EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities – HORIZON-JU-SNS-2025-01-STREAM-B-04-01

1. Single Market Access (450 + million citizens & 24 million enterprises)

• Deploying secure-by-design 6G services simultaneously in 27 Member States creates an immediate addressable market orders of magnitude larger than any single country.

• A common 6G Security-as-a-Service layer lowers customer-acquisition costs and shortens pay-back periods because once solutions meet EU rules (GDPR, Cybersecurity Act, AI Act) they can be sold anywhere in the Union without re-certification.

• Pan-EU reference deployments (e.g. cross-border transport corridors, smart factories, e-health platforms) generate high-value data sets that are exploitable for follow-on AI/ML services.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• The SNS Joint Undertaking requires multinational consortia, forcing telecom operators, cloud providers, vertical industries and academia from at least 3 Member/Associated States to work together—accelerating the transfer of know-how on Zero-Touch security orchestration, DevSecOps and post-quantum crypto.

• EU instruments (ERA-Net, COST, EIT Digital, European Digital Innovation Hubs) can be plugged in for researcher mobility, joint PhD programmes and living laboratories, creating a continuous pipeline of talent.

• Shared experimental facilities (5G/6G testbeds in Finland, France, Germany, Spain, etc.) enable cost-effective validation of concepts under different regulatory, geographic and spectrum conditions.

3. Alignment with Key EU Strategies & Policies

• Directly addresses the EU Cybersecurity Strategy, Digital Decade targets (secure connectivity for all Europeans by 2030) and Strategic Autonomy ambitions by reducing dependency on non-EU high-risk suppliers.

• Contributes to the European Green Deal through energy-efficient security algorithms and intelligent resource-aware routing (6G aims at 10× energy efficiency vs 5G).

• Supports the forthcoming AI Act by embedding privacy-preserving computation and explainable AI in network security functions.

• Complements the Chips Act and Secure Connectivity Initiative by specifying trusted hardware roots and integration with EU Low-Earth-Orbit satellite constellations.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation & Certification Leadership

• The call explicitly funds work on standardised metrics, certification frameworks and continuous security assessment, giving consortia first-mover advantage in shaping ETSI, 3GPP SA3, ENISA and EUCC schemes.

• Once an EU-level security label is achieved, the ‘once-certified, accepted everywhere’ principle applies, cutting compliance costs and speeding market entry across the Union and into countries that mirror EU standards.

• Early alignment with the forthcoming European Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for 5G/6G positions beneficiaries to become accredited labs or auditors—new revenue streams beyond product sales.

5. Embedded in the EU Innovation Ecosystem

• Synergies with existing 6G flagship projects (Hexa-X-II, 6G-SANA), European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) and the KDT JU enable component re-use and joint IPR exploitation.

• Access to Europe’s 5 000+ research institutions and 40 000+ SMEs in ICT via CORDIS & Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) accelerates scouting of cutting-edge components and subcontractors.

• Open-science obligations (common AI/ML data repository) magnify visibility and attract external researchers, fostering a virtuous circle of innovation.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage Potential

• Blending opportunities with:

• DIGITAL Europe (cybersecurity capacity building, 50 % co-funding).

• CEF Digital (cross-border 5G/6G corridors).

• EIC Transition & Accelerator (commercialisation of PoCs).

• European Defence Fund (dual-use secure communications).

• ERDF/Just-Transition funds for regional testbeds in cohesion regions.

• EU taxonomy for sustainable finance plus EIB / InvestEU debt can scale successful prototypes to industrial roll-out.

7. Scale, Deployment & Market Impact

• The grant encourages EU-wide pilots (rail, road, maritime, energy, health), proving that security assurances hold under heterogeneous legal, cultural and climatic contexts—vital for global export credibility.

• Possibility to federate national Security Operation Centres (SOCs) into an EU Security Cloud, creating economies of scale and a data-network effect unattainable at national level.

• Results feed directly into the next 3GPP Release 20+ timelines, allowing European players to set de-facto global standards.

8. Strategic Value of Operating at EU Level

• Risk Mitigation: Diversified consortium and multi-site testing reduce single-market, supply-chain and geopolitical risks.

• Speed & Cost Efficiency: Shared infrastructures, harmonised rules and a single set of procurement specifications cut duplication of effort and accelerate time-to-market by an estimated 12–18 months.

• Global Influence: United EU voice in standards bodies carries more weight than fragmented national inputs, enhancing Europe’s bargaining power vis-à-vis other regions.

• Talent Attraction: Branding as an EU-flagship 6G security initiative draws global experts to European research centres, reinforcing the continent’s skills base.

Bottom line: Leveraging the HORIZON-JU-SNS «Smart Security / Security Services» call at EU scale unlocks market access, regulatory certainty, funding leverage and innovation velocity that cannot be matched by stand-alone national programmes, while simultaneously advancing the Union’s strategic autonomy in next-generation secure connectivity.