Preparedness Support and Mutual Assistance, Targeting Larger Industrial Operations and Installations
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
This mechanism aims to complement and not duplicate efforts by Member States and those at Union level to increase the level of protection and resilience to cyber threats, in particular for large industrial installations and infrastructures, by assisting Member States in their efforts to improve the preparedness for cyber threats and incidents by providing them with knowledge and expertise.
Detailed Call Description
The provision of preparedness support services (ex-ante) shall include activities listed below, addressing for example large industrial installations or infrastructures, operators of essential services, digital service providers and governmental entities:
Support for testing for potential vulnerabilities:
- Development of penetration testing scenarios. The proposed scenarios may cover Networks, Applications, Virtualisation solutions, Cloud solutions, Industrial Control systems, and IoT.
- Support for conducting testing of essential entities operating critical infrastructure for potential vulnerabilities.
- Support the deployment of digital tools and infrastructures supporting the execution of testing scenarios and for conducting exercises such as the development of standardised cyber-ranges or other testing facilities, able to mimic features of critical sectors (e.g., energy sector, transport sector etc.) to facilitate the execution of cyber-exercises, in particular within cross-border scenarios where relevant.
- Evaluation and/or testing of MS cybersecurity capabilities (including capabilities to prevent, detect and respond to incidents).
- Consulting services, providing recommendations on how to improve infrastructure security and capabilities
Support for threat assessment and risk assessment:
- Threat Assessment process implementation and life cycle
- Customised risk scenarios analysis.
Risk monitoring service:
- Specific continuous risk monitoring such as attack surface monitoring, risk monitoring of assets and vulnerabilities.
Preparedness actions should benefit entities (including SMEs and start-ups) in sectors indicated as critical infrastructure sectors in NIS2 (Directive (EU) 2022/2555), such as energy, transport and banking, and entities in other relevant sectors.
This action aims at the creation of platforms that serve as a reference point and provide services such as penetration testing and threat assessments for providers of essential services and critical infrastructures, as well as other actors. This involves data and operational measure regarding cybersecurity, including penetration tests and exploitable vulnerabilities. Such information could be exploited by malicious actors, and thus it must be protected against possible dependencies and vulnerabilities in cybersecurity to pre-empt foreign influence and control.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Maximum grant amount: €3.000.000 – €5.000.000 per project (but other amounts are not excluded)
Thematic Categories
- Energy
- Justice - Security
- New Entrepreneurship
- Public Administration
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
- Transport
Eligibility for Participation
- Central Government
- Financial Institutions
- Legal Entities
- Local Authorities
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- 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)
Please be aware that all topics of this call are subject to restrictions due to security, therefore entities must not be directly or indirectly controlled from a country that is not an eligible country. All entities will have to fill in and submit a declaration on ownership and control.
Moreover:
- participation in any capacity (as beneficiary, affiliated entity, associated partner, subcontractor or recipient of financial support to third parties) is limited to entities established in and controlled from eligible countries
- project activities (included subcontracted work) must take place in eligible countries (see section geographic location below and section 10)
- the Grant Agreement may provide for IPR restrictions (see section 10).
Financial support to third parties is mandatory for grants under the following conditions:
- the calls must be open, published widely and conform to EU standards concerning transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality
- the calls must be published on the Funding & Tenders Portal, and on the participants’ websites
- the calls must remain open for at least two months
- if call deadlines are changed this must immediately be published on the Portal and all registered applicants must be informed of the change
- the outcome of the call must be published on the participants’ websites, including a description of the selected projects, award dates, project durations, and final recipient legal names and countries
- the calls must have a clear European dimension.
Targeted stakeholders:
This topic targets in particular industrial players, national cybersecurity authorities, national cybersecurity competence centres, National Coordination Centres (as defined in Regulation (EU) 2021/887), private entities and any other relevant stakeholders with the capacity to aggregate demand from end beneficiaries, to launch tenders for procurement in the cybersecurity market space and to run downstream calls for allocating Financial Support to Third Parties.
Submissions from consortia, despite not mandatory, will positively contribute to the impact of the action.
Consortium composition: no restrictions
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy
Directorate of Research and Innovation
Eleana Gabriel
Telephone: +357 22 691918
Email: egabriel@dmrid.gov.cy