The EU's Digital Europe Programme (DEP) is fostering digital transformation and therefore co-funding projects that improve cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and other aspects of digital transformation.

We have already established in 2022 Eyvör – the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre of Iceland (NCC-IS) that received co-funding from the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) for the period 10/2023-9/2025.

Now, we just got the notification that we will receive two further years of co-funding from the the ECCC/EU based on the call Deploying The Network of National Coordination Centres with Member States (DIGITAL-ECCC-2024-DEPLOY-NCC-06-MS-COORDINATION).

The core tasks of the follow-up Eyvör NCC-IS are:

• Acting as contact points at the national level for the Cybersecurity Competence Community to support the ECCC in achieving its objectives and missions;
• Providing expertise and actively contributing to the strategic tasks of the ECCC, taking into account relevant national and regional challenges for cybersecurity in different sectors;
• Promoting, encouraging and facilitating the participation of civil society, industry in particular start-ups and SMEs, academic and research communities and other actors at Member State level in cross-border projects and cybersecurity actions funded through all relevant Union programmes;
• Providing technical assistance to stakeholders by supporting the stakeholders in their application phase for projects managed by the ECCC, and in full compliance with the rules of sound financial management, especially on conflict of interests. This should be done in close coordination with relevant NCPs set up by Member States;
• Seeking to establish synergies with relevant activities at national, regional and local levels, such as addressing cybersecurity in national policies on research, development and innovation in the area of, and in particular in those policies stated in the national cybersecurity strategies;
• Where relevant, implementing specific actions for which grants have been awarded by the ECCC, including through provision of financial support to third parties, i.e. Evyör NCC-IS providing via Rannís funding to Icelandic companies to improve their cybersecurity. The funding should foremost facilitate the adoption and widespread use of state-of-the-art cybersecurity solutions. This should equip organisations with the latest and most effective tools and strategies available for cybersecurity, fortifying their overall cybersecurity capabilities, and helping them to become more resilient and better prepared to face the evolving challenges posed by cyber threats in the digital age.
• Promoting and disseminating the relevant outcomes of the work of the Network and the ECCC at national, regional or local level;
• Assessing requests for becoming part of the Cybersecurity Competence Community by entities established in the same Member State as the NCC;
• Advocating and promoting involvement by relevant entities in the activities arising from the ECCC, the Network of National Coordination Centres, and the Cybersecurity Competence Community, and monitoring, as appropriate, the level of engagement with actions awarded for cybersecurity research, developments and deployments.

To prevent any misunderstandings: Eyvör NCC-IS will not take over the job of CERT-IS (or any other party) nor is Eyvör NCC-IS a Security Operation Center (SOC). Eyvör NCC-IS is rather an add-on to existing activities in order to raise awareness, co-ordinate actions, and improve education and research related to Cybersecurity on national and European level.

Eyvör – the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre of Iceland (NCC-IS) is co-funded by the ECCC/EU.