The Icelandic Centre for Research
Open Call 1: Strengthening Cybersecurity Resilience and Innovation in the Transport Sector
10th September 2026
This call supports the testing and validation of cybersecurity solutions that strengthen the resilience of European transport systems across air, road, rail, maritime and inland waterways, in both IT and OT environments.
The call is aimed in particular at transport sector NIS2 essential and important entities. Projects must address at least one of the transport-specific cyber challenges set out in the Applicant's Guide, demonstrate measurable improvements against a defined baseline, and contribute to one or more modules of the TRUNSPORT Cyber Support Hub (PSS, HSS or MAS).
Funding:
Up to EUR 60,000 per project, provided as a lump sum and covering a maximum of 50% of total eligible project costs. Total project costs must therefore be at least EUR 120,000 to receive the full grant. Up to 21 projects will be funded from a total indicative Open Call 1 budget of EUR 1,260,000. Payment is made in three tranches: 30% at Month 1, 30% at Month 4 and the final 40% on completion at Month 9.
Deadline:
30 October 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. Proposals are submitted through the F6S platform only and must be in English.
Who can apply:
Single applicants (mono-beneficiary) or consortia (multi-beneficiary). Eligible applicants are SMEs, startups, mid-caps, large companies, research centres, universities, NGOs and public bodies. Note that applicants must operate within the transport sector or provide services directly related to transport infrastructures. A cybersecurity company without such a link is therefore usually best placed to apply together with a transport operator that contributes the use case and access to systems for testing. Only one proposal per applicant will be accepted; an applicant participating in several proposals makes all of those proposals ineligible. Applicants need a PIC number and must submit an Ownership Control Declaration (OCD).
Duration:
9 months. Projects begin in January 2027 and run to September 2027.
Additional support:
Beneficiaries gain access to the Cyber Support Hub, technical mentoring from the TRUNSPORT consortium, NIS2 compliance evaluation, cyber-range exercises on the KYPO Cyber Range Platform, and capacity-building webinars. Beneficiaries must also attend the Open Call 1 Spotlight Demo Day in Thessaloniki in person towards the end of the implementation period.