Targeted innovative capabilities for the resilience of critical entities to natural and human-induced disasters, including hybrid scenarios

What this call funds

The call targets development and demonstration of targeted high-tech capabilities for resilience of critical entities against natural, human-induced and NaTech disasters including hybrid scenarios, moving beyond generic frameworks toward sector-specific, interoperable and modular solutions tested in realistic operational settings. Proposals can position themselves around concrete capability gaps in multi-hazard and cascading-risk scenarios rather than broad conceptual resilience studies.

Who this suits

The topic requires involvement as beneficiaries of at least 3 relevant practitioners from EU Member States or Associated Countries, representing portfolios such as critical infrastructure operators, authorities responsible for critical infrastructure resilience, civil protection authorities, first responders' organisations, NaTech event management authorities, law enforcement or private companies providing security for critical infrastructure. A consortium without at least three such practitioner beneficiaries from the specified portfolios may not meet the eligibility bar, so applicants can assess partner composition early against these categories.

Entities established in an eligible country but directly or indirectly controlled by China or by a legal entity established in China are not eligible to participate, and legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions under this destination. Applicants with Chinese ownership or control links may need to evaluate their eligibility carefully before investing in proposal preparation.

Financial constraints

For lump sum grant proposals, the estimated budget must be described in a detailed budget table used as a basis for justifying and fixing the lump sum amount, and if the budget table contains ineligible costs, the grant may be reduced even during or after implementation.

What selection favours

Proposals should be grounded in existing risk assessments and lessons learned from recent disruptive events, deliver measurable improvements in technological and organisational resilience, and demonstrate cross-border, multi-actor coordination mechanisms through simulations or testing in real operational environments. Applicants can differentiate their proposals by grounding them in documented event lessons and by planning realistic cross-border tests rather than purely laboratory-scale validation.

The delivery commitment

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project, meaning technology demonstrated in a relevant environment or system prototype demonstration in an operational environment. Applicants can scope their work plan toward demonstration-level maturity rather than early research, aligning deliverables with TRL 6-7 endpoints.

If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS, though other data and services may additionally be used. Consortia planning to use satellite data can incorporate Copernicus or Galileo/EGNOS as a baseline while supplementing with other sources where needed.

The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, and some activities may involve using classified background or producing security sensitive results (EUCI and SEN). Applicants can anticipate post-project restrictions on IP transfers and prepare for potential security classification handling during proposal design.

Reasons to pursue or deprioritise

The call encourages coordination among successful proposals from this topic and projects funded under three prior related topics to avoid duplication, share resources and exploit complementarities, and proposals should consider synergy-building and clustering with CERIS activities.

The proposal page limit for topics using lump sum funding is 45 pages, and proposals will be evaluated as submitted with no possibility for significant changes to content, budget and consortium composition during grant preparation.