The European Commission wants to encourage cybersecurity experts, including academic researchers and IT security companies, to pool resources and work together. As a first step, the Commission wants to build a map showing the existing centres of expertise.
To create this “Cybersecurity Atlas”, the EC is running a survey “calling on all cybersecurity competence centres across the EU, whether public or private, to register their organisations and share information about their work and expertise.” The survey will run until 15 February.
The European Union needs to make a better use of its research and innovation capacities, the Commission explains in an introduction to the survey: “It is in our strategic interest to ensure that the EU retains and develops the essential capacities to secure its digital economy, society and democracy.”
The Commission announced its intention to strengthen the development and deployment of cybersecurity expertise in September. Its communication to the European Parliament and the Council, entitled "Resilience, Deterrence and Defence: Building strong cybersecurity for the EU", includes plans such as improving the EU’s cyber skills base and creating a cybersecurity competence network with a European Cybersecurity Research and Competence Centre.
More information:
Survey indexing the European cybersecurity centres of expertise