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Home / Horizon Europe / HORIZON-CL3-2026-02-CS-ECCC-01

Approaches and tools for security in software and hardware development and assessment

Open now · HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions · HORIZON-CL3-2026-02-CS-ECCC-01

Next cut-off
15 Sept '26
in 9 days
Per grant
€4.0M
the call's own average
Grants expected
5
projects that will be funded
Funding rate
100%
the full cost of the action

In context of Horizon Europe

This grant€4.0M
The track runs to the largest grant in Horizon Europe (€171M). The median across the 482 calls we publish is €5.3M, this one is below it.

What this call funds

Expected Outcome:

Proposals are expected to contribute to one or more of the following:

  • Enhanced security frameworks for both hardware and software supply chains, building on root-of-trust architectures and secure lifecycle management;
  • Secure and trusted chip architectures for next-generation computing and networking systems;
  • Integrated security-by-design approaches in software development, aimed to be aligned with relevant regulatory requirements;
  • Security testing methodologies, including formal verification approaches and AI-driven security testing methodologies;
  • Standardised methodologies for hardware security assessment, also contributing to cybersecurity certification.

Scope:

The increasing complexity and globalisation of software and hardware supply chains introduce new vulnerabilities that cyber adversaries can exploit. Ensuring the security of both software and hardware components across the lifecycle of digital systems is paramount. This topic aims to develop innovative tools, methods, and processes to secure the entire ecosystem of software and hardware development.

Proposals should explicitly select one main area of focus but can also address both:

a. Secured hardware systems over trusted Chips

Trimmed here, the full scope, expected outcomes and award criteria are on the official topic page ↗.

What applying costs you

ItemEstimateNote
Drafting effort6–8 weekssingle submission
Partner search4–8 weeksruns in parallel, and it is the part that slips
Time to first payment6–9 monthscut-off → evaluation → grant agreement

These are Bemzu's estimates from the call's structure (the number of stages and whether a consortium is required) not figures published by the Commission. Only the co-financing share is read from the call itself.

Where these conditions come from

Two kinds of row. Most are the sentence we read the condition from, quoted out of the call itself. Some say plainly that they are not a quotation but the programme's own rule for this type of action, the EU portal publishes a table of contents where the conditions should be, so for a Research and Innovation Action the rate comes from the rulebook rather than from the fiche.

ConditionQuoted from the call, or the rule behind it
Consortium sizeNot quoted from this call — Research and Innovation Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are at least three independent legal entities from three different Member States or Associated Countries, at least one established in a Member State.
Funding rateNot quoted from this call — Research and Innovation Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are funded at 100% of eligible costs for every participant.

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