ASSIST Software coordinates LLM4CIP, a three-year European cybersecurity initiative funded by the Digital Europe Programme and overseen by the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC). Having been launched at the beginning of January 2026, the project’s official kick-off meeting was held on the 27th of January in Suceava, hosted by ASSIST.

The project seeks to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure operators throughout Europe by integrating artificial intelligence into operational cybersecurity environments, while maintaining structured governance, measurable outcomes, and extensive industry engagement.

Turning European Cybersecurity Policy into Operational Reality

Critical sectors across Europe, including healthcare, energy, and transport, face increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Concurrently, organisations experience a shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals, exacerbating the gap between risk exposure and defensive capabilities.

LLM4CIP (LLM-Powered Cybersecurity Preparedness and Risk Mitigation for Critical Infrastructure Protection) was designed to help close that gap. By leveraging Large Language Models, the platform supports incident simulation, risk assessment, and response decision-making – empowering organisations to enhance preparedness even in environments where advanced cybersecurity expertise is limited.

LLM4CIP is distinguished not only by its technological ambition but also by its governance model. Implemented under the supervision of the ECCC, the project benefits from structured European oversight. At the kick-off meeting, the ECCC Project Officer established clear expectations concerning implementation quality, measurable impact, and the effective exploitation and visibility of results.

This approach ensures that innovation extends beyond research settings and follows defined pathways toward adoption and scalability.

ASSIST Software: Sustained Leadership in European Cybersecurity

As project coordinator, ASSIST Software leads a consortium comprising partners from Greece, Cyprus, Belgium, and Ireland. The organisation is responsible for strategic coordination, alignment with European Union cybersecurity priorities, and ensuring that technical development aligns directly with operational requirements.

LLM4CIP builds upon ASSIST Software’s extensive experience in European cybersecurity initiatives. The organisation is also a key partner in SECASSURED, a Horizon Europe project focused on AI-driven, assurance-based security engineering across complex digital systems. Within SECASSURED, ASSIST plays a central role in integrating and deploying secure development and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) environments for AI-powered security tools, contributing to use cases in telecommunications, aerospace, energy, eHealth, and smart mobility.

Building on their momentum in early 2026, ASSIST Software has further solidified its role as a leader in European innovation by securing the coordination of an additional major new project – REINFORCE – AI-Enhanced Ecosystem for Reinforcing Cybersecurity in the European Healthcare Sector. Bringing together 19 partners from 11 European countries, the large-scale initiative is currently in the contracting phase and is programmed to officially launch in mid-2026, marking another milestone for the Suceava-based company.

This sustained involvement in European research and deployment projects positions ASSIST as a trusted contributor to the continent’s evolving cybersecurity architecture, combining technical expertise, operational implementation, and compliance-driven design.

Open Calls to Support Up to 42 European Companies

A central element of LLM4CIP’s impact strategy is the launch of competitive open calls that will enable up to 42 European companies to join the project ecosystem, with over half of the project’s budget allocated to these calls and each participating entity receiving up to €60,000.

Selected organisations, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and operators of essential services, will integrate and operationalise AI-driven cybersecurity capabilities within their environments. By deploying the platform in pilot or operational contexts, these organisations will strengthen incident preparedness, improve detection and response workflows, and enhance overall cyber resilience.

This approach incorporates industry participation directly into the project’s execution phase. Instead of validating solutions in isolation, LLM4CIP ensures that real operational environments inform the platform’s evolution and scalability across critical sectors.

“The security challenges Europe faces today demand more than innovation alone,” said Alin Calinciuc, Technical Project Manager and Chief Software Development Officer at ASSIST Software. “As coordinator of LLM4CIP, our responsibility is to ensure that AI-driven cybersecurity solutions are not only developed, but governed, adopted, and integrated into real operational environments. Through the upcoming open calls, we are expanding a European ecosystem focused on measurable resilience and long-term impact.”

A Scalable Model for Enhancing European Cyber Resilience

Beyond technical development, the project emphasizes dissemination and exploitation. Through dedicated communication channels, including the ECCC portal, project outcomes will be accessible to European stakeholders, facilitating broader evaluation and adoption.

By integrating structured European oversight, industry participation, and advanced AI capabilities, LLM4CIP exemplifies a governance-driven model for enhancing digital resilience. Coordinated by ASSIST Software, the initiative links research, regulation, and operational deployment, thereby reinforcing Europe’s capacity to protect critical infrastructure amid an increasingly complex threat landscape.

Organisations seeking to enhance their cyber resilience through AI-supported tools will have the opportunity to apply in the two rounds of LLM4CIP open calls scheduled for next year.

*This is partner content.