National Delegate and National Contact Point (NCP) for Horizon Europe Cluster 3 - Civil Security for Society
Enterprise Ireland
Cluster 3 - Ireland's third round results
Ireland’s good start in Horizon Europe Cluster 3 ‘Civil Security for Society’ has continued. In the third funding round, Inlecom Commercial Pathways coordinated a winning project “integrated software toolbox for secure IoT-to-Cloud computing” (INTACT) and was a partner in another - ‘Transport resilience against Cyber and Non-Cyber Events to prevent Network Disruption’ (TRANSCEND).
Overall, there were 18 Irish participations in 14 winning projects and a return of over 2.9% of the allocated funding, or more than €5.1m. These numbers will change if Reserve List projects are funded.
Cluster 3 divides into multiple ‘destinations’ including Disaster Resilient Societies (DRS), Fight against Crime and Terrorism (FCT), Border Management (BM), Resilient Infrastructure (INFRA), Support to Security Research and Innovation (SSRI) and Increased Cybersecurity (CS). Except for DRS, success was broad-based across them.
Some noteworthy participations:
- University of Galway, The Revenue Commissioners, Rezero and Analyze IQ in “Border Control Agencies for Interlinked and Interoperable Future” (BORDERLINK)
- Munster Technological University and Gas Networks Ireland in ‘Vigilant Maritime Surveillance of Critical Submarine Infrastructure’ (VIGIMARE)
- Collins Aerospace in ‘Continuum of Trust: Increased Path Agility and Trustworthy Device and Service Provisioning’ (CASTOR)
- Carr Communications in ‘Strategies and Services for Enhanced Disruption Resilience and Cooperation in Europe’ (ENDURANCE)
- University of Limerick in ‘ENhanced AI-baSEd cybercriMe-oriented collaBorative investigation technologies and capabiLitiEs’ (ENSEMBLE).
Tips for participation
Aside from early engagement with practitioners, which was highlighted last year, a critical success factor is to start early - as a rule of thumb, at least six months in advance of the deadline. Many start much earlier. This is especially true if you’ve modest experience with EU programmes. Don’t wait for formal call announcements.
It makes sense to understand the competitive landscape of the topic to assess if you will apply. Some topics will attract too many proposals, so is it worthwhile competing? Some topics may have been significantly influenced by your competitors. Does this stack the odds too much against your winning? It may not. The point is to assess the matter and as the song ‘The Gambler’ has it, ‘Know when to walk away.’
Looking to the future of Cluster 3 beyond 2024, if Option 1 in the recent EC White Paper on dual civ-mil use is adopted, then we will see spin-in topics from the European Defence Fund (EDF) to Horizon Europe. For example, if the EDF was to support a project on autonomous drones for military applications, a related topic aimed at civilian applications could be installed in the civil security work programme. This procedure may bias the topic.
Time will tell how this plays out, but don’t forget the gambler's advice.