AENAON Open Call Round 1

Objectif

The AENAON project is launching two Innovation Calls for Cybersecurity Preparedness to enhance the cybersecurity resilience and digital infrastructure of offshore wind farms. In a context where offshore wind energy operators and related critical energy stakeholders are increasingly exposed to complex cyber threats, AENAON aims to support the validation, customisation, uptake and scaling of advanced cybersecurity solutions tailored to the specific operational needs of the offshore wind sector.
The AENAON Innovation Calls will provide Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) through two Open Call rounds:
- Open Call 1 – Cybersecurity Technology Enhancement for Offshore Wind Energy Operators
- Open Call 2 – Scaling Cybersecurity Resilience across the Offshore Wind Ecosystem

Under Open Call 1, funded sub-projects are expected to interact with AENAON’s Federated Digital Twin-based Cyber Range Platform, interactive cyber range training programme and/or cybersecurity preparedness support services. Proposals must demonstrate direct operational relevance to offshore wind farms or closely related critical-energy infrastructure environments.
Open Call 1 objectives
• Enhance AENAON cybersecurity technologies, services and platform capabilities through external innovation and validation
• Develop and test offshore-wind-specific cyber-threat, vulnerability, risk and incident-response scenarios
• Validate integration, interoperability and operational readiness in realistic IT/OT or digital-twin environments
• Generate measurable evidence, lessons learned and reusable outputs that support wider adoption and future scaling

Critères d'éligibilité

Eligible applicants must be legally established in an EU Member State, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, or in another third country expressly confirmed as fully associated with the Digital Europe Programme.
Applications may be submitted by a single eligible legal entity or by a small consortium of complementary partners. All members of a consortium must be legal entities established in countries eligible under the final Open Call conditions. If one consortium member is established in an ineligible country, the consortium proposal will be declared ineligible and will not proceed to quality evaluation. Subject to the final country-eligibility list and ownership-and-control requirements, eligible applicant profiles may include:
• Offshore wind energy operators and manufacturers
• Offshore wind supply-chain stakeholders
• SMEs and other technology providers
• Cybersecurity service providers
• Research and innovation organisations
• National Coordination Centres and other relevant critical-infrastructure stakeholders

Technologies clés

• A1.1 – Integration of cybersecurity technologies: offshore-wind requirements, threat detection, predictive analytics and OT-security solutions.
• A1.2 – Testing in real-world or operationally relevant pilots: digital-twin simulations, SCADA/OT assessment and penetration-testing validation.
• A1.3 – Compliance and resilience: strategies, methods and content supporting NIS2/CER-related preparedness and resilience.
• A1.4 – Dissemination and communication: targeted knowledge-sharing activities connected to the funded action.
• A1.5 – Collaboration and impact: risk scenarios, penetration tests, stakeholder engagement, training and validation evidence.

Typologie de consortium

Proposals should provide:
• A clear offshore-wind cybersecurity challenge, use case and measurable objectives
• A technically credible and innovative approach linked to AENAON tools, services or platform assets
• Expected outcomes, KPIs, dissemination/exploitation plans and ecosystem contribution
• An 8-month work plan with tasks, milestones, deliverables and acceptance evidence
• Governance, team capacity, resource justification, co-funding and risk mitigation
• Ethics, security, data-protection, confidentiality, IPR and responsible-disclosure information
Project duration is max. 8 months.
• Financial support is provided as a lump-sum sub-grant covering 50% of the eligible sub-project budget. Applicants must demonstrate the capacity to provide the remaining co-funding
• The maximum AENAON support is EUR 60,000. By way of derogation from this ceiling, AENAON may provide support of up to EUR 100,000 per participating legal entity in the case of offshore wind farm operators and manufacturers considered as large critical infrastructures/operators of essential services, and up to EUR 150,000 per action in the case of small consortia.