Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Digital Europe Programme is the first EU programme that aims to accelerate the recovery and drive the digital transformation of Europe.
Worth €7.6 billion (in current prices), the Programme is a part of the next long-term EU budget, (the Multiannual Financial Framework), and it covers 2021 to 2027. It will provide funding for projects in five crucial areas: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society.
The Programme is fine-tuned to fill the gap between the research of digital technologies and their deployment, and to bring the results of research to the market – for the benefit of Europe’s citizens and businesses, and in particular SMEs. Investments under the Digital Europe programme supports the Union’s twin objectives of a green transition and digital transformation and strengthens the Union’s resilience and strategic autonomy.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The objective will be to create, support and/or strengthen and interconnect SOCs at regional, national and EU level. This will allow for reinforced capacities to monitor and detect cyber threats, the creation of collective knowledge and sharing of best practices.
The aim is to improve cybersecurity resilience with faster detection and response to cybersecurity incidents and threats at national and EU level through the establishment of SOCs, leveraging disruptive technologies, and sharing of information leading to increased situational awareness and stronger EU supply chains.
Detailed Call Description
Specifically:
- Supporting existing SOCs or establishing national, regional or sectoral SOCs serving private (SMEs in particular) and/or public organisations with real-time monitoring and analysis of data from public internet network traffic to detect malicious activities and incidents that affect the resilience of network and information systems;
- Strengthening SOCs by leveraging state of the art Artificial Intelligence (including Machine Learning techniques) and computing power to improve the detection of malicious activities, and dynamically learning about the changing threat landscape;
- Supporting information sharing among public authorities (including competent authorities and CSIRTs under the NIS Directive), as well as with other SOCs (e.g. operated by private entities), facilitated through appropriate sharing agreements, while complying with all obligations related to privacy and personal data protection;
- Developing and deploying appropriate tools, platforms and infrastructures to securely share and analyse large data sets among SOCs. Where possible and appropriate, existing building blocks will be re-used, including the results of relevant Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon 2020 projects;
- Supporting the increased availability, quality, usability and interoperability of threat intelligence data among SOCs and relevant entities;
- Identify potential critical dependencies on foreign suppliers and solutions in the area of threat intelligence and develop an EU supply chain on threat intelligence;
- Provide Member States bodies with threat intelligence and situational awareness capabilities helping to anticipate and respond to cyber-attacks, notably in the framework of the Blueprint/CyCLONe and the Joint Cybersecurity Unit;
- Bridge cooperation between various cybersecurity communities, e.g. civilian cybersecurity resilience, law enforcement, defence, taking into account cooperation frameworks such as the Blueprint/CyCLONe and the Joint Cybersecurity Unit.
To achieve this aim, the following activities are foreseen:
- Grants will be made available to enable capacity building, e.g. through the establishment or reinforcing of SOCs serving private or public organisations, leveraging state of the art technology such as artificial intelligence and dynamic learning of the threat landscape
- A call for expression of interest will be launched to select entities in Member States that provide the necessary facilities to host and operate cross-border platforms for pooling data on cybersecurity threat between several Member States (data potentially coming from various sources). The call for expression of interest will also build up the planning and design of necessary tools and infrastructures.
- Building on the call for expression of interest, a joint procurement will be launched to develop and operate capacities for the selected cross-border platforms, including advanced tools and infrastructures to securely share and analyse large data sets and threat intelligence among the selected cross-border platforms (e.g. highly-secure infrastructure or advanced data analytics aimed at significantly improving the ability to analyse large sets of data).
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
Project budget (maximum grant amount): between €1 million and €10 million per project
The grant will be a budget-based mixed actual cost grant (actual costs, with unit cost and flat-rate elements). This means that it will reimburse ONLY certain types of costs (eligible costs) and costs that were actually incurred for your project (NOT the budgeted costs).
After grant signature, you will normally receive a prefinancing to start working onthe project (float of normally 80% of the maximum grant amount; exceptionally less or no prefinancing). The prefinancing will be paid 30 days from entry into force/10 days before starting date/financial guarantee (if required) – whichever is the latest.
Specific cost eligibility conditions for this call: depreciation + full cost for listed equipment
Thematic Categories
- Justice - Security
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Central Government
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Semi-governmental organisations
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
- EEA countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein)
Financial support to third parties.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Eleana Gabriel
Directorate of Research and Innovation
Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy
Telephone: +357 22 691918
Email: egabriel@dmrid.gov.cy
(Publish Date: 27/09/2022-for internal use only)
EU Contact Point
For questions please contact: