Digital Innovation Hubs as Examples of Cooperation to Foster the Digital Skills of Employees in SMEs

The digital transformation of European economies represents one of the main challenges for public and private entities in the EU member states. To face this challenge, new forms of cooperation among companies are needed, and thus support by public funding is required. In our paper, we focus on the Slovak experience of digital innovation hubs presenting an offer of services to businesses, in particular to SMEs, for developing the digital skills of their employees. The European Commission’s initiative of European Digital Innovation Hubs (2021) is based on the idea that the hubs function as one-stop shops that help companies dynamically respond to digital challenges, thus becoming more competitive. Firstly, the theoretical concept explaining the necessity of these platforms in the European Member States is presented. Secondly, we analyse several case studies of existing hubs and candidate digital innovation hubs in Slovakia. Finally, we set out chosen challenges of the European Digital Innovation Hubs network in the context of the Next Generation Europe and the Digital Europe Programme in the Slovak environment.