NCC-DK cybersecurity solution development

What it funds

This is the Danish program that pays whoever develops cybersecurity solutions together with whoever will use them: the grant goes to consortia that develop or improve a technological solution, not to anyone buying an off-the-shelf product. The call rewards projects whose effect goes beyond one participant's internal security and can raise a whole sector or segment, such as SMEs or OT-heavy companies. Assessment also weighs what the project contributes to NIS2 compliance and to the European rules on connected products. Applications and criteria are on the call page; the program background is told by the Styrelsen for Samfundssikkerhed page.

Requirements and what is left out

• It takes a consortium of at least two Danish-CVR holders, at least one a private company: a single applicant cannot receive the grant.
• Every partner declares the de minimis aid received in the last three financial years and stays under the European ceiling.
• Anyone with an NCC project still running: it must be closed first, because each participant holds one running project and files one application at most.
• It takes European ownership and control: no partner may be owned or controlled from outside the Union and the associated countries the call names, with a declaration to file with the application.
• The core of the project must be a technological solution to a cybersecurity challenge: developing it with an end user, adding features or changing them to raise the target's security. An informational website is not enough, and physical security stays out.
• Only spend inside the project period counts: costs incurred before the commitment stay with whoever incurred them.
• On combining aid the constraint is the European ceiling rather than a ban: the grant sits alongside other aid as long as it stays under the three-year de minimis threshold.

How to apply

1. Read the call text and download the templates from the application platform named on the call page.
2. Build the consortium and write the documents: technical description within the page limit, quarterly milestone plan, market and risk analysis, dissemination strategy, budget with the partners' co-financing share.
3. File online before the window closes: on multiple submissions only the last one counts.
4. If the project clears the quality bar but clarifications remain, it enters preparation: a few weeks to answer the remarks, then the kickoff meeting after signing the commitment.

Selection scores six criteria, with a minimum bar below which nothing enters the ranking; on ties, security, innovation and feasibility weigh most. The full criteria are on the call page.

What this budget builds

A grant of this size puts a prototype in the end user's hands instead of a report: the solution developed side by side with whoever will use it, the milestone plan that keeps it verifiable, and the strategy that carries it beyond the consortium. I work with the internal team from the design on, so the ability to maintain the solution stays behind without me.

This entry is informational and is not advice: I do not handle grant applications, and before committing to a purchase it is worth reading the official source above or talking to whoever files the application.