Call for applications for grant to support educational programmes in the field of certification and evaluation in accordance with the requirements of the EUCC cybersecurity certification scheme, within the framework of financial support to third parties.

The completed application form shall be signed by the statutory body with a qualified electronic signature or a qualified electronic signature bearing a mandate certificate or a qualified electronic seal.

The applicant shall send the application signed in this way to the Authority in electronic form, as an annex to the electronic submission, via the Authority’s electronic mailbox established within the Central Public Administration Portal www.slovensko.sk via the ‘General Agenda’ service.

An application that is not received by the Authority in the form indicated above will not be considered to have been submitted and will be disqualified from the evaluation process.

The method of delivery of the application set out in Annex 2 to the call ‘Conditions for granting a grant’ is further detailed.

In order to establish the ranking of applications, each grant application is assessed with the application of the Criteria for the selection of projects, which form Annex 4 to the call . By applying the criteria for selecting projects, the Authority creates a descending ranking of applicants whose grant applications met the conditions for granting a grant, starting from the application that obtained the most points based on the criteria.

The purpose of applying the criteria for selecting projects is to determine the ranking of applicants, according to which the Authority sends a notification of compliance with the conditions for granting a grant. At the same time, it immediately sends the draft grant agreement to those applicants (in the order determined based on the project selection criteria) for whom the grant is fully covered by the amount of call funds available.

For applicants for whom the grant is not fully covered by the amount of available allocation of the call funds, the Authority will not send a draft grant agreement due to the lack of funds intended for exhaustion within the call.

For more information please visit https://ncca.nbu.gov.sk/vyzva-na-predkladanie-ziadosti-o-nenavratny-financny-prispevok-nfp-na-podporu-vzdelavacich-programov-v-oblasti-certifikacie-a-hodnotenia-podla-poziadaviek-schemy-certifikacie-kybernetickej-bezpecnosti-podla-eucc-v-ramci-financnej-podpory-tretim-stranam/?csrt=6531937766993098128

Only projects aimed at creating educational programmes for the preparation of skills necessary for the performance of certification and assessment according to EUCC, or for the preparation of skills necessary for the successful completion of certification and assessment according to EUCC, are considered eligible projects under this call.

The training will explain in detail the requirements of the EUCC certification scheme, Commission Implementing Regulation 2024/482, and their relationship to the requirements of the international CC scheme and international standards relating to the scheme, at least to the extent of:

· General model Common Criteria (version CC:2022 and CEM:2022) what Common Criteria (hereinafter referred to as "CC") are,

·CC constructs for defining security policies: Security Target and Protection Profile,

·CC catalogues for security functional and assurance requirements: working with them and their use,

·CC evaluation methodology (CEM): how to understand and use it,

·TOE security architecture and TOE design specification: how to analyse them,

·Vulnerability assessment aspects: general approach,

·CC certification process within the EU horizontal certification scheme.

Applicants may submit only one application for GRANT. If multiple applications are submitted, the NSA will consider the application submitted last.

Eligible applicants:

Under this call, eligible applicants are certified educational institutions (within the meaning of Section 10 of Act No. 292/2024 Coll. on adult education) registered in the register of certified educational institutions.

Grant will be provided as part of financial support to third parties in accordance with the terms of the "GRANT AGREEMENT Project 101127837 — TestCert-SK" concluded between the European Union represented by the European Commission (EC) and the NSA. Project 101127837 — TestCert-SK is funded by the Digital Europe Programme.

The grant will be implemented as a one-off payment at the end of the project. Payment of the grant is conditional upon the submission of documents proving the creation of an educational programme and documents proving the implementation of at least one free educational activity/training course for at least 5 participants – SME employees.

The provision of grant to eligible applicants is set in the form of a one-off payment of EUR 50,000 and is made on the basis of the submitted application and under the conditions set out in this call and its related documents.

For more information please visit: https://ncca.nbu.gov.sk/vyzva-na-predkladanie-ziadosti-o-nenavratny-financny-prispevok-nfp-na-podporu-vzdelavacich-programov-v-oblasti-certifikacie-a-hodnotenia-podla-poziadaviek-schemy-certifikacie-kybernetickej-bezpecnosti-podla-eucc-v-ramci-financnej-podpory-tretim-stranam/?csrt=6531937766993098128