Impact of malicious use of Open-Source Intelligence on critical infrastructure business continuity – Förderung EU-weit

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes: • Critical infrastructure operators and authorities have improved awareness of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and their potential impact on security of their operations; • Toolbox for OSINT mapping, including enhanced analysis and risk flagging is developed and available to relevant stakeholders; • Critical infrastructure operators and authorities have improved incident response, emergency plans and business continuity models; • Removal of potentially harmful OSINT from the public domain in order to counter/prevent preparations and attempted attacks against critical entities, including the lone wolf and hybrid scenarios; • Awareness campaigns and training curricula for critical entities’ employees are developed. Scope: The malicious use of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is a known concern and technique used by offenders to retrieve personal, professional, and official or technical information about entities and their employees either to immediately plot illegal actions or use it to access more sensitive data with social engineering techniques like tailored data phishing. Although singular information may seem harmless, their critical mass coupled with reasoning and automated processing of large data blocks, could reveal critical vulnerabilities and possible attack vectors. This modus operandi is of special concern for critical infrastructure operators and authorities, as it can be used to aggregate sensitive information, identify potential protection gaps, discover the security measures, such as camera and sensor locations or target individuals with special access privileges in order to orchestrate more sophisticated and harmful attacks. OSINT can also be used to impede critical infrastructure operations indirectly, gathering information and affecting their supply chains. Proposals submitted under this topic should analyse the type, amount and accessibility of publicly available information and their usefulness in planning hostile operations against critical entities and their services. They should also parse the role of OSINT for identification and recruitment of insiders, identity theft, impersonation, or launching psychological operations such as foreign information manipulation and interference or disinformation. Moreover, the implications of AI data processing to misuse OSINT potential should be addressed. Any potential OSINT sources should be covered including, but not limited to social media, online fora, cloud resources, public records and databases, lawfully accessible deep web and dark web data, geospatial information, as well as paper archives in the public domain with blueprints, emergency response plans or similar. Proposals should especially consider scenarios including hybrid threats and lone wolves and develop tools and awareness campaigns to mitigate such threats. Proposals should build upon outcomes and tools of other relevant projects, adapting, optimising and integrating them when necessary to achieve the highest possible technology readiness level of the project results. The proposals funded under this topic are expected to engage with the Europol Innovation Lab during the lifetime of the project, including validating the outcomes, with the aim of facilitating future uptake of innovations for the law enforcement community. In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content should be addressed only if relevant in relation to the objectives of the research effort. Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects Activities are expected to achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. ">General conditions 1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System. DELETE ME Please add hyperlinks as embedded links where needed (underscored text). Send the call document through the document publication form to receive the hyperlink within 2 business days max. DELETE ME 2. Eligible Countries described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide. 3. Other Eligible Conditions In line with the “restriction on control in innovation actions in critical technology areas” delineated in General Annex B of the General Annexes, entities established in an eligible country but which are directly or indirectly controlled by China or by a legal entity established in China are not eligible to participate in the action. The following additional eligibility conditions apply: This topic requires involvement as beneficiaries of at least 3 relevant practitioners from EU Member States or Associated Countries. Depending on the specific proposal submitted, these practitioners should represent one or several of the following portfolios: • critical infrastructure operator, • authority responsible for critical infrastructure resilience, • law enforcement or private companies providing security for critical infrastructure. For these participants, applicants must fill in the table “Information about security practitioners” in the application form with all the requested information, following the template provided in the submission IT tool. If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used). described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. 4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes. 5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual. 5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes. 6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants The granting authority may, up to 4 years after the end of the action, object to a transfer of ownership or to the exclusive licensing of results, as set out in the specific provision of Annex 5. Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025) [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]]. described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes. Specific conditions described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme] Some activities resulting from this topic may involve using classified background and/or producing of security sensitive results (EUCI and SEN). Please refer to the related provisions in section B Security — EU classified and sensitive information of the General Annexes. Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA): Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) Standard application form (HE RIA IA Stage 1)  Standard application form (HE RIA IA Stage 1 BLIND) Standard application form (HE CSA)  Standard application form (HE CSA Stage 1)  Standard application form (HE CSA Stage 1 BLIND) Standard application form (HE RI)  Standard application form (HE PCP)  Standard application form (HE PPI)  Standard application form (HE COFUND)  Standard application form (HE FPA)  Standard application form (HE MSCA PF)  Standard application form (HE MSCA DN)  Standard application form (HE MSCA SE)  Standard application form (HE MSCA COFUND)  Standard application form (HE MSCA COFUND CE) Standard application form (HE ERC STG)  Standard application form (HE ERC COG)  Standard application form (HE ERC ADG)  Standard application form (HE ERC POC)  Standard application form (HE ERC SYG)  Standard application form (HE EIC PATHFINDER CHALLENGES)  Standard application form (HE EIC PATHFINDER OPEN)  Standard application form (HE EIC TRANSITION)  Standard application form (HE EIC STEP) Standard application form (HE EIC Accelerator stage 2 - full proposal) Standard application form (HE EIC Accelerator stage 1 - short proposal) Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations  Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)  Standard evaluation form (HE CSA)  Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA and CSA Stage 1)  Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA and CSA Stage 1 BLIND) Standard evaluation form (HE PCP PPI)  Standard evaluation form (HE COFUND)  Standard evaluation form (HE FPA)  Standard evaluation form (HE MSCA)  Standard evaluation form (HE EIC PATHFINDER CHALLENGES)  Standard evaluation form (HE EIC PATHFINDER OPEN)  Standard evaluation form (HE EIC TRANSITION)  Standard evaluation form (HE EIC Accelerator stage 1 - short proposal)  Standard evaluation form (HE EIC Accelerator stage 2 - full proposal)  Guidance HE Programme Guide  Model Grant Agreements (MGA) HE MGA  HE Unit MGA  Lump Sum MGA  Operating Grants MGA  Framework Partnership Agreement FPA  Call-specific instructions  Detailed budget table (HE LS)  Information on financial support to third parties (HE)  Information on clinical studies (HE)  Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?" Additional documents: HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 2. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 3. Research Infrastructures HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 4. Health HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 5. Culture, creativity and inclusive society HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 6. Civil Security for Society HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 8. Climate, Energy and Mobility HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 9. Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 10. European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 11. Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 12. Missions HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 13. New European Bauhaus Facility (NEB) HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 13. General Annexes EIC Work Programme 2025 ERC Work Programme 2026 HE Programme Guide HE Framework Programme 2021/695 HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment  EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement  Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual  Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions  Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement