CODE goes EU with CONCORDIA

The Research Institute Cyber Defence (CODE) presented CONCORDIA project at its annual conference, organised on 10 and 11 July 2019 at Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany. Under this year’s conference motto “CODE goes EU”, around 500 guests and participants from politics, military, science and industry received an insight into CONCORDIA’s objectives and discussed generally on cybersecurity aspects in the European Union.

Since January 2019, the Research Institute Cyber Defence (CODE) has been coordinating the European project CONCORDIA. It is one of four pilot projects funded under Horizon 2020, established with the main objective to build a strong cybersecurity competence throughout the EU, based on the wide cooperation between research and industry. As Prof. Dreo, Executive Director of CODE and coordinator of CONCORDIA, mentioned in her speech, Europeans must work together in ecosystems.

Lead of CONCORDIA’s research activities, Prof. Aiko Pras from University of Twente, emphasised in his presentation that CONCORDIA in the meantime gathers 55 organisations, 27 from academia and 28 from industry, with the common vision to strengthen Europe’s cybersecurity capabilities.

In his keynote speech, Roberto Viola, Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technologies (DG CNECT), underlined the importance of joint investments, research and development efforts at the European level, in achieving Europe’s digital sovereignty. CONCORDIA is for that a perfect example. Furthermore, the panel discussion with prominent guests, i.a. Jorge Domecq, Executive Director of European Defence Agency, stressed the relevance of digital sovereignty as one of Europe’s driving force.

This year’s CODE annual conference was also an excellent opportunity for promoting further European efforts and cooperation to pool Europe’s cybersecurity expertise. Coordinators’ representatives of other three European pilot projects, CyberSec4Europ, ECHO and SPARTA, presented their goals and activities, followed by the panel discussion moderated by Rafael Tesoro Carretero, programme officer from DG CNECT.

At the CODE’s annual conference 2019, CONCORDIA was presented as a leading project in integration of Europe’s excellent cybersecurity competences and building networks.

(by Ivana Buntic-Ogor, Research Institute CODE)

Further information are available at  https://www.unibw.de/code/jahrestagungen.