On the occasion of the European Cyber Week 2022 (ECW 22), the 7 European regions involved in the Interreg Europe CYBER project, of which BDI is the lead partner, will meet to take stock of five years of cooperation. The 7th edition of the reference event for the cyber sector will take place from 15 to 17 November 2022 and will bring together manufacturers, academics, researchers and start-ups at the Couvent des Jacobins in Rennes. ECW 22 will serve as a rehearsal before the final gathering of the CYBER project’s stakeholders in Brussels in January 2023.
ECW 2022, European cyber fair
The European Cyber Week is one of the leading events in the cyber sector. Since its first edition in 2016, the Rennes-based event organised by the Cyber Excellence Cluster and its private partners has become a key part of the landscape. Each year, more than 4,000 participants made up of institutions, industrialists, academics, researchers, start-ups and international contractors meet at the Couvent des Jacobins.
Through conferences, round tables, exhibitions and even a recruitment forum, the present and, above all, the future of cybersecurity and cyberdefence will be debated and questioned. The event thus highlights the excellence of a regional ecosystem and the importance of synergies between national and European players in a sector where the challenges go beyond national borders. A subject at the heart of the CYBER project.
Project CYBER: seven regions, one common project, two phases
Among the twenty or so meetings planned over the three days, one session will be dedicated to the European cooperation project CYBER, for which BDI is the lead partner.
Born in 2018 and running until 2023, CYBER aims to improve the efficiency and performance of innovation ecosystems and increase the competitiveness of European cybersecurity SMEs by :
- facilitating collaboration between actors at regional and European level ;
- facilitating market access for SMEs;
- developing skills.
In total, the CYBER project constellation includes 9 partners from 7 European regions:
- Bretagne Développement Innovation (France), as project coordinator;
- The Region of Brittany ;
- The Agency for Innovation, Business Financing and Internationalisation of Castilla y León (Spain);
- The Tuscany Region (Italy);
- The Digital Agency of Wallonia (Belgium) ;
- Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia (Slovenia);
- The Information Systems Authority (Estonia);
- Košice IT Valley z.p.o. (Slovakia).
These European regions are joined by the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) as an advisory partner.
The nine partners divided their work into two distinct phases. From 2018 to 2021, the exchange of good practices, the analysis of the forces present in each region and the definition of an action plan formed the foundations of Interreg CYBER. This first stage has thus allowed :
- the definition of regional action plans that feed into the cybersecurity strategy of each region
- the elaboration of a catalogue of 9 good practices to develop efficient ecosystems, of which 3 come from Brittany (the animation of the cyber community via the Cyberbreakfasts organised each month, for example);
- the creation of a mapping of the 7 European ecosystems to build a cybersecurity value chain in Europe, based on BDI’s Craft database and using the common European reference framework proposed by ECSO
From 2021 to 2023, the second stage aimed to set up and launch public policy actions to support companies specialising in cybersecurity: funding for innovation, development of the training offer in the territories, implementation of vouchers to support the integration of cyber solutions, etc. The Brittany Region and BDI have worked on the development of a regional action plan based on two topics
- the construction of a Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) in Brittany with a strong cyber connotation, inspired by the DIH approach in Castilla y León – now a reality with the approval in June by the European Commission;
- the development of the regional training offer in cyber security.
In-depth work has also been carried out in the health field, in the wake of the Covid crisis. Thus, the year 2022 was dedicated to the study of cybersecurity issues in the health sector in order to define a framework for interregional cooperation on this subject and to put forward courses of action supported by the regional institutions that would enable health systems to become more mature on these issues.
ECW 22, last rehearsal before the final CYBER event in Brussels
On 17 November 2022, the regions involved in the Interreg Europe CYBER project will meet during a dedicated day as part of the European Cyber Week. “The aim of this meeting will be to take stock of current actions, but also to continue sharing experiences, with a particular focus on supporting start-ups and access to private investment,” explains Sara Minisini, CYBER project coordinator at BDI. This day will be an opportunity for Brittany, leader of the regions integrated in Interreg Europe CYBER, to highlight the great entrepreneurial initiatives of its ecosystem and regional support programmes, such as the Cyber Booster and the Cyber Campus. The companies Glimps and Sekoia, specialised in cyber threat treatment, will present demonstrations of their solutions.”
For the seven partners involved in the Interreg CYBER project, this visit to Brittany is a dress rehearsal before they meet one last time in Brussels. In January 2023, the Belgian capital will host the final meeting of the regions involved. They will take advantage of this event to share the fruit of these five years of work with a group of cybersecurity players, European representatives and public authorities.
After May 2023, CYBER will be over. However, cooperation between the regions involved in the project should continue, particularly within the framework of the European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH), a centre that will aim to support and raise awareness of the digitisation of as many people as possible.
For five years, CYBER will have promoted the importance of the regional level in achieving the ambition of a more secure, competitive and sovereign Europe in terms of cybersecurity. “The relationship of trust between the partners will have favoured the creation of synergies between ecosystems to encourage business and innovation and strengthen the competitiveness of the European technological offer.
