Tools and processes to support stress tests of critical infrastructure
Develop tools and processes for virtual and physical stress tests to enhance resilience of critical infrastructure.
This call seeks innovation actions to create adaptable tools and methods for stress testing critical infrastructure. Projects should improve understanding of vulnerabilities and support incident management. The goal is to enhance resilience and operational procedures of essential services.
Likely relevant for
- Critical infrastructure operators
- Authorities responsible for critical infrastructure resilience
- Civil protection authorities
- Law enforcement agencies
- Security service providers
Project signals
What it funds
- Development of tools and methodologies for virtual and physical stress tests of critical infrastructure
- Simulation and modelling of multi-hazard and multi-threat scenarios
- Data analytics including geospatial information and Digital Twins
- Assessment of risks, adaptive capabilities, and human factors impact
- Solutions adaptable to diverse sectors and environmental conditions
- Compliance with legislative frameworks and secure data handling
Expected outcomes
- Access to efficient, resilient tools for stress testing critical infrastructure
- Improved understanding of technical and operational vulnerabilities
- Systems for notification and collaboration under stress conditions
- Enhanced post-incident investigation and secure data sharing
- Improved operational procedures and training curricula
Who can apply / participate
- Legal entities established in EU Member States or Associated Countries
- Critical infrastructure operators
- Authorities responsible for critical infrastructure resilience
- Civil protection authorities
- Law enforcement agencies
- Private companies providing security for critical infrastructure
- At least 3 relevant practitioners from different portfolios must be involved as beneficiaries
- Each beneficiary can cover only one type of practitioner role
- Participants must be from eligible countries as per Horizon Europe rules
- Entities controlled by China or Chinese legal entities are not eligible
- Use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS data mandatory if satellite data used
- Compliance with security sensitive information provisions required
- Specific budget per project not stated here
- Exact consortium size limits not specified
Must check before shortlisting
- Eligibility of participants from eligible countries
- Involvement of at least 3 relevant practitioners from specified portfolios
- Compliance with security and confidentiality requirements
Money
Total budget allocated for this topic is approximately €9.67 million for 2026, supporting 2 expected grants with minimum contributions around €4.835 million each.
- Total budget 2026 — 9670000EURFor 2 expected grants under Horizon Innovation Actions
Application notes
- Single-stage submission model.
- Proposal page limits and layout as per Annex A and E of Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
- Eligibility conditions as per Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
- Additional eligibility conditions require involvement of at least 3 relevant practitioners from specified portfolios.
- Use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS data mandatory if satellite data used.
- Security provisions for classified and sensitive information apply.
- Prepare proposal following the specific application form in the submission system.
- Fill in the 'Information about security practitioners' table with all requested information.
- Ensure compliance with eligibility and admissibility conditions.
- Submit proposal by the deadline 5 November 2026.
- Applicants must justify how each beneficiary meets additional eligibility conditions.
- Each beneficiary can only cover one type of practitioner role.
- Projects may involve classified background and security sensitive results requiring compliance with related provisions.
Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 3 Sep 2026, 09:36 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.
Related calls
These funding calls are closely related and may be worth considering as part of the same funding landscape.
Official source text
Fine print from the EU source record. Expand when you need the original wording.
Topic description
Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes: Critical infrastructure operators and authorities have access to efficient, adaptable, resilient and reliable tools and processes enabling or improving virtual and physical stress tests of their respective assets/ and operations; Critical entities have broader and deeper understanding of their technical and operational vulnerabilities and adaptive capabilities, improving the scenario building and stress tests exercises; Systems allowing notification and collaboration under stress conditions are available for relevant stakeholders; Critical entities are better equipped for post-incident investigations, including data collection, analysis and improved learning, management and sharing in a secure manner; Improved operational procedures including incidents management and training curricula are developed. Scope: The resilience of critical entities is of paramount importance as disruptions to these systems can have significant consequences for the whole economy, public health, security or safety. These systems, responsible for providing essential services for modern society, are increasingly complex and interconnected, making them vulnerable to a range of threats, including cyber-attacks, physical attacks, malfunctions, human-induced or natural disasters. The objective of this topic is to facilitate the stress testing of critical infrastructure by providing specialized tools and methodologies and support validation. This will enable the identification and testing of technical and operational vulnerabilities, inform of effective solutions to mitigate these risks, and facilitate the collection and analysis of data to enhance resilience plans that shall be established by each critical entity. Building on the insights gained from previous exercises, the ultimate goal is to establish more robust and comprehensive stress testing protocols, thereby ensuring the reliability and integrity of critical infrastructure. The proposed solutions may, among others, support simulation and modelling, multi-hazard and multi-threat scenario building, data analytics, including geospatial information, Digital Twins, assessment of risks and adaptive capabilities, as well as impact of human factors. These solutions should be designed to be inclusive and accessible, considering the needs of diverse users and stakeholders. Solutions should allow flexible configuration taking into account the evolving nature of threats and hazards. If feasible they should also be adaptable to different sectors and should support stress testing under diverse environmental and geographical conditions, including operation in harsh and remote environments. Moreover, they should comply with the relevant legislative frameworks and allow application of the developed tools under the current regime taking into account the sensitivity and confidentiality of the processed information. Coordination among the successful proposals from this topic and projects funded under HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-INFRA-01: Open topic for improved preparedness for, response to and recovery from large-scale disruptions of critical infrastructures and HORIZON-CL3-2025-01-INFRA-02: Open topic for role of the human factor for resilience of European critical entities , should be envisaged in order to avoid duplication, share resources and exploit complementarities and opportunities for increased impact. In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content should be addressed only if relevant in relation to the objectives of the research effort. Where relevant, funded projects are encouraged to liaise with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, for complementary real-scale testing at the Reaction Wall and HopLab of the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA). Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
Conditions and documents
General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
2. Eligible Countries
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
3. Other Eligible Conditions
In line with the “restriction on control in innovation actions in critical technology areas” delineated in General Annex B of the General Annexes, entities established in an eligible country but which are directly or indirectly controlled by China or by a legal entity established in China are not eligible to participate in the action.
Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding as a beneficiary with zero funding, or as an associated partner. The JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal - see General Annex B.
The following additional eligibility conditions apply:
This topic requires involvement as beneficiaries of at least 3 relevant practitioners from EU Member States or Associated Countries. Depending on the specific proposal submitted, these practitioners should represent one or several of the following portfolios:
- critical infrastructure operator,
- authority responsible for critical infrastructure resilience,
- civil protection authority,
- law enforcement or private companies providing security for critical infrastructure.
For these participants, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool.
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 (other data and services may additionally be used).
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement
described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
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, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5.
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].
described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Specific conditions
described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Some activities resulting from this topic may involve using classified background and/or producing of security sensitive results (EUCI and SEN). Please refer to the related provisions in section B Security — EU classified and sensitive information of the General Annexes.
Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA):
Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Call-specific instructions
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 6. Civil Security for Society
HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027 – 15. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support information
Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant. Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe. Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management. Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular. National Contact Points (NCPs) – get guidance, practical information and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. There are also NCPs in many non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’). Enterprise Europe Network – contact your EEN national contact for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs. The support includes guidance on the EU research funding. IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc. European IPR Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues. CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk – the European Standards Organisations advise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal. The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers. Partner Search help you find a partner organisation for your proposal.
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