To help companies comply with the cybersecurity requirements of the Network and Informaiton Systems Directive update, a new platform – LLM4CIP – will develop a range of cybersecurity tools and offer grants of up to 60.000€ to SMEs to test the services. The funding will be offered through the LLM-Powered Cybersecurity Preparedness and Risk Mitigation for Critical Infrastructure Protection (LLM4CIP) project, which DIGITAL SME is a member of.

The platform will be based on MISTRAL and hosted locally, ensuring that the technology remains sovereign and that European companies have better access to EU native technologies and hosting. Through building an AI-powered, natural language platform and interface, users will be able to understand and manage their cybersecurity defenses and compliance with the NIS2 Directive more easily.

DIGITAL SME will manage the process of testing and validating the development and deployment of these tools by funding SMEs and larger companies to integrate their systems with the LLM4CIP platform and test the services that are available. In total, the project will grant €2.52 million to at least 42 companies, with at least half the funding reserved for SMEs and startups. The Open Call process to apply for this funding will begin in 2027. The tools that the platform will provide include:

• a Central Management Hub that will allow users to search through security data and manage incidents using plain language instead of complex technical code.
• Digital twins and virtualisation software, which will analyse and present the security of their entire supply chain, highlighting the most relevant risks and threats.
• an Automated penetration testing module, to highlight the vulnerabilities of user systems and demonstrate the effectiveness of deploying specific cybersecurity services that the platform provides, such as the threat detection engine.
• A compliance and risk assistant module to help companies navigate their legal requirements against legislation such as the NIS2.
• Software Bill of Materials creation and analysis tools to analyse supply chains to verify their security status.

The project is being delivered by a European consortium led by ASSIST Software (Romania), alongside UBITECH (Greece), the Institute of Communications and Computer Systems (Greece), eBOS Technologies (Cyprus), the European DIGITAL SME Alliance (Belgium), and EUNOMIA (Ireland). The funding is provided via the DIGITAL Europe Programme and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre.