OpenUp’s PROMPT4SKILLS Awarded the European Commission’s STEP Seal (Sovereignty Seal)

An important European recognition for Open Up and the President Mr. Orfanakis Stylianos: the project proposal PROMPT4SKILLS—an ambitious initiative focused on the future of Artificial Intelligence and advanced digital skills—has been awarded the STEP Seal (Sovereignty Seal) by the European Commission as a high-quality project.

This distinction is particularly meaningful to Open Up, as the proposal was coordinated by our President, Mr. Stelios Orfanakis. The concept was based entirely on his original idea and was developed under his sole writing responsibility—demonstrating the vision, expertise, and European-level capacity that OpenUp brings to the innovation landscape.

About PROMPT4SKILLS

With a total budget of €14 million, PROMPT4SKILLS brought together 32 organisations (16 partners and 16 supporting organisations) under a shared mission: strengthening Europe’s AI readiness and digital talent pipeline.

Although the proposal was not funded (due to budgetary limitations), receiving the STEP Seal confirms that it passed the required evaluation thresholds and is recognised by the European Commission as a quality-labelled initiative. The STEP Seal is designed to increase the visibility of excellent projects and facilitate further opportunities through future calls and complementary funding pathways.

Acknowledgements

No major achievement is delivered in isolation. We warmly thank the OpenUp team that supported this effort:

• Dr Lemonia Antonoglou (who supported the proposal process intensively throughout)
• Dr Anna Fotiadou
• Dr Maria Sampani
• Dr Angeliki Tsameti
• Dr Eleftherios Protopapas

We also extend our sincere thanks to:

• Professor Konstantinos Moustakas (University of Patras, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering), for entrusting the coordination of this large-scale submission to our President and to OpenUp.
• Our partners at iED, and in particular Mr Thodoris Alexandrou, for critical support at key moments in the submission journey.
• Ms Venia Soumpenioti (RMR), for contributing to the writing process and for supporting the development of the proposal network.
• Mr Giorgos Gogolos, for the excellent day-to-day cooperation with our President that helped drive this result; he is now part of Infoteam Hellas, a subsidiary of Infoteam Software AG (Germany).

We remain committed to innovation, impact, and European collaboration—continuing to design what comes next.