Cyber security and resilience in the energy sector in the Nordic region

Eligible applicants include consortia of at least two entities, consisting of: 

• One cybersecurity organisation 
• One energy sector organisation 

Eligible organisations: 

• Private companies (including start-ups, SMEs and large companies)
• Universities and research centres
• Other organisations that represent energy related operators in the Nordics
• Public authorities 

Ownership and Control Assessment

Applicants must be established in the EU/EEA and may not have controlling ownership from outside the EU/EEA. Applicants may be asked to provide an overview of the ownership structure and rights holders who ultimately own or control the company. 

About SMEs in the CRESCENDO call 

As the Nordic energy sector includes small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in its value chains, this call tries to address the challenges faced by those SMEs when meeting with more complex threats and regulatory demands. As a result, even if all types of companies are welcome to apply, the CRESCENDO initiative will encourage projects including SMEs in the energy sector as partners to apply.

SME Definition – Read the European Commission’s guidelines for the definition of SMEs: SME definition - European Commission

Requirements for the Project Owner  

The research organisation, public authority, company, or organisation listed as the project owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application. The Project Owner submits the application on behalf of all partners. 

Requirements for the project manager 

There are no formal requirements regarding the project manager’s qualifications, but the competence and suitability of the project manager to carry out the project will be assessed by peer reviewers. 

The project manager must be employed by the Project Owner or by one of the partner organisations.

About project administrator

We also require a person to be registered as a project administrator in the application. The project administrator and project manager cannot be the same person.

You can apply for funding to cover the actual costs necessary to carry out the project. The Project Owner must obtain information on costs from the partners in the project. 

We require that you break down the project budget into the following cost types in your application: Staff Costs, Travel Costs, Equipment/Tech Consumables Costs (depreciation) and Subcontracting Costs. 

The application must include milestone activities for the entire project period.

Scope of support 

Funding up to 200 000 euro per project is available under this call. The Research Council will cover up to 50 percent of the total project costs, and applicants must provide the remaining as own financing. The amount of funding presumed available for this call for proposals is 1 euro million and is divided between approximately 10 projects.

The project can last up to 6 months. 

This call is part of the CRESCENDO initiative which is a project dedicated to bolstering cybersecurity preparedness and resilience within the Nordic energy sector. Funded by the EU through the Digital Europe Programme, CRESCENDO is a collaborative effort between the National Coordination Centres (NCCs) in Norway and Finland, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and the Danish Energy Agency. 

The CRESCENDO project seeks to make a substantial contribution to the collective cyber resilience of the Nordic region and Europe while nurturing cross-border cooperation and mutual support.  

The outcomes of CRESCENDO will include sector-specific cybersecurity updates, tested methodologies, and policy recommendations directed at both national and international levels. Through these efforts, the project aims to establish a foundation for long-term collaboration and preparedness in a highly interconnected and increasingly digitalised energy landscape. 

The project’s overarching objectives will be pursued through a combination of activities, among them two calls for proposals, this one and the second one planned for 2027.

The application consists of an electronic application in My RCN web and at least two attachments. One of the attachments is a detailed project description with more details. My RCN web is the Research Council of Norway’s application system for research funding and is used for administrating the CRESCENDO call. The person submitting the application on behalf of the project partners needs to create a user in My RCN web. 

Please note that you can only submit the application once. If you submit the application before the deadline and subsequently see that it still needs to be changed, you can create a new application, e.g., as a copy of the one you have already submitted – and in this way submit a new version before the deadline expires. The application and all attachments must be written in English, and all attachments must be in PDF format. Be careful to upload the correct attachment type, as there are no technical restrictions on what kind of templates it is possible to upload in the application form.  

Mandatory attachments 

• Project description. Use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 
• CV for the project manager. Use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 

All required attachments should be included when submitting the application, otherwise the application will be rejected. 

Optional attachments 

• CVs for key participants in the project. Use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 

We do not accept attachments submitted after the application deadline unless we have requested additional documentation. We will not consider documents and websites linked to in the application, or attachments other than those specified above.  

Application in My RCN web 

This CRESCENDO call deviates a bit from how the fields and text are in the web-based application form in My RCN web. As a result, here is a guide to how you should fill in the application in My RCN web. The numbered sections below correspond to each individual step that must be taken in the application form. The rest of the application will be submitted as a part of the mandatory attachments as mentioned above. 

1. Project partners
   • When adding organisations in My RCN web, non-Norwegian organisations may ignore the organisation search box and manually enter their organisation’s details. The institution’s name does not need to be in Norwegian.
   • Do not add project partners in My RCN web, only add a project owner and other mandatory fields marked with *. Project partners will be included in the mandatory attachment.
   • You may add project participants, but this is not mandatory.
2. Project info
   • No remarks.
3. Funding scheme:
   • Under “Classification of scientific disciplines,” select “Annen informasjonsteknologi” as the discipline.
   • Do not fill in the fields “Other relevant programmes” or “If applying for additional funding, specify project number”.
   • For the final question, select “No”.
4. Progress plan:
   • Fill out the “Dissemination of project results” as applicants need to present a credible plan for dissemination and communication activities which must include methods (publications, presentations, workshops and/or webinars) and targeted audiences.
5. Budget: All numbers in this section will be in thousands NOK (see below), put in the year 2026, and only deal with the amount you apply funding for.
   • In the “Cost plan” section, put all costs under “Other operating expenses”. Break down the budget into the correct cost types in the specification field. The correct cost types are Staff Costs, Travel Costs, Equipment/Tech Consumables Costs (depreciation) and Subcontracting Costs.  
   • In the “Cost code” section, put all costs under “Abroad”.
   • In the “Funding plan” section, put all funding under “The Research Council”.
   • The “Fellowship” field can be ignored.
6. Attachments:
   • Upload the project description and CVs using the provided templates. 

About project budget and Norwegian kroners (NOK) in My RCN web

The full project budget and funding plan for each project should be provided in the attached project description in PDF format. Then, all amounts should be in euros (EUR). However, in My RCN web it will be something different due to technical constraints. 

In the application form at My RCN web, applicants should only put the amount that is being sought i.e., the own financed part of the project can be ignored in My RCN web. This means that if a project has budgeted costs of 200.000 euros, we know that 100.000 euros of those will be covered by own financing, while the rest 100.000 euros will be sought for through the CRESCENDO call (due to 50 per cent funding rate). Only the 100.000 euros that is being sought for should be included in My RCN web as costs in the project, and in the funding plan. The own financing, i.e. half of the project budget, can be ignored in My RCN web. 

Moreover, the amount used in My RCN web should be in thousands of NOK, not in EUR. When calculating NOK, the exchange rate should be based on an average exchange rate taken from the European Central Bank's website. The average exchange rate you should use is 11.6702.  

Applications will be assessed by external referees based on Excellence, Impact and Implementation. The administration will assess the application based on relevance when looking at the purpose of the call. 

We assess your application as it is submitted. Once the application deadline has passed, we first check that all formal requirements are met. Applications that do not satisfy these requirements will be rejected.

The applications will be assessed by a panel of three referees. Each referee will assess each application by assigning a mark from 1 to 7 for the criteria Excellence, Impact and Implementation.

The final mark on each criterion will be given by the average of the marks given by the individual referees. The threshold for each criterion is 4. If there is a large gap between the referees’ average (over 4.5) on one criterion, a fourth referee will be included in the evaluation of the application.

Applications will receive a main score calculated from the scores for each criterion: Excellence (weighted 30%), Impact (weighted 40%), and Implementation (weighted 30%). Applications with an average of the marks above 4 will be considered for funding.

The administration will then give a relevance mark based on how well the application could support CRESCENDO’s overall goals. The relevance mark is used, together with the average of the marks, to select the projects that will receive funding. In case two projects end up with the same average mark, priority will be given to projects with women project participants. Finally, we aim for a balanced portfolio of projects across the thematic areas mentioned above.