Europe strengthens its digital shield

Horizon Europe, the European Defence Fund (EDF), and Digital Europe. These are the main European-level funding initiatives in the field of cybersecurity, at a time when this area has become a strategic cornerstone of EU policies and investments. “The increase in cyber threats, the accelerated digitalisation of society, and growing geopolitical tensions only serve to reinforce the importance of cybersecurity as a key pillar for economic growth, democratic resilience, and the protection of citizens’ rights,” says Natalia García-Barberena, senior consultant in European Projects at Zabala Innovation and an expert in this field.

For organisations offering innovative cybersecurity solutions, the combination of these three programmes provides unprecedented funding opportunities to expand their impact across the Old Continent. Through Kaila – the intelligent platform developed by Zabala Innovation, which enables users to search for funding, quantify the latest innovation trends, monitor competitors, and find collaborative entities – it is possible to accurately map this and other initiatives in the field of cybersecurity, among all the rest.

Horizon Europe

Within the Cluster 3 – Civil Security for Society work programme, there is a single destination dedicated to cybersecurity. The expected impacts are as follows:

• To support the EU’s technological capabilities through investment in cybersecurity research and innovation, to further strengthen its leadership, strategic autonomy, digital sovereignty, and resilience.
• To help protect its infrastructures and enhance its ability to prevent, defend against, respond to, withstand, mitigate, absorb, adapt to, and recover from cyber and hybrid incidents, particularly in the current context of geopolitical change.
• To support European competitiveness and strategic autonomy in cybersecurity, by protecting EU products and digital supply chains, as well as the EU’s critical services and infrastructures (both physical and digital), to ensure their robustness and continuity in the face of serious disruptions.
• To foster the development of the European Cybersecurity Competence Community, in close collaboration with the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC), to avoid duplication.

According to the new 2025–2027 Work Programme, particular attention will be paid to SMEs, which play a crucial role in the cybersecurity ecosystem and in the overall competitiveness of the EU’s Digital Single Market, promoting security and privacy in both existing and emerging technologies by design.

This year’s total budget is €90.55 million. The calls for proposals, which are already open, will close on 12 November. These are the six calls planned for this period:

HORIZON-CL3-2025-02-CS-ECCC-01: Generative AI for Cybersecurity applications (RIA, €40 million)

HORIZON-CL3-2025-02-CS-ECCC-02: New advanced tools and processes for Operational Cybersecurity (IA, €13.55 million)

HORIZON-CL3-2025-02-CS-ECCC-03: Privacy Enhancing Technologies (RIA, €11 million)

HORIZON-CL3-2025-02-CS-ECCC-04: Security evaluations of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) primitives (RIA, €4 million)

HORIZON-CL3-2025-02-CS-ECCC-05: Security of implementations of Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithms (RIA, €6 million)

HORIZON-CL3-2025-02-CS-ECCC-06: Integration of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms into high-level protocols (RIA, €6 million)

Digital Europe

Aiming to support digital transformation, the Digital Europe Programme will allocate €45.6 million by 2027 for actions such as the establishment of an EU cybersecurity reserve to help address significant or large-scale incidents, the development of a single reporting platform under the Cyber Resilience Act (to be managed and maintained by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity – ENISA), and the operation of the Cybersecurity Situation and Analysis Centre.

The publication and closing dates for these actions have not yet been defined, but their launch is planned for the second quarter of 2025, with a deadline in the fourth quarter of 2025.

European Defence Fund

The EDF is the EU programme aimed at supporting the development of its defence capabilities. This includes funding for cybersecurity-related initiatives, such as the development of solutions for defence and the enhancement of defence systems. The 2025 budget is €54 million, distributed across two calls which will close on 16 October. The two planned topics are:

• EDF-2025-LS-RA-SI-CYBER-3RAV-STEP: Risk, robustness and resilience for autonomous vehicles in military operations. Generating knowledge, integrating knowledge, studies, and design (€20 million).
• EDF-2025-DA-CYBER-CDOC-STEP: Improved cyber defence operations capabilities. Integrating knowledge, studies, design, and system prototyping, not excluding upstream and downstream activities eligible for development actions (€34 million).

How to participate

According to García-Barberena, “to participate effectively in these funding opportunities, several factors must be taken into account during the proposal preparation phase.” Firstly, it is essential to fully understand the specific topic of the call, focusing on the identified social and technological challenges, the needs of relevant stakeholders, and the expected impact on the EU’s strategic objectives.

It is also crucial to involve end-users from the outset. “Their involvement is often a requirement, and their input is invaluable in ensuring that project outcomes are practical, adoptable, and impactful across multiple sectors,” the expert states. “Their role enhances both the implementation and the long-term sustainability of the solution,” she adds.

Moreover, successful proposals are increasingly interdisciplinary. “Combining technical excellence with knowledge from the social sciences, policy research, and ethical considerations is vital to addressing cybersecurity not only as a technical issue but also as a social and governance challenge,” García-Barberena emphasises.

However, navigating the complexity of European funding programmes can be a challenging task. In this regard, the expert suggests that “seeking expert guidance from professionals who understand both the technical domain and the specifics of EU funding mechanisms can significantly increase the chances of success.”