CIRCAT

Cybersecurity Infrastructure Resilience, Collaboration, and Advanced Training
Project ID
Funding Organization:
Funding Programme:
DIGITAL-ECCC-2024-DEPLOY-CYBER-07-LARGEOPER
Funding Instrument:
Digital Europe
Start Date:
01/01/2026
Duration:
36 months
Total Budget:
4,999,387 EUR
ITI Budget:
446,725 EUR
Scientific Responsible:

CIRCAT aims to strengthen the cybersecurity resilience of large industrial installations and other critical infrastructure sectors identified under the NIS2 Directive by deploying AI-driven cybersecurity tools and advanced cyber range capabilities. The project will support organisations in improving their cybersecurity posture through continuous risk assessment, penetration testing, and specialised cybersecurity training within realistic and controlled Cyber Range environments.

The project will implement continuous monitoring and near real-time risk assessment mechanisms to provide organisations with enhanced visibility of cyber risks and vulnerabilities by integrating AI-based threat detection, vulnerability prioritisation, and automated mitigation strategies that enable proactive cyber defence, optimise resource allocation, and reduce incident response times. Furthermore, CIRCAT will integrate Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) feeds into its Cyber Range infrastructure to support realistic simulations of advanced cyberattacks across enterprise networks, cloud environments, Industrial Control Systems (ICS), and IoT infrastructures, enabling penetration testing and cybersecurity exercises under near real-world conditions. Finally, the project will establish a scalable Cyber Range network to facilitate collaborative and cross-border cybersecurity exercises among EU Member States, strengthening cyber resilience, operational preparedness, coordinated incident response, and knowledge sharing across Europe’s critical infrastructure sectors.

ITI/CERTH serves as the project’s Technical Manager. It is also responsible for the Work Package focused on cyber threat intelligence collection and analysis for threat mitigation, the development of a near real-time risk monitoring framework, and development of a Collaborative Intrusion Detection System (CIDS). In addition, ITI/CERTH contributes to the development of advanced CR environment that will be able to host complex and realistic scenarios, also by covering scenarios with cascading effects in cross-border incidents. These scenarios will be used in meaningful exercises to train employees of organisations in order to obtain a better understanding of the operational needs of an incident and to improve their preparedness and response.

Consortium

ETHNIKI ARCHI KYVERNOASFALEIAS, Greece
ATHENS TECHNOLOGY CENTER ANONYMI VIOMICHANIKI EMPORIKI KAI TECHNIKI ETAIREIA EFARMOGON YPSILIS TECHNOLOGIAS, Greece
ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS, Greece
EPITROPI KEFALAIAGORAS, Greece
K3Y, Bulgaria
FUNDINGBOX ACCELERATOR SP ZOO, Poland
FUNDINGBOX COMMUNITIES SL, Spain

Contact

Dr. Stefanos Vrochidis
(Scientific Responsible)
Building A - Office 1.4

Information Technologies Institute
Centre of Research & Technology - Hellas
6th km Harilaou - Thermis, 57001, Thermi - Thessaloniki
Tel.: +30 2311 257754
Fax: +30 2310 474128
Email: stefanos@iti.gr