EU funding
Cybersecurity, defence, infrastructure resilience, digital sovereignty: that is where the money is concentrated today, and that is where we concentrate our work. We support organisations seeking access to it, from eligibility analysis through to managing the funded project.
Funding secured
Altamira Publics has secured funding under these four instruments. They are very different programmes, with grids, timetables and evaluation cultures that bear little resemblance to one another. That is precisely what makes it possible to say, early on, which one genuinely fits a project — and which one would cost it six months.
What an evaluator looks for
Seven years at the European Parliament, on evaluation committees for tenders and grants, then as an evaluator for the European Commission: we have read other people’s proposals, grid in hand and time running out.
That teaches two things no guide passes on. What an evaluator looks for first, and in what order. And what loses points without the reason ever appearing in the report: an eligibility question you have to go and check yourself, a consortium whose shape is not justified, a budget that tells a different story from the technical part.
Read the cycle before you draft
The von der Leyen II Commission has shifted its centre of gravity: competitiveness alone accounts for around half of the four hundred or so initiatives announced, and defence and security, fewer in number, hold first-rank political prominence. The reference texts are now the Draghi and Letta reports.
For an organisation this changes two things: the instruments that are open are no longer the ones open five years ago, and neither is the vocabulary expected in proposals. An excellent project written in the language of the previous mandate loses points without anyone telling it so.
The instruments we work with
They do not address the same actors, nor the same project maturities. The choice of instrument weighs as much as the quality of the file, and it is decided far earlier.
EDF
European Defence Fund — collaborative research and development of defence capabilities
The main instrument for funding defence research and development at European scale. It supports consortia bringing together manufacturers, SMEs and laboratories around capability projects.
EDIP
European Defence Industry Programme — scaling up production
The industrial link, distinct from research: it funds production capacity, joint procurement between Member States, support to Ukraine, and the transformation of supply chains. The work programme covering 2026 and 2027 was adopted in early 2026.
Open to companies of all sizes, SMEs and start-ups included, provided they join a European consortium. Norway and Ukraine take part in certain strands.
DIGITAL
Digital Europe Programme — cybersecurity strand, run by the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) and the network of national centres
The deployment instrument rather than the research one: it funds the actual implementation of cybersecurity capabilities — operations centres, cross-border and national cyber hubs, capability building in administrations and among operators.
Horizon Europe
Cluster 3
Civil Security for Society — security research and innovation
The research side of civil security, structured around six destinations: external border management, fighting crime and terrorism, resilient infrastructure, cybersecurity as a cross-cutting theme, disaster-resilient society, and strengthening security research.
Secondary strand
Our priority went to cyber and defence, where the budgets are. But the method does not change with the programme, and we continue to support projects under the following instruments — particularly where they connect to a question of sovereignty, territory or resilience.
Something many people miss
The 2026-2027 work programme for Civil Security for Society does not explicitly address information manipulation. It contains topics on the criminal misuse of emerging technologies, which is not the same thing. That work belongs to cluster 2, Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society — a social-sciences logic, with its own criteria and its own evaluators. A FIMI proposal submitted to the wrong cluster starts with a handicap nobody will point out.
We know both instruments, and our founder coordinates within OPSCI.AI the European Narratives Observatory operated for DG CONNECT. But our effort now goes elsewhere: to crisis prevention and infrastructure resilience, where threat analysis stops being an object of study and becomes an operational obligation — resilience plans, exercises, continuity of service.
What sets defence apart
Defence funding does not work like the other European instruments. A technically excellent project can be set aside for reasons that have nothing to do with its quality.
01
Shareholding structure and control links with non-European entities condition access. This is documented and anticipated, not discovered at evaluation.
02
The number of Member States represented, the place given to SMEs and the balance between partners are not administrative details: they are scored criteria.
03
Clearances, classification of deliverables, rules on disseminating results: constraints that shape the project from its design onwards, and its budget.
Where we come in
Upstream
Before a call is published
The proposal
From outline to submission
After the award
The part that gets underestimated
The first conversation is there to establish what is actually achievable — including telling you when it is not.
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