In their opening remarks, Luca Tagliaretti, ECCC Executive Director, and Thomas Caspers, ECCC Governing Board member and Vice-President of the Federal Agency of Information Security (BSI), highlighted key themes such as building the European cybersecurity community and the importance of EU funding for technology “made in Europe.”
The event brought together around 200 participants and featured dedicated sessions covering topics such as the ECCC open calls, the role of national coordination centres in strengthening the cyber ecosystem, and a workshop on proposal writing. A key highlight was the pitching session, where interested stakeholders presented their ideas, exchanged views with other participants, and explored opportunities to form consortia.
ECCC open calls for proposals
Alexander Kamprad, ECCC Programme Officer, presented the funding opportunities under the Digital Europe (DEP) and Horizon Europe (HE) programmes open for applications.
The call for proposal under the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL-ECCC-2025-DEPLOY-CYBER-08) focuses on 3 topics for an overall indicative budget of EUR 55 million:
- Transition to post-quantum Public Key Infrastructures (EUR 15 million);
- Enhancing the NCC Network (EUR 10 million);
- Dedicated action to reinforcing hospitals and healthcare providers (EUR 30 million).
Proposals can be submitted until 7 October 2025 at 17:00 CET. Further details are available on the Funding and Tenders portal at this link.
The call for proposals under Horizon Europe (HORIZON-CL3-2025-02-CS-ECCC – Increased cybersecurity) implemented by the ECCC covers the following topics for overall indicative budget of 90.55 mil euro:
- Generative AI for Cybersecurity applications (EUR 40 million);
- New advanced tools and processes for Operational Cybersecurity (EUR 23.55 million);
- Privacy Enhancing Technologies (EUR 11 million);
- Security evaluations of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) primitives (EUR 4 million);
- Security of implementations of Post Quantum Cryptography algorithm (EUR 6 million);
- Integration of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms into high-level protocols (EUR 6 million).
Proposals can be submitted until 12 November 2025 at 17:00 CET. The eligibility criteria and all relevant call documents are available on the Funding and Tenders portal at this link.
National Coordination Centres in focus
Dr. Dörte Rappe, Head of the National Coordination Centre of Germany, outlined the role of the NCCs across the EU and, in particular, their contribution at national level to supporting the cyber ecosystem.
Participants were encouraged to reach out to their national NCCs for guidance on applications or for support in finding partners to build consortia. The full list of NCCs is available on the ECCC website at this link.
For those who missed the event, check out a selection of presentations below:
Details
- Publication date
- 9 September 2025
- Author
- European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre