The city of Maribor recently hosted the 2nd Plenary Consortium Meeting of the CRACoWi project, bringing together 14 expert partners from across Europe to align on progress and define the next strategic steps toward simplifying cybersecurity compliance for businesses across the EU.
Over two days of in-depth collaboration (30 September – 1 October 2025), the CRACoWi consortium advanced its mission of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), manufacturers, importers, and distributors in complying with the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) – a new legislative milestone aimed at improving the security of digital products throughout their lifecycle.
The CRACoWi (Cyber Resilience Act Compliance Wizard) project, funded under the Digital Europe Programme and supported by the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC), is developing a user-friendly Compliance Wizard – a step-by-step digital tool that helps businesses understand and fulfil their CRA obligations.
As the CRA imposes strict new requirements for placing connected products on the EU market, CRACoWi fills a crucial gap by offering practical, hands-on support tailored to the needs of companies that may lack dedicated cybersecurity or legal teams.
The plenary meeting featured updates on all technical and strategic work packages, combined with hands-on workshops and valuable peer-to-peer learning. Partners engaged in a live walkthrough of CRACoWi in a Use Case Workshop where they identified documentation gaps, and performed tailored threat modelling for OT and IoT devices. The consortium worked in focused groups covering critical infrastructure, importers/distributors, and compliance documentation, fostering a strong foundation for the next project phases.
This plenary also included a dedicated CRAcademy session focused on certification and standardisation processes and vulnerability handling obligations for manufacturers, distributors and importers of the digital products. Not less important was a session for communication, dissemination and KPI tracking to ensure that CRACoWi’s message and resources reach the right stakeholders.
“This meeting proved once again that strong collaboration and a shared mission can turn complex legislation into practical solutions. CRACoWi is not just about compliance – it’s about empowering the European ecosystem to thrive securely,” said coordinator George Bravos, ITML.
As Europe prepares for the full enforcement of the Cyber Resilience Act, CRACoWi stands out as a pioneering project that transforms regulation into action. By helping SMEs and other economic operators navigate the complexities of the CRA, the project contributes directly to the EU’s goal of a digitally secure, innovation-driven internal market.
This time, the plenary meeting was organised by Tiko Pro, a consortium partner leading the work package for communication and dissemination. Tiko Pro ensured everything ran smoothly while also offering partners the chance to enjoy true Slovenian hospitality.
