Open Calls
Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP)
We are Looking for Evaluators
We are seeking external evaluators to assess proposals for our upcoming FSTP calls focused on enhancing cybersecurity resilience and cross-border collaboration.
Applications closed 10.03.2026
Open Calls Overall
The CYberSynchrony project will launch simultaneously three open calls under its Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) scheme. These calls are designed to bring in external expertise, services, and tools to reinforce key aspects of the project’s modules and objectives, and to support cybersecurity deployment across NIS2 sectors. The total available budget for all FSTP calls is €3.550.000.
Consortium Size and Eligible Participation
Open Calls 1 and 2 accept single entities (SMEs only) and consortia of 2-3 participants (For consortia, the coordinator must be an SME), while Open Call 3 accepts only consortia of 2-3 participants. The following type of participants are eligible:
- SMEs & start-ups (start-ups count as SMEs)
- Research organisations & universities (HEIs)
- Non-profits/NGOs
- Public sector bodies & competent authorities (e.g., NIS2 authorities, CSIRTs/CERTs, sector regulators, standardisation bodies)
- Individuals (cybersecurity professionals with experience in sector-specific operations and infrastructure)
All applicants should provide their Participant Identification Code (PIC), which is a 9-digit number that serves as a unique identifier for legal entities participating in European funding programmes.
Eligible Countries
General Eligibility Conditions (Applies to all three Open Calls): Eligible applicants are entities established in countries as defined in the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) which include:
- the 27 EU Member States,
- the European Economic Area (EEA) countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway)
The rest of the countries defined in the DEP are excluded since CΥberSynchrony falls into Objective 3 which relates to cybersecurity.
Technical Description of FSTP Calls
Size of Expected Submitted Proposals
6–8 proposals are to be selected per call. This number may sightly differ depending on the proposals submitted in each call. We are expecting around 18 to 24 projects to be funded across all three open calls.
Open Call 1: Infrastructure & Operations
Single Entity: Min €65.000 – Max €200.000
Consortium (2 or 3): Min €100.000 – Max €200.000
Open Call 2: Compliance & Innovation
Single Entity: Min €70,000 – Max €200.000
Consortium (2 or 3): Min €120.000 – Max €200,000
Open Call 3: Cross-border Coordination (No Single Entry is allowed)
Consortium (2 or 3) only: Min €100,000 – Max €200,000
The Duration of Each FSTP Project is 8 Months
Budget
€3.550.000 (up to 200.000 per project).
Each participant can participate in only 1 proposal per call.
No participant may receive more than €200,000 in total, even if selected under more than 1 open call.
(Example: A participant is involved in 3 proposals (1 in each call) and all of them get funded. If the participant has justified a budget of €70k in 1st call, €80k in 2nd call, €60k in 3rd call. This sums up to €210k, which exceeds the €200k per participant which is calculated across all open calls. This will result to the withdrawal of all 3 proposals!).
Each proposal should allocate at least 30% of the total budget to the SME participant(s).
FSTP Call Dates
One submission period will take place, where all 3 open calls will be disseminated:
- The submission period for 1st, 2nd and 3rd open calls will start on 01.01.2026 with a deadline on the 10.03.2026 (17:00 CET) – extension given.
- The results will be announced on the 31.04.2026.
- Contracts will be signed by the 30.05.2026.
- FSTP projects will start on the 01.06.2026 and finish on the 30.01.2027.
Application Process
All applications must comply with the eligibility, funding, and ethical rules specified in the CYberSynchrony FSTP Guidelines and the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement. Personal data will be processed in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
