Call: Prevention, detection of physical an, response and mitigation of the combinationd cyber threats to the critical infrastructure of Europe

1. Excellent Science
2. Industrial Leadership
3. Societal Challenges

The primary aims of the Secure Societies Challenge are:

• to enhance the resilience of our society against natural and man-made disasters, ranging from the development of new crisis management tools to communication interoperability, and to develop novel solutions for the protection of critical infrastructure;
• to fight crime and terrorism ranging from new forensic tools to protection against explosives;
• to improve border security, ranging from improved maritime border protection to supply chain security and to support the Union's external security policies including through conflict prevention and peace building;
• and to provide enhanced cyber-security, ranging from secure information sharing to new assurance models.

Securing the society against disasters is one of the central elements of the functioning of any society. There is barely any societal sector which is not to some extent concerned by disasters and related resilience and security issues. Fighting crime and terrorism requires new technologies and capabilities for fighting and preventing crime (including cyber-crime), illegal trafficking and terrorism (including cyber-terrorism), including understanding and tackling terrorist ideas and beliefs to also avoid aviation-related threats. The protection of the European borders requires the development of systems, equipment, tools, processes, and methods for rapid identification. This includes supply chain security in the context of the EU’s customs policy.

On Digital Security, this Challenge focuses on increasing the security of current applications, services and infrastructures by integrating state-of-the-art security solutions or processes, supporting the creation of lead markets & market incentives in Europe, following an end-user driven approach, including for instance law enforcement agencies, first responders, operators of critical infrastructures, ICT service providers, ICT manufacturers, market operators and citizens.

This Challenge should bring together all security stakeholders: industry - including SMEs, research organisations, universities, as well as public authorities, non-governmental organisations and public and private organisations in the security domain. The active involvement of end-users is of high importance.

The Secure Societies Challenge will contribute to the implementation of the policy goals of the Europe 2020 strategy, the Security Industrial Policy, the Internal Security Strategy and the Cyber Security Strategy.

Disruptions in the operation of our countries’ infrastructure may put at risk the functioning of our societies and their economies. Such disruptions may result from many kinds of hazards and physical and/or cyber-attacks on installations and systems. A comprehensive, yet installation-specific approach is needed to secure the integrity of existing or future, public or private, connected and interdependent installations. Since the global financial crisis has imposed unprecedented budgetary restrictions on both the public and private sectors, new security solutions must be more efficient and cost-effective than the ones currently available. 

Proposals should focus on one of the following critical infrastructures: Water Systems, Energy Infrastructure (power plants and distribution), Transport Infrastructure and means of transportation, Communication Infrastructure, Health Services, Financial Services. Proposals should cover: prevention, detection, response, and in case of failure, mitigation of consequences over the life span of the infrastructure, with a view to achieving the security and resilience of all functions performed by the installations, and of neighbouring populations and the environment.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of  8 million € would allow this topic to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless this does not preclude the submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

EU funding rate: 70% (except for non-profit legal entities, where a rate of 100% applies).

Electronic application here.

Link to the National Contact Point Finder.