MIMIT re-funds highly specialized National Center of Expertise for cybersecurity with new decree to support digital transition. Italian companies increasingly aware of and committed to strengthening Of skills, security, and innovation
**Press Release**
Rome, January 15, 2025 – A point of reference for the development and support of the digital transition of Italian companies, which is confirmed as a central player in the national innovation ecosystem: Cyber 4.0, a highly specialized Competent Center for cybersecurity, will be refinanced with an additional 5.1 million euros of PNRR funds, which over the next 12 months will translate into incentives for companies of all sizes and advanced services for the security of data, digital infrastructure and application systems. This is sanctioned by a new decree of MIMIT, the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy, which aims to give continuity to an action of the Center deemed particularly effective.
The competence center for cybersecurity, based in Rome, is a PNRR implementing party on behalf of MIMIT and has always been committed to strengthening the digital skills and operational capacities of businesses and public administration. In this context, Cyber 4.0’s action is developed both through incentivized programs of advisory, guidance and training initiatives, for which more than 4 million euros in grants were provided in 2024 alone, and through the co-financing of research and innovation projects, for which more than 7 million euros have been allocated in the last 4 years.
A volume of inquiries and activities that testifies on the one hand to the effectiveness of the measures that have been put in place to turn NRP funds into concrete actions of immediate use, and on the other – most importantly – to how business awareness of cybersecurity issues and the need for action to protect their strategic digital assets has grown.
With a total value of 4.6 million euros worth of services implemented, with an average contribution of 86 percent co-funding, more than 150 companies benefited from Cyber 4.0 support, 71 percent of which were small companies, 21 percent medium-sized companies and8 percent large companies.
Among the more than 280 services provided, those most in demand are assessment and evaluation of one’s own posture, both in terms of organizational processes and the technologies adopted or to be adopted, but also assessment of one’s own vulnerabilities and definition of an improvement path. And then training, on which the demand has clearly grown not only for specialized skills, but also for basic digital education to improve theawareness of all employees.
“In ten months, the funds that we had initially planned to use until 2026 are gone,” said Matteo Lucchetti, director of Cyber 4.0.“there is a clear feeling that companies have moved from an interlocutory phase, in which cybersecurity was considered an issue to be evaluated for possible future investments, to a phase of concrete action. Perhaps driven in part by the regulatory adjustments required by an increasingly dense regulatory framework of obligations and penalties-primarily what is envisaged by the European NIS 2 directive that will directly impact tens of thousands of companies in Italy alone-managers and entrepreneurs are moving quickly to strengthen their digital asset protection safeguards and the skills of their staff. With the PNRR measure that is now being refinanced, and which we hope to deliver at the same pace, the Ministry has found a key to support these businesses concretely and effectively. The Center is once again working as a facilitator to connect businesses to funding, and as a guarantor of the quality of what is disbursed, aware of the needs of the ecosystem in which it operates, and the need for new technologies, training and security to develop business and increase the competitiveness of the Country System.”