If you are interested in becoming a member of one of the three BIC working groups (WG), please send your short CV and a description of your activities that specifically relate to the WG and how you could actively contribute to the WG topics. As the number of members will be limited, each submission will be reviewed. Deadline for submissions is 31st March 2012. Please send your contribution to Jim Clarke <jclarke@tssg.org> by the deadline.
The coverage areas for the WGs are the following:
WG1. Human oriented /citizen trust, privacy and security
This WG will focus on a multi-disciplinary approach towards international cooperation amongst all stakeholders. It will advocate that trust, privacy and security management should be more accessible to all kind of users and especially non-security experts evolving towards a more human oriented vision. To address today’s realities in trust, privacy and security, we need to: 1) move from the traditional technology-only oriented design of solutions towards user-centric security management and 2) bring together experts from psychology, social science, economics, legal, technologists and trust and security experts to address trust, privacy and security from a user point of view and put her/him at the heart of solutions. From an international point of view, we need:
- Collaboration between trust, privacy and security experts and experts from other disciplines (psychology, social science, etc.) and from different countries, in addition to collaboration with international government institutions.
- Organisation of multidisciplinary and international workshops targeting wide public.
- Set up of multidisciplinary and international working groups and eventually project consortia in targeted countries.
- Collaboration with international standardization organisations.
Technological research can also greatly benefit from international cooperation when it comes to taking into consideration the human factors in designing technologies. The following questions should be examined:
- How people perceive technological solutions and how that affects the adoptability of the corresponding technologies?
- How to best explain to people the potentials and features of the existing solutions?
- How to best design user-interfaces to encourage usability and adoptability?
The answers to these questions will vary for different cultures and by opening up research beyond the European borders. It would give us a great insight in these aspects and eventually help us design better technology.
As a starting point, it was agreed that WG1 would focus on the following topics:
- Secure software-services development, including end to end trust assurance for users;
- Usability / user interface designs for trust, privacy and security;
- Addressing prediction, validation and enforcement mechanisms needs and requirements;
- Privacy concerns in an international setting: putting users in control of their data and information;
- Taking into account cultural aspects;
- The establishment of “Path-finder”[1] human oriented approach projects.
WG2. Network Information security / Cybersecurity
As pronounced at many high level international meetings dealing specifically with cybersecurity topics, it is well acknowledged that international cooperation in cybersecurity is nascent and a more global approach is urgently needed because there is ultimately just one, single, global information environment, consisting of the interdependent networks of information technology infrastructures, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers. It is essential that we have the ability to conduct comprehensive intelligence collection and evaluation on any developing situation that threatens our cyberspace activity, followed by near-simultaneous processing, exploiting and disseminating of the information. This depends on multi-stakeholders engaged in collaboration, including data exchange and sharing (and also knowledge sharing) between countries. This WG will focus on the key elements within these important areas and inter-related technical areas.
As a starting point, it was agreed that the WG2 would focus on the following topics:
- International data exchange architecture for cybersecurity;
- Open source trustworthy host platform for collaborative research and education;
- International cooperation in Cryptology;
- Mobile security of software services;
- The planning and improvement of joint exercises related to cybersecurity across borders.
WG3. Programme /funding focus/ identify community
This WG will identify and explore the requirements, processes, mechanisms, enablers and barriers towards collaboration opportunities that would allow EU-International project consortia to proactively form including include various kinds of actors in the international setting: industry (large and small), academia, research institutes, user communities, governmental organizations, regulatory authorities, and others. The WG will identify a framework for enabling such collaborations more easily and provide the evidence to demonstrate and encourage the relevant communities of the possibilities for putting together joint cooperation together. The WG will also look at other mechanisms such as joint working and longer terms action groups, organization of public events with experts from countries and collaboration in standardization activities and other relevant initiatives.
As a starting point, it was agreed that WG3 would focus on the following:
- Identifying stakeholders (contacts in programme management and research communities);
- Identifying the requirements and barriers to international cooperation and potential long term solutions;
- Identification and involvement of ambassadors consisting of RTD experts engaged in both planning and research elements of worldwide excellence in trust, privacy and security;
- Raising programme visibility amongst the countries.
- Identifying a long term framework for international cooperation in ICT trust, privacy and security.
Objectives of the BIC Working Groups
The WG experts will be solicited to contribute to EU and International Policy Analysis by identifying and analysing strategic objectives, technological evolution, societal imperatives and marketplace trends and integrating them into recommendations for EU-International collaborative research and development.
With this in mind, the objectives of the BIC Working groups are:
- Refine thematic focus within the domain covered by the Working Group by leveraging domain knowledge, familiarity with context and environment and research experience. Shortlist a set of actionable themes to be taken up in the EU-International joint research context.
- Propose a joint research agenda in a select number of promising high impact themes and ways to carry it forward (institutional linkage, funding, formation of action groups, proposal / project consortia, …);
- Identify and validate long term common research perspectives, aligned with the ICT trust and security research domains within the EU research vision and priorities (FP7 and H2020);
- Recommend ways to align policies impacting ICT research; propose joint research programmes, projects, instruments, funding and institutional mechanisms and links;
- Represent stakeholder view vis-à-vis the decision makers (the European Commission and the respective Governments for which they carry out research) in the formulation of enabling and relevant policies;
- Provide expert advice to BIC in thematic areas of competence and direct the project consortium to material, publications, activities, projects that might be of interest to BIC, its objectives and actions;
- Contribute to the WG reports and policy recommendations;
- Attend, contribute to & offer expert advice and input at the annual forum and other relevant events;
- Provide testimonials for the multimedia web portal of the BIC project and contribute towards articles & newsletters related to the project and its objectives and actions;
- Assist the BIC project to leverage its actions, achievements within the larger community of stakeholders and institutions.
Membership participation / costs involved
Membership of the WG is on a personal basis. As a general rule, most of the involved funding bodies from each individual country already have programs and/or projects in place looking at international cooperation, and in the past, they have covered the travel costs of their constituents related to this type of networking with their counterparts in the EU. In addition, the meetings will be co-located with other relevant events/workshops in which the WG members could attend to gain added benefit. The BIC project has allocated budget to cover administrative costs related to the venue, facility management and other organisational aspects and, in general, would not be in a position to cover the full travel costs for the participants. However, BIC will assist the members in locating potential funding mechanisms within their home countries and will work closely with the members until some suitable solution is reached.
[1] Involves the development and building of local expertise and a community of users through such “Path-finder projects”. The success of these is then used to promote further development of international collaborations to the broader community in potentially larger/more complex collaborative projects in trust, security and privacy scoped projects.