National Contact Points (NCPs) in the field of security and cybersecurity fostering the links with National Community building for Safe, Secure and Resilient Societies

Expected Outcome:Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

• Improved and professionalised NCP[1] service of knowledge, experience and skills, consistent across Europe, thereby helping simplify access to Horizon Europe calls, lowering the entry barriers for newcomers, and raising the average quality of proposals submitted;
• Harmonised and improved trans-national cooperation between NCPs, and support of National communities for research and innovation in the area of security that can collect input from practitioners, industrial partners and convey capability needs.; Increased cooperation of NCPs with seamless collaboration of the national initiatives, with the EU initiatives, namely CERIS[2];
• Periodic and timely evidence-based feedback in support to EU-funded security research programming enabled by a seamless integration of the national, regional and local dimensions of security Research and Innovation into the EU picture;
• A systematic assessment of the needs of the various stakeholders involved in the areas of security and increase the visibility of capability needs, gaps, and technology solutions expressed by national, regional and local communities;
• Improvement of the awareness of EU funding opportunities relevant for civil security research and innovation;
• Improvement of the awareness of innovation-uptake success stories stemming from the participation of national players in EU-funded security research projects;
• Reduced geographical fragmentation of the civil security research and innovation community via the cooperation with the various initiatives of National Communities of security research and innovation with the participation of stakeholders from the security ecosystem, that are set up and running in the different Member States or Associated Countries.

Scope:National Contact Points (NCPs) are support structures that have become an essential component in the implementation of successive Framework Programmes. They provide information and on-the ground advice to potential applicants and beneficiaries, through the project life cycle, in their own language, in a manner that would be impossible for the European Commission and its Agencies acting alone.

NCPs can benefit in their work from the sharing of best practices among them. NCPs can also help to give visibility to different perspectives of all Security Research and Innovation (R&I) stakeholders and to break geographical silos by aggregating the knowledge existing in the EU Member States and regions and incorporate it to the European picture. This set-up increases the visibility of the security at EU level and across security areas.

However, the security sector exhibits a remarkable geographic fragmentation, with actors operating at EU level, at national level, at regional level and even at local level. In order to acknowledge the different perspectives of all stakeholders and break geographical silos, there is a need to aggregate the knowledge existing in the Member States and Associated countries and incorporate it to the European picture.

Cooperation with national stakeholders and establishment of stronger links with the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS)[2].

These links should help to have a more comprehensive view of the common EU security needs and solutions, to better capitalise on pan-European cooperation and funding opportunities, and to give visibility to results from EU and other research projects.

Proposals should link NCPs with national communities for research and innovation that exist already or will be established. The idea of this link is to identify capability gaps, solutions to address those gaps, and research needs at local, regional and national level and integrate them in the EU picture in collaboration with CERIS.

In addition, this collaboration will assist NCPs to share research opportunities coming from national research programmes and initiatives with the wider security research community at national level. This will also improve the visibility of the results achieved by national players following their participation in research projects (national or EU-funded), and in particular those which have led to the deployment of solutions in the field of operations, or which have a strong potential for uptake as a result of the interest expressed by national buyers.

Finally, this will support the promotion of innovation uptake with financial pathways and opportunities to enable the uptake of innovative solutions stemming from EU, national or regional capacity building funds, with special emphasis on the EU Home Affairs funds (both in the parts under shared management and those under direct management by the Commission) and on the European Regional Development Fund.

As an output of the action, the beneficiaries should develop a model for the cooperation and enlargement of with the national research and innovation communities beyond the lifetime of the project and independent of EU security research funding. The objective is to support the establishment of self-standing national communities beyond the duration of the project.

The successful proposal will contribute to delivering the Programme’s objectives and impacts and raise awareness of potential applicants for calls under Horizon Europe Cluster 3 – "Civil Security for Society". Irrespectively of their sector or discipline, project proposals should aim to facilitate trans-national co-operation between NCPs, with a view to identifying and sharing good practices and raising the general standard of support to Programme applicants. The project should also allow for a better flow of information relevant for the implementation of the Programme from the EU level to the national level and vice-versa, and also across Member States and Associated Countries. This includes fostering the participation of national players in EU security research and innovation fora. Particular attention should be given to results that have led to the deployment of solutions in the field of operations, or that show a strong potential for uptake because of the interest expressed by national buyers.

Proposals should link up potential participants from widening countries with emerging consortia in the domain of the Cluster “Civil Security for Society” building on previous initiatives from similar past projects. Matchmaking should take place by means of online tools, brokerage events, info days and bilateral meetings between project initiators and candidate participants from widening countries. Other matchmaking instruments may be used as appropriate. The project proposal to be funded should cover a wide range of activities related to Horizon Europe, address issues specific to the Cluster "Civil Security for Society" and may follow up on the work of SEREN5.

The network should organise matchmaking activities in accordance with Annex IV of the NCP Minimum Standards and Guiding Principles. Proposals should also take into account support activities for coordination between the respective beneficiary (NCP) and the respective National Coordination Centre[4] within the relevant Member States as applicable once the regulation mentioned above is in force.

The project consortium should have a good representation of experienced and less experienced NCPs.

The recommended duration of the project is 3 years.

[1] https://horizoneuropencpportal.eu/

[2] https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/ceris-community-european-research-and-innovation-security_en

[3] https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/ceris-community-european-research-and-innovation-security_en

[4] National Coordination Centres according to regulation (EU) 2021/887 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2021.