This event is made for innovative SMEs looking for a partner to apply for CITADEL's 1st Open Call OR end-users (SME or non-SME) facing challenges in the following three specific areas:

• Critical infrastructures,
• Resilience to natural and technological disasters:
• Urban environment (cities, public spaces)

Please follow the next steps to start preparing your participation:

1- Prepare your aplication by reading the Guide for applicants.

2 - Register on the left hand side by filling in the registration form.

3 - Once you receive a confirmation, log in and access your dashboard to

• Manage your availabilities (select available time slots)

• Consult the catalog of other participants and identify the most relevant ones

• Until 5th March at 12:30 CET, click on the identified potential partners and request meetings

• Until 5th March at 12:30 CET, accept meeting requests from other participants

• On 5th March from 13:00 to 18:00 CET, check your agenda of scheduled meetings and connect on the platform to attend

4 - From 11:00 to 12:00 CET on d-day, get more information on the eligiblity of your project and how it will be evaluated by connecting to the dedicated information webinar on THIS LINK.

CITADEL (Project full title: Resilient and secure Europe: advancing security through green and digital transitions) is one of the 16 Euroclusters initiatives, co-funded by the European Commission in the Single Market Programme. CITADEL has been built as a network of 6 European clusters from digital and security sectors : 

- SYSTEMATIC Paris-Région (France) 
- AKTANTIS (France) 
- SAFE (France) 
- L3CE (Lithuania) 
- ClujIT Cluster (Romania) 
- Business Tampere - Safety and Security Cluster (Finland) 
 

CITADEL’s goal is to support innovation, networking and adoption of new processes and advanced technologies on the security value chain.  

Applications to CITADEL's 1st Open Call are open from 24th February to 5th May 2026.

The open call is dedicated to companies having already developed a prototype for the security sector and including digital technologies such as IoT and Edge, Photonics and Optics, AI and data analytics, cybersecurity, communication, interoperability and emergency response.

CITADEL will select up to 17 projects aiming to develop new demonstrators/pilots displaying security solutions on a large scale in a real or near-real environment, within a testbed, for purpose of innovation uptake and further adoption in three identified security application domains: Critical infrastructures, Resilience to natural and technological disasters and Urban environments.

Projects should start at TRL 5-6 and aim to reach 6-7 or higher by the end of the funding programme, and address challenges identified (see Annex 1 of the Guide for Applicants) within at least one stage of the security value chain including Risk assessment and threat identification, Prevention and mitigation, Detection and monitoring, Response, Recovery and business continuity.

CITADEL offers funding and support to consortia of at least 2 partners preferably from different Member States of the EU and Single Market Programme Associated Countries), structured as it follows:

Partner 1: SME of Digital Technologies
Partner 2: Private (SME or non-SME) or public end-user entity representing the security sector

Maximum funding allocated per project is € 60 000, for a duration of maximum 9 months.

Get to know more about CITADEL on the dedicated website CITADEL website