New €4.2m project to help Irish firms get in line with EU cybersecurity rules

25 May 2023

Image: © FellowNeko/Stock.adobe.com

The NCC-IE initiative will align itself with Cyber Ireland to ensure Irish businesses get access to EU cybersecurity opportunities.

Ireland is hosting a new cybersecurity-related project that is to be part-funded by the EU and also by the Irish Government.

The National Cybersecurity Coordination and Development Centre (NCC-IE) is a two-year project that will be based in Ireland’s National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC).

When the project begins in the autumn, it will aim to support the NCSC as it works to bring companies based in Ireland closer to a standardised Eurocentric approach to cybersecurity. It will do this by aiding Irish businesses to fulfil their cybersecurity obligations under EU law.

The project also aims to keep building up the cybersecurity business community here, as well as making connections between it and Europe.

The EU is pumping €2m into NCC-IE, while the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is allocating €2.2m.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications with responsibility for communications, Ossian Smyth, TD, welcomed the project.

“This is an exciting new development for the NCSC. It is important that we play our part as a member of the EU in seizing the cybersecurity opportunities as regards research, innovation, technological development and commercial exploitation as part of the Green Deal and digital transformation agendas.”

As well as working with NCSC and cybersecurity businesses here, NCC-IE will engage with Cyber Ireland, the national industry cluster. Cyber Ireland has been building up a cybersecurity scene in Ireland for some years now. Its education outreach manager spoke to SiliconRepublic.com last year about some of the work it does around the country.

Some of the funding that is going towards NCC-IE will also go towards a support programme to facilitate cybersecurity innovation and resilience across Irish society.

NCC-IE was one of several successful applications from Ireland under the Digital Europe Cybersecurity call for proposals that closed in February of this year.

Approximately €7.8m of EU funding is being provided to various groups in Ireland to improve our cybersecurity capabilities under the call.

10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.

Blathnaid O’Dea was a Careers reporter at Silicon Republic until 2024.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com