A European funded project aimed at strengthening cybersecurity preparedness and resilience in the energy sector in the Nordic Region by facilitating specialized services deployment in security testing, threat assessment, risk assessment, and risk monitoring.  

The overarching goal of the project is to enhance preparedness within the energy sector for Nordic countries and facilitate efficient incident response through collaborative approaches. The 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. 

CRESCENDO is a Nordic project and collaboration between partners from Norway, Finland, and Denmark: 

• Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) 

• The Research Council of Norway (RCN)/NCC-NO* 

• The Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM)/NCC-NO* 

• Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (TRAFICOM)/NCC-FI* 

• The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) 

*Partners RCN, NSM and TRAFICOM represent and constitute the National Coordination Centers (NCCs) for research and innovation on cybersecurity in Norway and Finland respectively. 

The energy sector is of critical importance for national security in the Nordic countries  

As the energy sector has become increasingly digitalized and interconnected, the risk of cyber threats and attacks has grown significantly. Ensuring strong cybersecurity in the energy sector is essential for many reasons, among them are protecting critical infrastructure, preventing operational disruptions, meeting regulatory and compliance standards, and ensuring national security and resilience. 

The CRESCENDO project will fund and orchestrate the deployment of cybersecurity services at entities (public or private) in the Nordic energy sector, specifically: 

Small and medium sized businesses working with (or offer services related to) electric power generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, with innovation projects within one of the following categories: 

1. Security testing – core components IT/OT 
2. Risk assessment – for deployed systems, emerging threats assessment (for systems and threats) 
3. Real-time risk monitoring – evolving threat landscape require continuous monitoring  

The criteria for reciving innovation support will be specified in more detail when the call for proposals open in August 2025, but generally the criteria to recieve funding from CRESCENDO will be broadly defined. 

There are few, but some “minimum” criteria to be funded by CRESCENDO: 

1) Project length: The project should be short term, with a maximum length of 6 months  

2) Number of partners: The project should have minimum 2 partners, working together 

3) Demonstrated own cost: Each project must cover 50 % of their total project’s total cost.  

For example: if you receive 100.000 Euro from CRESCENDO, you will have to demonstrate that you also are spending 100.000 Euro in “own cost” on the project, whether that is in personnel costs or otherwise, which makes the total size of your project 200.000 Euro.  

4: Maximum project size: 200.000 is also the maximum cost of projects that will receive funding from CRESCENDO.  

Project size:  

The CRESCENDO project has a total of 4 million euro in available funding, that we will distribute to approximately 40 cybersecurity innovation projects, in two rounds: 10 projects will be accepted for funding in 2025, and 30 projects will be accepted for funding in 2027.  

The portal for applying will open on October 1st and the deadline for applying is November 26th.

Applying will be through the Research Council of Norway and a link to the portal will be uploaded to the website. 

We will host a webinar regarding the application on October 30th. Sign up for the newsletter to get the link for registration. 

The target group for Crescendo are mainly SMEs, but research organisations, startups etc. are also welcome to apply.

We can support both.

The project itself can include existing tech, however, we prefer innovative adoptions for the energy sector if existing tech is being used.

As part of the evaluation process, the projects will be ranked based on how innovative the project is. That means using existing tech will not disqualify, but the more innovative solution is, the higher the project will be ranked. 

The funding are post-reporting, however we understand that this can be tricky for SMEs or startups. We can therefor open up for multiple billing periods. 

To get funding from CRESCENDO, the applicants are required to self-fund 50 % of the project. Costs such as salary, admin, external consultants, subcontractors etc. can be included as the partners' own cost. 

To get funding for a €200.000 sized project, you need to provide 50% own financing (from any of the project partners). It does not need to mean that one SME needs to get all (or half) of the own financing. Your project partner (not necessarily an SME) could provide this required own financing. 

The requirement of applying to CRESCENDO is that you are a minimum of 2 partners.

If you have a project idea, but need a partner - cyber or energy company -, you can reach out to your local National Cybersecurity Coordination Center (NCC).