EU-iNSPIRE

EU-INSPIRE is an ambitious project that aims to overhaul European higher education in cybersecurity to provide useful responses to the evolving digital landscape and its inherent threats. In this process, 23 partners from across Europe are joining forces to revolutionize academia, and facilitate the industry of experts with relevant knowledge and skills to help meet current and future needs, both in technological (with predominance in those IA-dependent technologies), political and organizational terms. This also means the continuous reskilling and upskilling of professionals in response to the changing demands and challenges of industry, but also connecting academia and industry as a single team. Together, academia + industry, will be able to create a much more advanced, practical and useful specialization, cultivating cybersecurity experts at master-level, useful and ready to drive a more reliable economy and trusted society in Europe.

The initiative, which is supported by the European Commission through the European Digital and Health Executive Agency (HaDEA), will implement an innovative approach that will contribute to building a much more robust and reliable cyber resilience ecosystem. The process involves: (i) training future ICT specialists, and especially, in leveraging AI-driven cybersecurity technologies to improve the resilience of digital processes, systems and critical digital infrastructures; (ii) foster practical skills to enhance and preserve security, i.e. cultivate cyber insurance specialists who possess a deep understanding of how cyber security and AI converge to protect cyber insurance policies, along with experience in deploying mechanisms to assess cyber risks and threats; and (iii) prepare cybersecurity experts with industry-specific knowledge in line with the digital transformation of the respective strategic sectors, who are competent in the correct use of AI solutions under a regulated and ethical cybersecurity approach.

NICS Lab plays a relevant role within this project by concentrating part of its leadership in the supervision, continuous preparation and management of the master-level programs to be offered by European academies. Part of these actions include (i) the design, implementation and optimization of diverse and inclusive European Masters curricula in cybersecurity, but also the deployment and development of their specialization courses. NICS Lab is also involved in all those actions related to (ii) mobility and recruitment to facilitate active training with access to a European cybersecurity campus, and (iii) provision and maintenance of facilities and resources for continuous training.