Innovation governance based on the diversity of factors that Shaped the Development of the SPARTA T-SHARK Program

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One of four Programs in SPARTA, T-SHARK aims to develop and validate methodological, organisational and technological solutions, thereby extending cybersecurity in order to achieve a comprehensive organisation of security functions that focus on threat prediction and full-spectrum cybersecurity awareness, providing high situational awareness and timely warning of threats.  Significantly, T-SHARK and 19 of its partners have focused their primary efforts on the question of delivering full-spectrum cybersecurity awareness with the goal of informing decision and policymakers on broad, long-term issues.

Activities within the Program have been divided into two main streams.

The first deals with several technology-based developments identified by separate partners or joint teams (defined as Sub-cases). These teams engage in information exchange, develop solutions based on data gathering activities and development of visual analytics capabilities that enable the integration of outputs arising from Sub-cases.

The second stream is dedicated to supporting the activities associated with Sub-cases, including legal support such as legal assessments, but primarily in supporting the governance activities of Sub-cases, which are meant to demonstrate value-added in the Umbrella Case, Elections Interference, resulting in increased integrity of program governance.

Supportive governance activities, as well as all activities in T-SHARK, are coordinated by L3CE (Lithuanian Cyber Crime Center of Excellence for Training, Research and Education).

The initial methodology of Stage Gates was borrowed from a standard business practice used to manage innovation development and product or service portfolios. The methodology focuses on the identification of requirements for competing teams, intermediate and final criteria for evaluation of teams, and involvement of societal and associated partners. Indeed, competition is an important aspect of the methodology. In competing through the Gates, some teams are successful; but those that fail are not supported further.  The Stage Gates methodology also includes the activities of an Arbitrage Group, which consists of recognised experts from relevant stakeholder groups (industry, end-users, academia, policymakers) who are able to evaluate Sub-case activity according to established criteria and provide valuable feedback.

During Project rollout, all Sub-cases provided descriptions of their development following a pre-defined format. At this point, Sub-cases displayed their differing natures and could have been evaluated as completely separate projects as, for example, in displaying different TRL levels  (some being at the conceptual level, whereas others had working prototypes, ready for demonstration).

During the first Stage Gates event, all Sub-cases presented their results, and the Arbitrage Group provided their feedback, but at this point, the competition aspect was deemed to be inappropriate.

This Stage Gates event was evaluated positively by all participants. It also provided significant insights and questions to be addressed. The main lessons learned included organisational aspects of the event and involvement of the Arbitrage Group. It also demonstrated that the methodology applied is a useful instrument in governing innovative developments but needs more work to be fully effective.

In addition, the event clearly indicated that developments within T-SHARK alone are not able to provide all the necessary components required for a comprehensive Cyber Security. It would be worth including a wider selection of solutions developed by other projects or industry to make the whole picture more complete.

Based on this experience, a major assessment of supportive activities was undertaken. This mainly focused on improved innovation governance, taking into account the fact that the methodology of Stage Gates and application of TRL evaluations are suitable, but not exhaustive.

Apart from the introduction of new instruments (individual Sub-case reviews, cross-integration workshops, on-boarding of other projects), building the model for innovation management became the core of supportive activities.  Indeed, innovation management, a vibrant subject for academia and practitioners, gave rise to wide-ranging discussions; as did innovation governance and management, which are especially relevant for policymakers who need to affect the efficiency of resource allocation.

While scoping the innovations governance model, each responsible team focuses on several key aspects:

  • Description of innovative developments. As technology-based developments and integration opportunities need to be understood by external stakeholders and potential users, they should be described in a unified format. The analytical canvas model is one of the options currently included in the model.
  • Measuring of innovative development performance. Searching for relevant KPI’s, which can assess the potential of the development and provide clear evaluation measures for external evaluators.
  • Maturation of innovative developments. TRL methodology should be complemented with other instruments (e.g. SRL, MRL, etc.) to provide more comprehensive tracking of progress.
  • Mapping of innovative developments. Seeing the contributions of different initiatives to the endpoint case or concept requires application of several selected frameworks (e.g. fit to the Umbrella case process, main functionalities provided, analytical techniques applied, etc.).
  • Integration of individual developments. In most cases, the achievements of the project will lead to the integration of components into a higher-level architecture. Thus, early-stage integrity assessment and level of innovation will be a mandatory part of the model.

The initial T-SHARK governance model comprehensively aggregates the aspects mentioned above:

In the upcoming period, the T-SHARK Program will focus on fine-tuning the primary model and piloting it with the Sub-cases. A comprehensive methodology to be used within SPARTA is expected by the end of 2021.  This will sustain the network, providing additional insights and new concepts for further research. 

 SPARTA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 830892

Cyber competence development ecosystem started by SPARTA and further explored by REWIRE

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A few years ago, the EC launched 4 pilot projects, namely SPARTA, CONCORDIA, ECHO and CyberSec4Europe in an attempt to take a leading role in developing an EU cybersecurity competence ecosystem. These pilot projects bring together more than 160 partners, including large companies, SMEs, universities and cybersecurity research institutes from 26 EU Member States. 

The four pilots have been asked to collaborate and coordinate their activities to address the most critical challenges facing EU: i.e. increasing shortages of cybersecurity professionals, availability of relevant training and certification programs that have been tailored to specific sector requirements, etc. 

During the past 18 months of SPARTA implementation, a team of experts extensively analysed the state of the knowledge regarding cyber skills management, skill gaps in industry, skills requirements, adequate provision of sectoral training, cybersecurity skills frameworks, and proposed a way forward with the development of an EU based cybersecurity skills framework (hereinafter CSF), as an agreed link between main stakeholders. 

The first draft of CSF was introduced to the key stakeholders ENISA, ECSO, EC and the 4 pilots, and this was validated by industry partners and academia. Feedback, comments and insights were carefully taken into consideration and outlined in a plan for further development of CSF. At a concluding Roadmap Workshop, open questions were formulated and put forward to kick start further discussions on the establishment of an EU based CSF governance model and management strategy. 

SPARTA CSF was well accepted by EC and the cyber community. Nonetheless, to achieve a conceptual breakthrough and a uniform cyber skills management approach on a Member States level requires the integration of three main pillars: an effective governance model, recognition and dissemination among different stakeholders. 

Being the largest contributor to SPARTA CSF, the Lithuanian Cybercrime Center of Excellence for Training, Research and Education (hereinafter L3CE) proposed to establish a “Cybersecurity Skills Alliance – New Vision for Europe” (hereinafter REWIRE). On a broader scope and larger geographical scale, such a consortium could promote the continued implementation of SPARTA CSF. Since the ERASMUS+ program was leveraged for this, confirmed funding for the next 4 years will be instrumental in achieving the necessary development, geographical spread, and usage. 

REWIRE brings together 12 education and training providers, 11 partners representing industry and certification, and two EU umbrella organisations for Vocational Education & Training (hereafter VET) from 12 EU countries. These REWIRE participants will work together on developing a new sectoral strategic approach for effective cooperation on cybersecurity skills and support improved matching between skill needs of the market and skills provided by the relevant education and training organisations. 

Building on and consolidating the results and lessons learned from the four pilot projects (CONCORDIA, SPARTA, ECHO, CyberSec4Europe), REWIRE will provide a blueprint for constructing and implementing the framework and tools necessary for enhancing the cybersecurity skills portfolio in Europe. Taking into account activities, milestones, outcomes and outputs of the four projects above, the REWIRE initiative aims to: 

  • Develop a common methodology for the assessment of the current situation and to anticipate future needs through the identification of existing and emerging skills needs. 
  • Create a European Cybersecurity Skills Observatory integrated by specific actions, activities and tools that allow for anticipation and matching of skills supply and demands. 
  • Support the strategy and framework through the implementation of a digital on-line publicly accessible European Cybersecurity Skills Digital Observatory – CyberABILITY (for cybersecurity skills that merge market needs, profiles, competencies and available training courses). 
  • Expand a Cybersecurity Skills Framework containing profiles for the needed cybersecurity profiles and their analysis. 
  • Pilot a federated cyber range hosted by multiple project partners. 
  • Create networks to improve skills intelligence and information mechanisms, and strengthening the exchange of knowledge and practice between the cybersecurity industry and the VET providers, adapting VET provision to the skills needs to be demanded by the sector. 

REWIRE is an excellent example of effective collaboration between existing cybersecurity competence clusters on local, national and EU levels that will be used to channel and scale up results developed by SPARTA and other pilot projects. 

Consider that current efforts by Member States to develop their own cybersecurity skills frameworks and launch policy actions to address immediate needs do not have consistency on the EU level. Thus, REWIRE aims to cross borders of Member States by developing a common vocabulary for the whole of EU to ensure a common taxonomy, as well as a common understanding and much-improved mobility of skills across the Member States. 

Over the long-term, the cyber competence development ecosystem started by SPARTA and further explored by REWIRE will create a lasting partnership among different groups of stakeholders. These, in turn, will monitor and adjust to changes in sector needs, facilitate transnational mobility between stakeholders, provide transversal skills, as well as career guidance and access to the labour market, thus improving long-term employability in the Cybersecurity sector. 

More about SPARTA project >>> 

More about REWIRE project >>> 

SPARTA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 830892. 

Cybersecurity Skills Alliance – A New Vision for Europe (REWIRE) project has received funding from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices action under grant agreement No 621701-EPP-1-2020-1-LT-EPPKA2-SSA-B. 

EU-HYBNET project brings different actors together to counter hybrid threats

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Empowering a Pan-European Network to Counter Hybrid Threats (EU-HYBNET) is the first European project with a specific focus on preparing for and countering hybrid threats and on developing and building an European network in this field. The five-year project coordinated by Laurea University of Applied Sciences was launched in May 2020.

EU-HYBNET will address four core themes to ensure coherence in the project’s results: 1) Future Trends of Hybrid Threats, 2) Cyber and Future Technologies, 3) Resilient Civilians, Local Level and National Administration, and 4) Information and Strategic Communication. These themes will afford an opportunity to focus on all hybrid threat domains, especially interfaces between the domains, ensuring that the project delivers coherent results in relation to the conceptual framework model countering hybrid threats.

L3CE role in the project

Core Theme “Cyber and Future Technologies is coordinated by L3CE. Our researches will be involved in the analysis of European practitioners’ gaps and needs identified during Thematic workshops in order to understand their nature and obstacles to developing, maintaining or improving resilience in the landscape of hybrid threats.

First findings to be published in the autumn

The EU-HYBNET project’s kick-off conference, which attracted more than 80 participants from the organisations involved in the project, was held in May. The different work packages of the project were launched over the summer.

The project started with workshops where European practitioners’ and other relevant actors’ gaps and needs, vulnerabilities to counter hybrid threats were mapped. The results are currently being analysed and will be published in the end of September 2020.

“As a result of the first phase will be created a list of jointly identified challenges in Europe, for which innovative solutions will be developed in the course of the project”, says Päivi Mattila, who manages the project at Laurea University of Applied Sciences.

Measure to counter hybrid threats requires cooperation

The objective of the project is to strengthen European practitioners and other relevant actors’ capabilities for counteracting hybrid threats. Building up the network of actors in the field plays an important role in achieving this goal. These actors include practitioners, SME’s and companies operating in the sector, academics and NGOs.

In addition to the partners who have been involved in the project from the preparation phase on, the aim is to empower the EU-HYBNET Pan-European Network in the future with new actors. The project additionally collaborates with other projects in order to achieve potential synergies in countering hybrid threats.

The project also involves different stakeholders closely in its activities to ensure the rapid deployment of its outcomes and solutions.

“Multidisciplinary cooperation between different actors is a particular requirement for countering hybrid threats. By involving stakeholders and disseminating the results, we aim to promote and enhance this cooperation and to share information on hybrid threats”, explains Project Manager Mattila.

The project is coordinated by Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland). Project consortium consists of 25 organisations from 16 different European countries. The EU-HYBNET project funded under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme spans five years and has a total budget of EUR 3.5 million.

For more information on the EU-HYBNET project, visit the project’s recently launched website at www.euhybnet.eu and its Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 883054.

European-wide project on countering hybrid threats kicked off

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The Lithuanian Cybercrime Center of Excellence for Training, Research and Education L3CE (www.l3ce.eu) together with the strongest partners in Europe working in the field of cyber threats, launched the EU-HYBNET (Empowering a Pan-European Network to Counter Hybrid Threats) project in a virtual conference on May 12, 2020. The aim of the project is to develop a European network that is able to detect, prepare for and counter hybrid threats. This five-year-long project is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Programme. The EU-HYBNET project consortium consists of 23 organisations representing 16 European countries. 

The project is coordinated by Laurea University of Applied Sciences (https://www.laurea.fi). Laurea is the leading provider of civilian security education in Finland. It has built a noticeable international and EU funded security project portfolio. Dr. Päivi Mattila, director of the University’s Coherent Security strategic research area, is coordinating the EU-HYBNET project. 

The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE), located in Helsinki, Finland, is the main content coordinator for the project. According to Hybrid CoE’s Director of Research and Analysis, Hanna Smith, working with a versatile group of organisations and experts from the public sector, industry, SMEs, academia and NGOs provides a unique opportunity to develop new tools to enhance societal resilience. 

“We are very pleased that EU countries are becoming increasingly aware that hybrid threats are not some distant and slight “disruption”. The hybrid threats are a real threat to democracies, it is a real weapon that authoritarian countries are developing, using and will benefit in the future to destabilize our societies. Lithuania’s experience in encountering and combating hybrid threats is very valuable in this project”, states L3CE Director Egidija Veršinskienė. 

“L3CE expertise in dealing with a wide range of cyber threats will be very useful in this project. Cyber vulnerabilities are very often used for hybrid attacks. L3CE leads the “Cyber Theme” in this project – there are 4 themes in the whole EU-HYBNET project that will be the main focus. This is a great recognition of L3CE’s competence and experience”, said Evaldas Bružė, L3CE Innovation Architect. 

In the first phase of the project, partners will conduct a gaps and needs analysis  in order to identify and understand the network participants’ requirements, and the obstacles to maintaining and improving their resilience in the face of hybrid threats. “Gaps and needs will be assessed and used for scenario building and training purposes in the following phases of the project”, explains Hybrid CoE’s Director of Research and Analysis, Hanna Smith. 

Project participants are: 

  • Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland 
  • Hybrid CoE, Finland 
  • Polish Platform for Homeland Security (PPHS), Poland 
  • University of Tromso (UiT), Norway 
  • Rise Research Institutes of Sweden 
  • KEMEA, Greece 
  • L3CE, Lithuania 
  • Universidad Rey Juan Carlo (URJC), Spain 
  • French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, France 
  • European Organisation for Security (EOS) 
  • TNO, the Netherlands 
  • SATWAYS, Greece 
  • City of Espoo, Finland 
  • Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy 
  • National Intelligence Academy M. Viteazul, Romania 
  • Netherlands Ministry of Defence, the Netherlands 
  • Local Police of the City of Valence, Spain 
  • Polish Internal Security Agency, Poland 
  • Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection, Norway 
  • Maldita, Spain 
  • German Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector, Germany 
  • Competence Center COMTESSA, Germany 
  • Joint Research Centre European Commission (JRC) 

More information:

LinkedIn 

Twitter: @EuHybnet 

About EU-HYBNET 

More information about the EU-HYBNET project can be reached here

About L3CE 

The Lithuanian Cybercrime Center of Excellence for Training, Research and Education (L3CE) is a non-profit organization contributing to the strengthening of the capacity and capabilities of Lithuanian and EU law enforcement institutions in the fight against cybercrime. L3CE addresses rapidly changing and emerging security challenges such as hybrid threats, information security, etc. L3CE is active in several European Networks of Excellence (CMINE, ENLETS, SENTER, iLEANET) and carries out national and EU funded projects. L3CE, in collaboration with partners, provides law enforcement agencies in the EU with access to training programs, forensic tools developed by scientists and researchers, the latest inventions, technologies and methods for investigating cybercrime. 

L3CE’s activities encompass two main areas. 

First, L3CE focuses on technologies and methodologies for identifying and stopping cyber, full-spectrum and hybrid threats. The methodologies being developed include both technological tools, as well as social and human behavioral factors. 

Second, another important area involves the uptake of innovation. L3CE develops methodologies to help law enforcement quickly understand, test and begin to use inventions and innovations in their day-to-day work. The localized “innovation factory” model developed by L3CE is receiving strong support by the European Commission and among EU national law enforcement agencies. 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No883054. 

DRIVER+ PROJECT CELEBRATES MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS AND SUCCESSES

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The DRIVER+ Advanced Crisis Management Conference was held in Brussels on the 18th, 19th and 20th of February, bringing together over 300 Crisis Management specialists, academics and technology developers from throughout Europe and beyond.

The project’s outputs, achievements and long-term legacy benefits for all European and international Crisis Management organisations were praised by senior European Commission officials and conference delegates.

The conference was the culmination of several years of intense work across Europe, involving 4 large-scale crisis scenario trials and a final trial/demonstration, technology development and assessments, and the development of a unique Trial Guidance Methodology for testing the best solutions for specific emergency management tasks.
Research was also undertaken to accelerate innovation in Crisis Management throughout Europe, in particular in connection with climate change related-events such as wildfires and flooding as well as medical emergencies such as coronavirus and industrial accidents.

The project has also fostered the establishment of a number of Centres of Expertise to promote enhanced Crisis Management skills and innovation, and set up a pan-European network, the Crisis Management Innovation Network Europe (CMINE) to foster knowledge sharing and cooperation.

DRIVER+ is an EU funded project tasked with promoting and testing new, science-based improvements in crisis management. Specialist speakers attended from world leading organisations, such as the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research on climate change and wildfires, the Red Cross on Psychological First Aid training for volunteers, and Patrick Meier of WeRobotics Flying Labs on the promotion of drone flying and mapping skills among local populations for improved crisis response throughout the non-European world.

The DRIVER+ Trial Guidance Methodology for conducting trials of Crisis Management solutions, is supported by the Test-bed Technical Infrastructure (TTI).

All outputs are free and open source, available from the DRIVER+ website. Other free outputs include the DRIVER+ Portfolio of Solutions – an online database of advanced Crisis Management technologies.

The establishment of a network of DRIVER+ Centres of Expertise to ensure the sustainability of project outputs has been a major achievement, with 7 Centres signing letters of agreement at the conference – Entente Valabre (France), the Main School of Fire Service (SGSP, Poland), L3CE (Lithuania), The Resilience Advisors Network (RAN, Ireland), SRC-PAS (Poland), EASS (Estonian Academy of Security Sciences), and the Austrian Red Cross (ARC).

For more information or to download reports and other project outputs go to: www.driver-project.eu  www.driver-project.eu/final-conference

“Milipol” Event for Homeland Security and Safety

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Milipol is a Leading Event for Homeland Security and Safety, attracting over 1000 exhibitors and up to 30 000 visitors. The 21st edition was held on 19-22 November 2019 at Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre. The event was organized by The Security Research NCP Network (SEREN4) and the French Ministry of Interior, with the support of the European Commission as part of the Milipol event. Milipol practitioner workshops dedicated to the 2020 topics in Horizon2020 that are related to the impact of Artificial Intelligence in law enforcement was organized as part of the overall event.

L3CE, represented by Edmundas Piesarskas, was taking the active participation in the workshop. This event was dedicated to practitioners who are interested in the uptake of security research and innovation. 4 workshops took place during the day. Each workshop started with a panel mainly composed of European practitioners followed by an extensive exchange with the participants in the room. Focus of all workshops was AI (Artificial Intelligence), discussing it in different content. Subjects discussed included how AI solutions to help Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA), how to strengthen cooperation for high-quality datasets in Europe, AI in cybersecurity and ethical aspects of AI. Edmundas, as a panelist of AI in cybersecurity subject, presented main relevant insights, arising from SPARTA project and T-SHART Program in particular. The short presentation was made, raising a lively discussion.

7th annual Cyber Intelligence Europe 2019

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Cyber security is a concern for many European governments and military forces. It is key for government agencies to make sure detection systems are up to date to combat the latest threats faced to computer systems.

Cybercrimes are also becoming very sophisticated with many criminals creating new ways to breach computer systems. It is critical that governments have strong threat intelligence systems to monitor the potential breaches and combat the cybercrimes before any damage is done to critical infrastructures.

Cyber Intelligence Europe brings together leading officials from across Europe to discuss cyber security strategies and policies, combating cybercrimes, threat intelligence, detection systems, cyber laws and international cooperation.

With the event taking place in Vienna, Austria on the 24th – 26th September 2019 Event participants had an  the opportunity to meet with many senior officials from across the Austrian Government and Armed Forces.

The conference agenda covered the overview of the developments made in cybersecurity across EU, new trends and dynamics of cyber threats, new ideas including new technologies for cyber situation awareness, legal aspects and regulations in the field.

Egidija Versinskiene  CoE of Lithuanian Cybercrime Center of Excellence for Training, Research and Education (L3CE) made the presentation on the subject “Cybercrime awareness -Lithuanian Perspective”.

Egidija (L3CE) introdused SPARTA goals, objectives, partnership model  to a wide auditorium of security practitioners. Emphasized the core of SPARTA project:  4 research programes, overview the advantages and benefits that implementing programs will bring to the cybersecurity practitioners. Stressed the importance  of effective collaboration that enables to achieve a better outcomes and results.

Specific attention was paid to T-SHARK program introduction. The program idea  based on threats profiling model, arbitrage group concept and a new way of  solutions validation based on Stage Gates approach was introduced during the presentation.

Conference results overview:

  • EU security and defense agencies such as European Defense Agency (EDA), Organization for Security & Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) expressed a great interest in the project and particular research programs: T-SHARK and SAFAIR. EDA would consider the possibility to join T-SHARK Arbitrage Group and provide the expertise necessary to evaluate usability of technology solutions.
  • Industry players such as Security Brokers ( Global Cyber Defence & Security Services), Searchlight Security, AQSACOM proposed collaboration with SPARTA which will support the research programs, development and demonstration of new cyber security related technologies.

We have to admit that SPARTA just started its implementation therefore the project visibility is still under way, involvement of external partners on Global, EU, regional and national levels is critical to make SPARTA the most visible project in EU.

The 2nd Annual MOI Innovation & Foresight Summit took place from 5-6 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi under the patronage of HIS HIGHNESS SHEIKH SAIF BIN ZAYED AL NAHYAN, MINISTER OF INTERIOR and DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF THE UAE and CROWN PRINCE OF ABU DHABI

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The summit highlighted the latest and advanced future technologies, as well as innovative ideas to be further developed and integrated into the UAE’s National Innovation Strategy that aims to position the UAE among the most innovative nations in the world.

Egidija Versinskiene – Director, Lithuanian Center of Excellence for Training, Research and Education, delivered a presentation on Accelerating Innovation: Future Readiness and participated in the panel session discussions: Technologies for Managing New Threats.

Egidija also facilitated round table discussions between representatives of the UAE Ministry of Interior, Law Enforcement and National Security agencies, Regulatory bodies, including Customs, and representatives from various Police Forces, the Military and Defense establishments, as well as regional and international experts on the theme of:  Big Data, Open Data and Artificial Intelligence: Future Application in Governance and Policing.

22nd European Police Congress, February 19th & 20th 2019, Berlin

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The European Police Congress is the largest annual conference concerned with internal security in the European Union. It is a meeting place for about 1.500 experts from over 20 countries. Representatives of police authorities, border police, secret services, as well as governments, parliaments and industry, regularly attend this major event.

This year’s theme was Focus Europe: Migration – Integration – Security and particular attenton was paid to the issue of integration.  As safety is considered to be a high priority, clearly, security authorities in Europe will have to work harder on prevention, and include local district authorities together with those representing social and educational domains, creating common strategies and acting together, in order to achieve integration.  The Security System in Europe has to operate like one unit!

The European Police Congress was organized by the independent “Behörden Spiegel”,  the highest-circulation newspaper targeting the public sector in Germany with a readership of close to 114,000 that includes not only the federal capitol of Berlin but effectively every municipality and district in the country.

Egidija Versinskiene – Director, Lithuanian Cybercrime Center of Excellence for Training Research and Education (L3CE), participated in a panel discussion entitled Cybercrime: current phenomena and challenges and introduced L3CE’s latest initiatives in the field of Information Warfare.

SPARTA — Re-imagining the way cybersecurity research, innovation, and training are performed in the European Union

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Cybersecurity is an urgent and major societal challenge. Highly correlated with the digitalization of our societies, cyberthreats have an increasing impact on our lives. It is therefore essential to ensure digital security and strategic autonomy of the EU by strengthening leading cybersecurity capacities. This challenge will require the coordination of Europe’s best competences, towards common research and innovation goals.

SPARTA is a novel Cybersecurity Competence Network, supported by the EU’s H2020 program, with the objective to develop and implement top-tier research and innovation collaborative actions. Strongly guided by concrete challenges forming an ambitious Cybersecurity Research & Innovation Roadmap, SPARTA will setup unique collaboration means, leading the way in building transformative capabilities and forming a world-leading Cybersecurity Competence Network across the EU. From basic human needs (health) to economic activities (energy, finance, and transport) to technologies (ICT and industry) to sovereignty (eGovernment, public administration), four research and innovation programs will push the boundaries to deliver advanced solutions to cover emerging challenges.

The SPARTA consortium, led by CEA, assembles a balanced set of 44 actors from 14 EU Member States at the intersection of scientific excellence, technological innovation, and societal sciences in cybersecurity. Together, along with SPARTA Associates, they aim at re-imagining the way cybersecurity research, innovation, and training are performed in Europe across domains and expertise, from foundations to applications, in academia and industry.

In sharing experiences and excellence, challenges and capabilities, SPARTA makes decisive contributions to European strategic autonomy.