Dual-use technologies

Expected Outcome: Secure Data Sharing Framework: Develop standardised and encrypted communication mechanisms to facilitate seamless data exchange between civilian and military stakeholders. These mechanisms should align with GDPR and other EU regulatory requirements. Early Warning Systems (EWS): Establish a European-level EWS for cyber and hybrid threats. These systems should integrate real-time monitoring tools and predictive analytics to pre-emptively identify and neutralise cyber and hybrid threats targeting critical infrastructure. Collaborative Training Programmes: Design joint training programmes that incorporate AI and cybersecurity scenarios for both civilian (including law enforcement) and military personnel. These programmes should address sector specific needs and hybrid threat scenarios. Integrated Threat Detection Systems: Deploy unified threat detection systems leveraging AI, ZTA, and Digital Twins for cross-sectoral application, targeting current and emerging cyber and hybrid threats. Cross-Sector Security Standards: Develop harmonised cybersecurity standards for dual-use technologies to ensure interoperability and scalability across EU Member States and propose EU-wide frameworks for harmonising cybersecurity standards, ensuring seamless integration of civilian and military technologies. Stakeholder Collaboration and Integration: Facilitate partnerships among diverse stakeholders, including national authorities, SMEs, academia, and industry stakeholders to foster innovation and deployment of dual-use solutions. Objective: Dual-use technologies have emerged as a cornerstone in addressing both cybersecurity threats and broader cyber defence needs. The integration of advanced civilian and military technologies under a unified framework is critical to bolstering resilience across critical infrastructure, ensuring data security. In addition, addressing cybercrime and hybrid threats will contribute to maintaining societal stability. Cross fertilisation and spill-over effects from synergies between the civil and defence spheres have proven to be an important driver for innovation, industrial deployment and market uptake. Such effects should also be fostered for cybersecurity and cyber defence. The results could lead to increased resilience to cyber threats and better protection of both civilian and defence critical infrastructures. Building on Digital Europe Programme, Horizon Europe, and the European Defence Fund, the EU must prioritise collaborative pilot projects. These projects results can bridge civilian and defence sectors, fostering innovations in relevant key technologies such as quantum-safe cryptography, Zero Trust Architectures (ZTA), and AI-driven threat detection systems. Such efforts are essential to addressing emerging cyber threats while ensuring interoperability and scalability across sectors. The objective is to enhance cooperation between the civil and defence spheres regarding dual use projects, services, competences and applications in cybersecurity in line with Article 6.1(f) of the DEP Regulation and Article 5.3(g) of the ECCC Regulation. Scope: The objective is to enhance operational cooperation between the civil and defence spheres through the development of dual-use working prototypes, ready-to-market products and operational infrastructures related to cybersecurity technologies, applications and tools that have relevance in both civilian and defence context. Examples of domains of interest for this call topic are: Quantum-Safe Cryptography: Develop encryption methods resistant to quantum computing attacks. These solutions will ensure secure communication and data protection for critical civilian and military infrastructures. Zero Trust Architectures (ZTA): Implement ZTA frameworks to enhance endpoint security and prevent unauthorised access to critical systems. These architectures can serve both civilian applications (e.g. healthcare, finance) and defence systems. AI-Driven Threat Detection... Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal (CC BY 4.0).