Strengthening European Cybersecurity Technologies, Capacities and Preparedness

Home Funding Calls for proposals Regional Cable Hubs Regional Cable Hubs DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-REGCABH Topic Call for proposal Internal navigation General information Topic description Topic updates Conditions and documents Budget overview Partner search announcements Start submission Topic Q&As Get support General information Programme Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) Call Strengthening European Cybersecurity Technologies, Capacities and Preparedness (DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11) Type of action DIGITAL-JU-SIMPLE DIGITAL JU Simple Grants Type of MGA DIGITAL Action Grant Budget-Based [DIGITAL-AG] Open For Submission Deadline model single-stage Opening date 01 September 2026 Deadline date 14 January 2027 17:00:00 Brussels time Topic description Expected Outcome: The Regional cable hubs will contribute to enhancing and consolidating collective situational awareness and capabilities in detection, supporting the development of an operational capacities to ensure the security and resilience of undersea cables. The hubs should act as a central point allowing for broader pooling of data and information relevant for the security environment of the cables, enabling the dissemination of threat information and incident detection on a regional scale and among a diverse set of national actors as designated by each Member States (e.g. National Hubs, CSIRTs.) The Hubs should allow a rapid exchange of information, even if classified among participating authorities in a given hub. To that end, the participating authorities shall set procedural arrangements on cooperation and information sharing. Furthermore, regional cable hubs could also benefit from additional solutions for the surveillance and protection of submarine cables, and the detection of malicious activities. For instance, situational awareness performed through the collection and analysis of in-situ, sea-based sensor data as well as relevant satellite imagery or undersea drones capacities. The Hubs could make use of existing systems which were not developed necessarily for Cable Security, such as the Integrated Maritime Systems, the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE), the EU Copernicus Space Programme, and the Maritime Surveillance System. (MARSUR). The Hubs should also integrate direct cooperation with private entities, especially cable operators to increase access – in a highly secured framework - to information on ongoing and future threats and voluntary incident reporting. The Hubs should progressively also integrate the defence dimension, as any defence capacities is likely to increase the situational awareness as well as the capacity to respond fast in case of incident against these strategic critical infrastructures. To that end, Member States can integrate in the operations of the Hubs their defence capacities (e.g. navy or surveillance system) and operational command while building on international partnerships. To support the above activities of a Regional Cable Hub, a grant will be available to cover, among others, the preparatory activities for setting up the Regional Cable Hub, its interaction and cooperation between its members and with other stakeholders, as well as the running/operating costs involved, enabling the effective operation of the Regional Cable Hub. The grant could also be used to cover the acquisition of the infrastructures, tools and services needed to build-up the Regional Cable Hub but also to equip it with the necessary capacities to enhance the security and resilience of undersea cables, such as detection capacities. These actions aim at creating or strengthening Regional Cable Hubs, which occupy a central role in ensuring the Security and resilience of strategic and critical infrastructures, providers of essential services such as global connectivity and power supply. As previously noted, Regional Cable Hubs will have a crucial operative role in ensuring the security of undersea cables in the Union and will handle sensitive information. Actions may address: the establishment of new Regional Cable Hubs the expansion to new Member States of existing Regional Cable Hubs projects funded under previous calls of this Topic the capability upgrade (extension of scope (e.g. defence aspect), application of new technologies enabling more predictive, automated, interoperable and operationally actionable situational awareness) Pursuant to Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2021/694, participation to the calls funded under this topic will be therefore subject to the restrictions of Article 12(5), as specified in Appendix 3 of this Work Programme. Objective: As part of the EU Action Plan on Cable Security, it was announced that the Commission, together with voluntary Member States, will work on Cable Integrated Surveillance Mechanisms per sea basin (‘Regional Cable Hubs’) to enhance the detection capacity against threats to undersea cables as they are critical infrastructure. Taking into account the fact that these cables are covered by the scope of NIS2 Directive that follows an all-hazards approach, it is crucial to protect their physical environment from events such as malicious acts, including cuts as integral part of the cable cybersecurity measures. Objectives The objective is to support the progressive establishment of Regional Cable hubs, one per sea basins of the EU, whose role will be to concretely enhance threats detection and operational security around these strategic infrastructures. This action is therefore aimed at supporting the set-up of processes, tools and services for detection and analysis of emerging threats, to establish a near real time situational awareness to protect the undersea cables. It includes the capacity to aggregate data and security information from all available sources (including established systems such as the Integrated Maritime System, or CISE, or National Cyber Hubs) and analyse them in an automated way. The action will support also the establishment of a reporting incident function and a procedure for information sharing between relevant national authorities. Regional Cable Hubs should be established as cooperative cross-border structures. Each Hub should involve a consortium of authorities from at least two Member States concerned by the relevant sea basin, including competent public authorities such as ministries, agencies or other public entities responsible for cable security, maritime security, resilience, or the protection of critical infrastructure. The involvement of a larger number of Member States is preferable. Other relevant public or private partners may also participate in the consortium to support the Hub’s technical and operational implementation. Additionally, structured partnership with private sector to enhance the voluntary information sharing for cable security as well as the potential and progressive integration of the relevant defence dimension capacities – in a dual use approach – could be considered in the action. Should the participating Member States so decide, the regional cable hubs could coordinate the deployment and activation of modular repair equipment across a sea basin. Finally, the scope could also cover the acquisition of additional capacities, equipment, tools, instruments or services useful for the enhancing the resilience and security of undersea cables. Show more Topic updates 01 September 2026 The submission session is now available for: DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-REGCABH, DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-COORDPREP, DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-DUALUSE, DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-EULEG, DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-AI4SME, DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-NCC, DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-CYBERAI Show more Topic conditions and documents Conditions 1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout described in section 5 of the call document. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. 2. Eligible countries described in section 6 of the call document. 3. Other eligibility conditions described in section 6 of the call document. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in section 7 of the call document. 5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes described section 8 of the call document and the Online Manual. 5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds described in section 9 of the call document. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in section 4 of the call document. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants described in section 10 of the call document. Call document and annexes: Call document Application form templates Standard application form (DEP) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Ownership control declaration Model Grant Agreements (MGA) DEP MGA Additional documents: Digital Europe Cybersecurity Work Programme 2025-2027 DEP Regulation 2021/964 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement Show more Budget overview Topic Budget year : 2026 Stages Opening date Deadline Contributions Indicative number of grants DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-AI4SME - DIGITAL-JU-SME DIGITAL JU SME Support Actions 20 000 000,00 € Single-stage 1 September 2026 14 January 2027 3 000 000,00 € to 5 000 000,00 € 5 DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-COORDPREP - DIGITAL-JU-SIMPLE DIGITAL JU Simple Grants 15 000 000,00 € Single-stage 1 September 2026 14 January 2027 around 1 500 000,00 € 10 DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-CYBERAI - DIGITAL-JU-SIMPLE DIGITAL JU Simple Grants 15 000 000,00 € Single-stage 1 September 2026 14 January 2027 3 000 000,00 € to 5 000 000,00 € 4 DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-DUALUSE - DIGITAL-JU-SIMPLE DIGITAL JU Simple Grants 10 000 000,00 € Single-stage 1 September 2026 14 January 2027 3 000 000,00 € to 5 000 000,00 € 3 DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-EULEG - DIGITAL-JU-SIMPLE DIGITAL JU Simple Grants 20 000 000,00 € Single-stage 1 September 2026 14 January 2027 3 000 000,00 € to 5 000 000,00 € 5 DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-NCC - DIGITAL-JU-SIMPLE DIGITAL JU Simple Grants 11 000 000,00 € Single-stage 1 September 2026 14 January 2027 2 000 000,00 € to 3 000 000,00 € 4 DIGITAL-ECCC-2027-DEPLOY-CYBER-11-REGCABH - DIGITAL-JU-SIMPLE DIGITAL JU Simple Grants 5 000 000,00 € Single-stage 1 September 2026 14 January 2027 around 2 500 000,00 € 2 Items per page: 10 50 100 Showing 1–7 of 7 Partner search announcements 9 Searches of partners to collaborate on this topic View / Edit LEARs, Account Administrators or self-registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics after logging into this Portal, as well as any user having an active public Person profile. Start submission Need help? To access the Electronic Submission Service, please click on the submission-button next to the type of action and the type of model grant agreement that corresponds to your proposal. You will then be asked to confirm your choice, as it cannot be changed in the submission system. Upon confirmation, you will be linked to the correct entry point. To access existing draft proposals for this topic, please login to the Funding & Tenders Portal and select the My Proposals page of the My Area section. Please select the type of your submission: DIGITAL JU Simple Grants [DIGITAL-JU-SIMPLE], DIGITAL Action Grant Budget-Based [DIGITAL-AG] Start submission Topic Q&As0 item(s) found General FAQ Get support Please read carefully all provisions below before the preparation of your application. For guidance and support related to this call, we recommend that you first contact the National Cyber [... συνέχεια στην επίσημη πρόσκληση]