are included, diversity is embraced, doctoral candidates are recognized as DCs, responsibilities are
46 https://eua.eu/resources/publications/615:salzburg-ii-%E2%80%93-recommendations.html
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Project: 101119635 — DIGITAL — HORIZON-MSCA-DN-2022
shared, a critical mass is achieved, the duration is usually three years, interdisciplinarity and transferable skills are
embraced, mobility is supported, and funding is adequate and sustainable.
Double doctoral degree programmes. The academic partners have already agreed to continue this network
beyond its lifetime and the respective department heads and university institutions have been involved. During
DIGITAL, they will also ensure that all doctoral programmes are standardised (including a unified recruitment
process, progress monitoring and PhD awarding process) and establish double doctoral degree programmes (e.g.
UTW - BBU, ASE - UTW, WWU - UTW, UNA - UTW, UNA - BBU). Alongside EIT, which already offers a
European Master's degree in Digital Finance, a consecutive doctoral degree program is planned in collaboration
with all academic partners, based on a definition of best practices, easy transferability of credits, a joint curriculum
development, and setting of reproducible training and supervision standards. All partners will continue to maintain
the newly developed doctoral courses. The two annual network training events, which are open to all PhD students
in this consortium, will continue to occur.
Sustainable Cooperation and secondment opportunities. Almost all partners have been working together over
the last few years in various European research networks as well as bilateral cooperations, most notably the
COST Action CA19130 and the European Consortium for Mathematics for Industry. They will continue cooperating
in this manner. For instance, as the synergy between the institutions in this consortium will be stronger upon the end
of DIGITAL, the researchers will be able to design and submit, in collaboration, research proposals to ERC, Horizon
Europe, Erasmus+ and other MSCA DNs programs. Indeed, this consortium has jointly submitted more than ten
large national and international research applications. Secondments on the academic level have been and will
continue to be institutionalised through Erasmus cooperations, while secondments in the business sector have been
agreed upon by the partners through bilateral approaches. Industry partners and academic institutions have also
expressed interest in collaborating on joint academia-industry PhD positions and will actively pursue such
agreements throughout the duration of DIGITAL.
Sustainable Transferable Skills Training. Already today, every academic partner provides substantial resources
and budget to their DCs for training in transferable skills, including industry secondments. Notwithstanding, the
DIGITAL learning experience will expand the range of offerings, and all partners have agreed to make their internal
offerings freely accessible to all consortium members beyond the scope of DIGITAL. The newly developed
courses will be available for continued use on an open and shared platform.
Sustainable Researcher Recruitment. With numerous new bilateral/double doctoral degree programs and a
European Doctorate in Digital Finance resulting from this consortium, all partners will align their recruitment
criteria and collectively optimise researcher recruitment.
Dissemination of research results. Our research is shared with other academics, the business community,
government agencies, policymakers, and the general public. Our consortium has discussed utilizing both existing
channels and a centralised DIGITAL dissemination and exploitation outlet. As a network, we will organize our
own large conferences (annually), policy events (for example, at COST in Brussels, 3 in total, M18, M30, M42), have
four special academic issues (in our own journals, such as Digital Finance), and use standard channels such as our
website, blog, and Twitter. In addition to the workshops that DIGITAL itself organises, DCs will attend two
conferences annually to present their results (beginning in M18), one seminar each at industry and academia, and one
outreach event. Possible conferences are discussed in Section 1.31. (The Journal of Financial Data Science,
Quantitative Finance, Computational Management Science, European Journal of Operational Research, Statistical
Methods & Applications, Computational Statistics, Digital Finance, Computational Statistics & Data Analysis,
European Journal of Finance, Empirical Finance, Digital Finance, Review of Finance, Journal of Financial Markets).
DCs will disseminate their findings to various institutions via planned secondments and hosting arrangements. DCs
will receive extensive feedback on their work and improve their dissemination and presentation skills as a result of
this exposure. DIGITAL will adhere to all open science practices, and its website will include a comprehensive list
of publications with download links in order to attract a larger audience. A media communication officer will be
appointed to direct the dissemination and communication efforts of DIGITAL.
Through use case presentations at various industry-focused meetings, workshops, and roundtable sessions, as well as
media releases, news articles, and blog posts published on our website, LinkedIn, and similar channels, the industry
community will be reached.
Exploitation of results. The topics within DIGITAL are crucial for the European Finance industry to be able to
compete on a global scale within the next decade hence the exploitation method envisioned are:
Further internal research. Results from DIGITAL will feed into subsequent research in the fields of ML for industry,
computer science, blockchain applications (WP4) and sustainable finance (WP5), also outside Finance.
Collaborative research. The results of the individual WPs will help shape future collaborative research, such as via
a COST Action and an EU H2020 Widening application, as agreed upon by all network members (WP2, 3).
Collaborative, industry-focused projects. Our findings result in multiple prototypes and use cases (WP1 - 5). In
the coming years, they will need to be refined and adapted to the industry's shifting requirements. Together with
industry, DIGITAL will seek international funding for additional projects.
Product development. Each IRP will result in at least one proof-of-concept solution for the industry-specific
obstacles to the application of innovative financial technologies (prototype for data augmentation, automated trading
platform, dynamic scores for SMEs, XAI app for non-technical users, green scores for industry, risk index and a fraud
detection system). These will be transformed into actual products by industry, which necessitates ongoing
cooperation.
Education. The output of research will feed back into education (e.g. WP2, AI in Finance). Many new Master's and
Doctoral-level modules will be developed at the intersection of Finance, Data Science, Computer Science, Big Data
Analytics, and Econometrics (see Table 1.3.c).
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Project: 101119635 — DIGITAL — HORIZON-MSCA-DN-2022
Standardisation. DIGITAL will produce standardised frameworks for: (i) data quality and data augmentation,
advancing the European data strategy; (ii) deployment of ML, DL and RL in finance with sustainability and
explainability considerations, in line with the European approach to AI; (iii) blockchain architecture, as detailed in
the EU blockchain strategy; and (v) sustainable finance, advancing the EU Green deal.
Exploitation across industries. Due to the fundamental methods and techniques (ML, AI, RL) we employ, our
outcomes will not only benefit the Finance industry, but also a number of other industries. Consulting firms, the
financial sector, Fintechs, software and technology providers (across various industries, such as insurance and
pharmaceuticals), and government organisations, particularly regulatory and supervisory authorities, stand to benefit
from the implementation of digital technology (WP2, 3). Policy papers on digital asset risk will be beneficial to
regulators (ECB). Over the past three years, members have organised training and demonstrations for non-technical
audiences (regulators, supervisors, and the general public, including all 28 European regulatory authorities)
through EU-funded projects (https://fintech-ho2020.eu/). These contacts will be actively maintained.
Barriers to exploitation and how we address them. Barriers to exploitation exist. 1) Inadequate financing to go
from prototype to business product. Given the substantial amount of VC funding that goes into Digital Finance,
this is extremely unlikely. We will begin with a minimum viable product and then scale up; 2) There are skill
shortages. This is the raison d'être of DIGITAL, and we will reduce it through our new training offerings; 3) IRP
issues may arise from such an intersectoral network. All IP issues will be discussed well in advance of any new
discoveries or commercializations. We have an IP and Exploitation committee to reduce this obstacle. All partners
receive IP training in which the European IP guide is discussed. 4) Inadequacy between market requirements and
the solution. Industry and academia collaborate from day one, and all research is continuously validated by
industry. Academics in industry and vice versa are highly intertwined in DIGITAL.
Impact of Exploitation. All seventeen IRPs have substantial industry relevance and will generate numerous use
cases and prototypes. Topics are selected in collaboration with industry so that, if successful, each study will
generate several million euros in additional revenue over the next five years. We only selected IRPs that are in a high-
growth field (e.g., Machine Learning, WP2) or are of critical importance to one of the major traditional Finance
fields (e.g. credit risk, risk supervision by regulators, WP3). Obviously, not every research result is achieved, but the
involved companies expect this 4 million euro investment to generate at least 40 million euros in additional annual
revenues for the European finance industry by the end of the project (based on our own historical experience). Once
all harmonised doctoral training structures are in place, we anticipate training 15 DCs annually as a result of this
initiative. For the research impact, we will maintain a network of 18 partners, to which we will add 22 European
partners (indeed we had interest from 25 additional partners to join our MSCA DN network, all of which will stay
connected). The policy recommendations will inform future European strategies and guidelines for banking
supervision and Digital Finance throughout Europe.
Impact on Policy. The EU's Digital Finance strategy drives our entire agenda. All outcomes will immediately
contribute to this. Through policy papers, participation in policy hearings, and direct workshops with policymakers,
the findings will be disseminated (e.g. annually via COST in Brussels, as already planned).
Impact on civil society. DIGITAL’ essence is end-user protection and risk reduction. Beyond educating citizens about
Finance, we will reduce the risks of financial markets. New DIGITAL products are typically 30% less expensive than
traditional products (WP4), which could have a multimillion-euro impact on consumers.
Communication and public engagement strategy. Newspapers, social media, and public demonstrations will be
utilized to reach the public (eg, lab days and public talks). Members of the consortium that runs the COST CA19130
project have organised over 120 research and industry-focused conferences, workshops, and roundtable sessions,
which were attended by over 6,000 individuals from academia, industry, the regulatory community, and the general
public (https://www.meetup.com/Fintech AI in Finance/ with 2000 participants). Consortium members have
developed numerous open-access tools to aid non-technical audiences in comprehending and interacting with
emerging digital technologies. All of our prototypes and use cases will also be shared with the general public. Each
partner will receive full support from their marketing team, and quarterly press releases will be issued. Already
today, our members are frequent speakers at public conferences, policy workshops, and interviews. We will use
https://www.alphagalileo.org/en-gb/ to disseminate significant findings to 5,000 journalists and potentially 2
million consumers. Annually, we hold a general conference to discuss the accomplishments of our network. Every
recipient will host an annual open-lab day. DCs will receive early support and training to effectively communicate
their findings and engage the public. We will attend the European Researchers Night, and each WP must annually
attend a science festival (e.g. the Open Science Festival in Amsterdam.) We will actively work to shape the
communication surrounding Digital Finance in Europe.
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Project: 101119635 — DIGITAL — HORIZON-MSCA-DN-2022
Table 2.3.a DIGITAL’s dissemination, exploitation and communication tasks.
# Activity Target audience Month Location Key indicators
1 Academic Seminars (at least Professors, Ph.D. and MSc M1 - M48 Hybrid: Hosting > 100 attendees
2 seminars per year at each students from multiple institution & Online
beneficiary) departments and practitioners from
industry partners
2 Different international Academics and practitioners from M13 - M48 Europe and North Each DC has presented at least
conferences (each doctoral different areas (Finance, America (e.g., twice at a top-ranked
candidate presents in at least 1 Computer Science, Cybersecurity, EURO and international conference
renowned conference per year) and INFORMS)
Marketing)
3 Journal publications (3 per DC) Academics and practitioners M1 - M48 Leading journals Citation scores> 10, Impact > 5
4 Industry seminars (3) Professionals in the Financial M1 - M6 Hybrid, ECB, RAI, > 100 attendees.
Services industry M15 - M21 SWE Two-follow up projects
5 Informative videos (one per EU citizens and the general public M37 - M48 Beneficiaries media Public media presence has
beneficiary) team >1000 followers
6 Website development Academics, Industry, Regulators, M1 - M3 Online Webpage created
EU citizens and the general public
7 Social media & Blogs Academics, Industry, Regulators EU Monthly, LinkedIn & Public media presence has
citizens and the general public starting in Medium & Media >1000 followers
M2.
8 Intellectual property Industry and academic Bi-monthly, Meetings with core Number of collaborations
management: Further members, other research starting in M2 groups representing and projects from these
external and collaborative institutes, and the scientific the beneficiaries contributions (three each)
research community
9 Intellectual property Businesses, SMEs, and industry Quarterly, Non-academic Identification of potential
management: starting in partners commercialization and patent
Product development M4. creation (twenty new
contacts)
10 Engagement with Policymakers, public authorities, Bi-annual, Beneficiaries and Follow-up on policies and
communities/end users/ policy EU citizens, and the general public starting M6. AP’s premises. processes that can be
makers Science Festivals improved based on the
proposal results
11 General/ public outreach. DCs Wider public/ civil society/ policy Bi-annual, Public locations, >100 attendees. Two newspaper
present results. makers/ regulators starting M6 DIGITAL premises articles each.
12 Further internal research Extend research interdisciplinary M12,24,36,48 Hybrid 2 joint papers per DC
13 Collaborative research Academics, also outside our field. M12,24,36,48 Hybrid 10 citations of research from
Collaborate in academic networks DIGITAL publications
14 Transform prototypes to Product developers, Industry, M12,24,36,48 Hybrid 2 prototypes annually that are
products, better services SMEs, start-ups. converted to new financial
and processes products.1 improved process
15 Education BSc, MSc, Doctoral Students M12,24,36,48 Hybrid 5 enhanced courses annually on
Digital Finance
16 Standardisation activities Industry, policy makers, academics M36, 48 Hybrid Two new standards (data
augmentation, blockchain)
17 Spin-offs SMEs, startups M43 Hybrid 2 spinoffs in total
All results will only be disseminated or exploited after IP protection has taken place. In the coming years, the results
of DIGITAL will be required for the finance industry in Europe. This will increase competition in the financial
sector, bolstering the EU's economy and long-term growth.
DIGITAL´s newly generated knowledge and innovative results go well beyond the current state of the art in
technology, methods and applications development, summarised in Section 2.1, and crucial for the future of the
European finance industry and other related industries and sectors (e.g., SMEs, entrepreneurship, sustainable and
circular economy development).
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Project: 101119635 — DIGITAL — HORIZON-MSCA-DN-2022
The H2020 Rules for Participation50 stipulate the default policy for accessing, duplicating, and disseminating
DIGITAL's intellectual property, supplemented by special case agreements between institutions involved
(beneficiaries, industrial and associated partners, and doctoral candidates) upon SB vote. All partners have identified
background IP, which will be brought to the project for free use for proposed project activities. New IP generated as
a result of DIGITAL will belong to the direct contributors (individuals and their employers) proportionally to their
contribution. The DIGITAL consortium includes ten industry partners, from large companies to SMEs, to build on
the project results after its end, thus guaranteeing the pathway for exploitation, markets and impact. Throughout,
innovations will be monitored for potential formal IP protection (e.g. patent, design, copyright, business secret)
during the project to give industry partners an edge over their competitors and grant academic partners with
irrevocable, non-exclusive rights to use the results for publications (open science), further research and academic
teaching. The conditions for disseminating IP will be settled in the CA, including the exact terms with regard to the
use of existing and new IP. All new IP will be subject to license agreements or sales if not agreed upon differently,
so as to reach the expected economic impact (Section 2.4).
Doctoral candidates hosted by an industrial partner will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement to
protect company-owned models, know-how, and data. Occasionally, affiliated partners hosting students may also
request a non-disclosure agreement. These non-disclosure agreements will be coordinated/supervised by the
EB, and the SB may be consulted in exceptional circumstances, following the H2020 Rules for Participation51.
Beneficiaries will ensure that each IRP's results are disseminated as expeditiously and strategically as possible
(Section 2.3.1.), observing IP rules. The majority of DIGITAL members have intersectoral experience, as
evidenced by their patents, numerous scientific publications in leading scientific journals, and track records of joint
academic/industrial development or technology transfer.
impacts (project’s pathways towards impact)
With our world-leading network, DIGITAL will contribute significantly to the success of the HE MSCA
Programme52 outputs and to all nine of the primary scientific, economic/technological and societal Key-Impact
Pathways (KIPs).
DIGITAL will generate significant scientific impact by: (i) producing research that contributes to Europe's
longterm competitiveness (KIP 1), (ii) driving the digitalization of the financial industry and facilitating
collaboration between universities, research centres, and industry, (ii) strengthening Europe's human capital in
research and innovation (KIP 2) by training 17 doctoral candidates in multiple disciplines, using a novel
interdisciplinary approach to digital finance, and by creating new, high-quality training modules on the intersection
of digital technologies and finance (see Table 1.3.c), (iii) embracing open science practices, innovation,
entrepreneurship, gender equality, and transparency practices (KIP 3) thus enabling the diffusion of the new
knowledge generated (Sections 1.2.3., 1.2.4., and 2.1.). DIGITAL will contribute with 50 scientific publications, 5
policy and white papers for European regulators, a new European Doctoral Programme, 17 use cases and prototypes
for researchintensive industry applications and 50 conference talks and presentations and various civil society
dissemination activities (Table 2.4.a)..
With KIP4, R&I will address EU policy priorities and global challenges. DIGITAL will address the primary concerns
of the EU Digital Finance policy by utilising data and AI to develop sustainable digital assets, products, and
services (WP 1 - 5) with a positive social impact. KIP5 is concerned with the delivery of benefits and impact through
R&I missions. DIGITAL will ensure that the development and deployment of AI models will take into account the
European Commission's (EC) priority: the European Green Deal, a Europe fit for the digital age and the EU's
mission of climate change adaptation. Specifically, the IRP will respect people's rights and promote mechanisms
by which financial technology tools work to earn people's trust, with a particular focus on reducing biases based on
gender and race. Referring to climate change, DIGITAL will contribute by adopting modelling, conducting additional
50 Available at https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/legal_basis/rules_participation/h2020-rules-
participation_en.pdf
51 Available at https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/legal_basis/rules_participation/h2020-rules-
participation_en.pdf
52 https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/
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Project: 101119635 — DIGITAL — HORIZON-MSCA-DN-2022
research on sustainable finance (WP 5), and disseminating its findings to the European community and the rest of the
world.
KIP6 refers to enhancing the social adoption of R&I. DIGITAL is committed to disseminating the results of each IRP
and any research that may intersect with these projects through the media of beneficiaries, industrial partners, and
associated partners. The project will invest heavily in creating societal awareness through a participatory
approach at the EU level, highlighting the added value of the new solutions for a variety of application domains
and preparing society for action in response to digital finance transitions (see also dissemination plans). In addition
to the aforementioned, it is evident that DIGITAL will significantly contribute to bringing new green, digital
solutions to market that can increase Europe's resilience and readiness for the digital age and the EU's mission to
adapt to climate change.
In addition, open science will be adopted, and framework methods and examples will be widely shared. By adopting
open science practices, DIGITAL will make data exploitable for industry participants through the development
of advanced statistical methodologies; it will also support the financial system by offering an alternative to
conventional financial intermediation. As a result, it will increase the use of more accurate estimates of
creditworthiness, reduce the possibility of fraud, and strengthen consumer and investor protection.
The other three KIPs are designed to summarise the anticipated economic effects of DIGITAL. KIP7 refers to
innovation-based growth generation. This contribution will be realised as a result of the interdisciplinary approach
taken by the various IRPs to specific digital finance issues. Consequently, financial institutions and end users will
have access to new products and services based on AI tools, in particular: New automated trading platforms,
that enable wider access to the financial markets; systems for anomaly and fraud detection, that will help finance
service providers operate more efficiently and avoid significant costs related with fraudulent behaviours in financial
networks; predictive models for text, which in turn enable more accurate models for forecasting financial trends
(and new products based on that); XAI frameworks, that will enable end users to check the logic behind a ML-based
decision that affected them; new crypto risk indices, which will help the general public and regulators understand
how risk changes over time and support decision making; industry standard for blockchain, which will enable trust
in the technology; recommender systems for new sustainable investment products.
Sustainable finance will contribute to an intersectoral and interdisciplinary research agenda by enhancing the
industry's efficiency. Through the intersection of data analysis, AI, computational sciences, financial engineering, and
ethical regulations, DIGITAL will enable the creation of more and better jobs (KIP8). Lastly, KIP9 will follow up on
leveraging research and innovation investments. The issuance of patents across the various IRPs comprising
DIGITAL will encourage additional research in digital finance. DIGITAL will commit to providing models that
reduce costs, improve efficiency, and increase profits, allowing financial institutions and end users to increase their
investment in R&I.
Table 2.4.a Magnitude and importance of the project's contribution to outcomes and impacts
# Expected outcome Description Magnitude Importance Expected impact
KIP1 50 research papers; 5 High-quality publications for International journals, 50 more researchers. 100 Improved long-term
policy papers; continued scientific research. high Journal Impact additional papers. 5 new competitiveness of Europe's
Factor and citation score. research cooperations. financial sector.
KIP2 New European Establish new European 15 Digital Finance PhDs Comparable to two 30% of traditional EU
Doctoral Programme. Digital Finance Doctorate graduating per year additional doctoral Finance PhD
programmes programmes will be
Digital Finance
KIP3 Knowledge distributed Knowledge will be 50 conference talks. 3 Outreach to more Digital literacy in Finance
to all stakeholders disseminated via Open Science than 5000 persons. 5 increases by 10%
(incl. students, civil open science Festivals. 17 use cases new products based
society, regulators) approaches and prototypes on prototypes.
KIP4 10 new data-driven Data and AI prototype 10 new data-driven Industry can enhance 10 10% more of all EU Finance
financial products. 5 models deployed to models for Finance. of their product product offerings will move
AI models integrated. the Finance Industry. offerings to digital
KIP5 Sustainable Finance Finance product enhanced 3 sustainable prototypes New business revenues Europe will be successful
products with sustainability factors and 2 use cases >10m EUR with the EU Green Deal
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Project: 101119635 — DIGITAL — HORIZON-MSCA-DN-2022
KIP6 New methods to New methods to detect fraud 2 enhanced/ new Potential use by all EU Strengthened EU
detect fraud and and estimate methods for fraud regulators and Fintechs consumer and investor
estimate creditworthiness detection and credit risk. focused on fraud/ credit protection. New EU
creditworthiness 2 use cases. 2 policy risk. policies and regulations
papers
KIP7 Prototypes and new New trading platform, Five new prototypes and Revenues in related The suite of digital
methodologies predictive models for text, two uses cases products is several finance products across
explainable AI billions across Europe. Europe is substantially
framework, new crypto Applied in products strengthened and globally
risk indices, recommender with 100m AUM. competitive
systems
KIP8 Training curricula for New products, smarter 17 new PhDs. Five new Each PhD leads to Digital Finance will
Digital Finance labour workforce financial products. the creation of 10x grow substantially and
more jobs regain global market
share
KIP9 New AI models for New methodologies The 4m EUR invested Digital will be the The Future of Finance is
trading and credit risk and prototypes will will lead to 40m EUR future of Finance. AI Digital. The EU Digital
lead to substantial additional revenues can contribute to Finance strategy is
revenues (as per previous several bn EUR implemented.
projects). revenues.
DIGITAL, on the level of each researcher, will
● Incorporate sustainability and environmental concerns into important areas of the project's execution, such
as teaching and learning, and strive to prevent negative environmental consequences throughout the project's
lifespan, from planning through dissemination and exploitation
● Prevent or reduce the formation of waste and dangerous substances and, if at all feasible, sort, reuse, and
recycle any waste by-products that cannot be avoided.
● Prevent or reduce the creation of hazardous pollutants, particularly greenhouse gases, resulting from the
operation of the project;
● Prioritise carbon-neutral modes of transport for all project-related travel, including commuting, wherever
viable and practical;
● Employ teleconferencing capabilities as a supplement to actual attendance at events when physical presence
is neither absolutely required nor beneficial.
● Minimise the consumption of energy, water, and other precious resources in the project's execution.