After the closing of our second Open Call on 14 March 2023 and the pre-scoring of the numerous projects, we are glad to share some statistics of the received applications!

271 SME applicants from 38 countries

*Others: Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, Luxembourg, Norway, Austria, Armenia, Georgia, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Sweden, Slovakia, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Croatia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Ireland, Malta.

European SME applicants were even more numerous than for Open Call #1, with 130 submitted application from 38 countries, which cover 25 EU-countries, and 13 non-UE countries part of the H2020 agreement (Armenia, Georgia, Israel, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Norway, Montenegro, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, UK & Ukraine). We are proud to have given a chance to a diversity of entrepreneurs from all parts of Europe, from EU member states to associated countries!

We warmly thank our Ambassador Cluster network for their support in the dissemination of the open call, which contributed to spread this opportunity throughout each of their ecosystems. Thus, 59% of the SME applicants are established in Ambassador Clusters’ countries.

The largest number of applications were submitted by cross-border consortia, which shows a will to collaborate at the European level, and promising international partnerships! SecurIT has again supported the building of numerous European partnerships, which we hope to be fruitful and long-lasting!

Selected Domains & Challenges

Domain 1 (Sensitive infrastructure protection) gathered again the most project proposals, with 77 applications on the 130 submitted. Projects responding to Domain 2 challenges (Disaster resilience), were more numerous than last year with 31 applications. And 22 applications were registered for Domain 3 (Public spaces protection & Major events), as for the first open call.

Most of the submitted projects are tackling the development of cybersecurity solutions for the protection of sensitive infrastructures (Domain 1) and the optimisation of communication and warning systems in case of a disaster (Domain 2).

We also register an increase of proposals tackling the optimisation of communication networks and alert systems (Domain 1) which were also numerous, as well as solutions gathering and managing real time information (Domain 3).

More information on Open Call #2 Challenges HERE.

We thank the numerous applicants for their interest and efforts provided, and we look forward to discovering the selected innovative projects towards the secured, safe, and resilient smart city of tomorrow!

What’s next?

The applicants will receive via personal e-mails a first feedback within the next week, after the eligibility check and pre-scoring by the Consortium. The 80 best proposals will then undergo the preliminary evaluation by external experts.

See the recap of the next steps HERE.