Building International Cooperation for Trustworthy ICT

US President’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity published – Dec. 2016

The US President’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity has delivered a report on Securing and Growing the Digital Economy.

The Presidential Commission was formed in April, 2016 to develop a plan for protecting cyberspace, and America’s economic reliance on it. The announcement of its launch can be found here.

The published report, which was completed on 1st December, 2016, provides a set of detailed short-term and long-term recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors, while protecting privacy, fostering innovation and ensuring economic and national security.

The US Presidential Commission report can be found here.

Successful C2C Workshop on Smart Village Ecosystems held on 18th Dec. 2015 at IIT Delhi

On 18th December, 2015, the EU funded EU-INDIA FI-MEDIA and India funded UNNAT BHARAT ABHIYAN initiative organised a joint workshop on the building of an EU-INDIA Cluster to Cluster (C2C) Partnership on ‘Smart Village Ecosystems’. The full day C2C workshop was held in the Senate Room at IIT Delhi.

The EU-India FI-MEDIA project is a project funded by the Delegation of the European Union to India, under a programme entitled ICI+, which is instrumental in the formation of mutually beneficial EU-India cluster to cluster (C2C) partnerships in a variety of Theme Lots, including Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), which is the focal point of  the EU-India FI-MEDIA project.

The main purpose of the FI-MEDIA / UBA Cluster to Cluster (C2C) workshop was brainstorming from the perspectives of both EU and India to develop clarity on various research and innovation (R&I) challenges and potential solutions related to the development of ‘Smart Villages’, including Pilots.

The workshop program contained the following sessions: Inaugural session, Presentations on Rural projects by IIT Madras, Clustering opportunities for Smart Village Ecosystems in India, Clustering with EU initiatives to enable solutions for Smart villages, & Sustainability: Aligning with existing Programs: Reflections on Policy.

Through the 50+ workshop participants, a wide range of stakeholders were in attendance, including research and innovation organisations, academia, industry, NGO and Government of India and EU.

The concept note and agenda of the C2C workshop can be found here.

The overall report of the C2C workshop can be found here.

The brochure of the C2C workshop can be found here.

Dr. Gulshan Rai appointed Cyber Security Chief for the Prime Minister of India

Dr. Gulshan Rai, of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) of the Gov’t of India, has been appointed the special secretary in the Prime Minister’s office of India, in charge of Cyber Security. In this role, Dr. Rai becomes the first chief of Cyber Security in India.

Dr. Gulshan Rai has been heading the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT), and is very supportive of the BIC project as a member of the International Advisory Group (IAG).

Dr. Gulshan Rai was responsible for hosting and supporting a number of BIC Extended Working Group (EWG) meetings at DeitY premises in New Delhi, as can be seen here:
http://www.bic-trust.eu/events/bic-india-ewg-oct2013/
http://www.bic-trust.eu/files/2013/10/BIC-DeitY-EWG-Oct-13-report.pdf (report)
http://www.bic-trust.eu/events/bic-india-extended-working-group-launch-workshop-new-delhi-india/
http://www.bic-trust.eu/files/2013/07/BIC-DeitY-EWG-report-final.pdf (report)

We wish Dr. Gulshan Rai the very best in this new role!

 

NIS Platform work featured at South Africa workshop on Cybersecurity RDI Agenda in Pretoria

The EU’s NIS Platform working group 3 was featured in a keynote address at the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the South Africa Government organised a well attended stakeholder workshop on the Cybersecurity Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Agenda of South Africa held in Pretoria on 26th Feb. 2015. Agenda here –> CYBERSECURITY STAKEHOLDER FORUM PROGRAMME.

DST and The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) also co-organised a second event on 27th February, 2015 entitled Horizon 2020 ICT and Secure Societies Information Session, which was also very well attended and an EU keynote was also made by Jim Clarke, of Waterford IT, focussing on his experiences of international cooperation (INCO) in FP7 (including BIC project) and promoting the benefits of participating to the EU H2020 programme to the South Africa participants.

The participants were very impressed with the NIS Platform approach of the EU and seem genuinely interested to work together with the EU in developing their cybersecurity research roadmap. The participants at the H2020 workshop were also very interested in the H2020 programme prospects for them, especially in the open call areas related to ICT and Secure Societies topics.

Back row: DST Cybersecurity RDI Agenda Task Team chairperson Prof Fulufhelo Nelwamondo from the CSIR Modeling and Digital Science Unit; James Clarke from the Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland;  Imraan Patel, Deputy Director-General at the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Jeannette Morwane, Director: ICT & Service Industry, DST.  Front row: Dr Barend Taute, CSIR Meraka Unit and Dr Irene Moetsana-Moeng from the State Security Agency.

Back row: Prof Fulufhelo Nelwamondo, DST Cybersecurity RDI Agenda Task Team chairperson, CSIR Modeling and Digital Science Unit; James Clarke, Waterford Institute of Technology – TSSG, Ireland; Imraan Patel, Deputy Director-General at the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Jeannette Morwane, Director: ICT & Service Industry, DST.
Front row: Dr Barend Taute, CSIR Meraka Unit and Dr Irene Moetsana-Moeng from the State Security Agency.

Deadline 12th Dec. 2014 for IST-Africa 2015 Call for Papers

The IST-Africa 2015 Conference will be held in Lilongwe, Malawi, during 05 – 08th May 2015.
The Call for Papers deadline is 12th December, 2014 and as highlighted below, there is a specific topic in the call related to Future Internet: Cyber Security, Privacy and Trust, Connected Enterprise.

The scientific programme for IST-Africa 2015 is based on an open Call for Papers

http://www.ist-africa.org/Conference2015/files/ISTAfrica2015_CallForPapers.pdf

Hosted by the Government of Malawi through the National Commission for Science and Technology, Supported by the European Commission and African Union Commission, IST-Africa 2015 will take place in Lilongwe from 05 – 08 May 2014.

Part of the IST-Africa Initiative, which is supported by the European Commission under the ICT Theme of Framework Programme 7 (FP7), IST-Africa 2015 is the tenth in an Annual Conference Series which brings together senior representatives from leading commercial, government & research organisations across Africa and from Europe, to bridge the Digital Divide by sharing knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and good practice and discussing policy related issues.
IST-Africa 2015 is focused on applied ICT and the core thematic areas include:
- Digital Libraries
- eHealth, mHealth & Health Information Systems
- eGovernment – Services to Citizens & Business
- eInfrastructures, NRENs and IPv6
- Future Internet: Cyber Security, Privacy and Trust, Connected Enterprise
- ICT for Agriculture and Environmental Sustainability
- ICT4D (including Humanitarian Technologies)
- ICT Skills and ICT for eInclusion and eAccessibility
- ICT Regulatory Frameworks
- Living Labs (Adaptation for Developing Countries)
- Mobile Applications (including mServices, mEducation, Social Networking)
- Next Generation Computing: Big Data, Cloud Computing, Data Localisation, Internet of Things (IoT)
- Open Source Software – Applications
- Technology-enhanced Learning
- Transformation of Research Results into Local Innovation
- Societal Implications of Technology
Interested presenters are encouraged to prepare an 8 page paper (4,000 – 5,000) words following the IST-Africa paper guidelines and paper template for submission online by 12 December. For more information, please visit
All submissions will be double blind peer reviewed by the International Programme Committee and authors will receive feedback in late January. Accepted authors will then be invited to submit a final paper taking account of feedback provided for inclusion in the conference proceedings by 28 February.
We look forward to receiving your submission.
Best wishes,
Miriam Cunningham
IIMC International Information Management Corporation Ltd
353-1-8170607 (O)
353-1-8170606 (F)
E-mail: miriam@iimg.com
Web: www.iimg.com
www.eChallenges.org
www.IST-Africa.org

Spanish Cybercamp in Madrid on 5-7th December, 2014. Demonstrate your potential.

On 5-7th December, 2014, a Spanish CyberCamp is being held in Madrid, organised by INCIBE, the Spanish National CyberSecurity Institute. The entrance is free of charge.

The main objective of the CyberCamp is to detect and promote talent inside cybersecurity and to create a better linkage between all stakeholders (industry, public/gov, citizens, academia and R&D community..).

Additional information is available at: https://cybercamp.es (English translation is coming). A letter from the CEO of INCIBE with the formal request for collaboration in dissemination including venue details can be found at Cybercamp_Letter.

Qualification phase has already started (opened until Nov 17th) at http://challenge.cybercamp.es/  where you can see the ranking as of today.

 

B.BICE+ project announces results of Call for experts for EU-Brazil Tour

The International Cooperation project B.BICE+ have announced the results of the call for EU participants to the EU-Brazil Technology and Innovation Forum & Tour of Brazil (September 22nd – 25th, 2014).

Trustworthy ICT has been included in the candidates as the entry from the BIC coordinator, Waterford Institute of Technology, has been accepted.

The B.BICE+ tour includes a wide number of events in Belém, Brazil dedicated towards the pairing of European and Brazilian research and innovation actors for future collaborations.

B.BICE+ is an International Cooperation (INCO) project funded by the European Commission, whose aim is to enhance bi-lateral cooperation and to support political dialogue in Science, Technology and Innovation among the European Commission, EU Member States, Associated Countries and Brazil.

B.BICE+ and the BIC project has worked closely already and B.BICE+ participated to the BIC Brazil Extended Working Group launch workshop held in October 2013, as part of the Research Brazil Ireland conference in São Paulo.

More information on the B.BICE+ event can be found in their latest newsletter here.

EUBR Cloud (including security aspects) workshop held on 29/07/14 in Brasilia

The second EU-Brazil Cooperation Workshop in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) – II EUBR 2014, was held between July 28th and July 29th, 2014 in Brasilia-DF, Brazil. The workshop was held during de XXXIV CSBC – Congress of the Computer Science Society, which is the major annual conference of Computer Science in Brazil.

II EUBR 2014 was supported by the SBC, the SEPIN / MCTI of Brazil, the Ministy of Foreign Affairs (MBR), the European Union Delegation in Brasilia and the DG Connect Unit of the European Commission.

On 15 October 2014, the EU and Brazil will launch a coordinated call for project proposals in the following areas:

EUB 1 – 2015: Cloud Computing, including security aspects

EUB 2 – 2015: High Performance Computing (HPC)

EUB 3 – 2015: Experimental Platforms

During the EUBR 2014 event, on 29th July, a dedicated session related to EUBR 1 was held with the following goals:

1. Bring together experts, researchers and industry representatives from the EU and Brazil in order to identify common interests and foster the creation of partnerships that may result in project proposals related to Cloud Computing (deadline: 21 April 2015).

2. Identify research and innovation challenges in the Cloud Computing area that should be addressed in a future EU-Brazil coordinated call.

Security aspects were well covered in the session held on EUB 1, with many members of the BIC Brazil Extended Working Group taking part in both organisational roles and as presenters. Details of the launch meeting of the BIC Brazil EWG can be found at http://www.bic-trust.eu/events/bic-brazil-ewg-launch-meeting/

The EUBR 1 workshop session was a very good success and the main organisers, Francisco Medeiros (European Commission-DG CONNECT) and Lisandro Granville (CTIC/MCTI) concluded the session with high praise of the quality, interest and zeal of the 15 presenters.

More details on the Work programme for the EUBR 2015 call can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/main/h2020-wp1415-leit-ict_en.pdf

India – Ireland lecture being held at Waterford IT, on 11th July, 2014

Abhishek Sharma, Founder & CEO of Beyond Evolution Tech Solutions in Gurgaon, India, and BIC International Advisory Group member, shall be addressing a joint session on 11th July, 2014, co-organized by Waterford Institute of Technology, Trinity College Dublin, coordinator of the SFI ISCA Research Ireland India project and Irish Research Council. The venue of the lecture series is the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland and the themes of the talk include the ‘Building of International Cooperation (INCO) model between Ireland & India for Research & Innovation and Building Industry Economic Engagements in the area of a mobile & cloud business’. Details may be seen at  in the following Flyer- Talk at WIT, Waterford on INCO, by Abhishek Sharma.

Participation in to join the seminar is free however prior registration is required at http://wit-rii-lecture-11july2014.eventbrite.com

If interested and have further questions, please email jclarke [at] tssg [dot] org.

EU-BR 2014 Cooperation workshop, Brasilia/Brazil, 28-29 July, 2014

The EU-Brazil Cooperation Workshop in ICT – EUBR 2014 will take place in Brasilia/Brazil on 28 and 29 July 2014 (please see programme).

On the first day, a full session (17h00-19h00) will be dedicated to EU and Brazilian visions for future ICT research and innovation challenges, especially in the cloud computing field. Possible synergies will be explored and shall give initial shape to the next EU-Brazil coordinated call foreseen in the work programme 2016/2017 of the EU Research & Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020.

On the second day, the whole morning session will give you the opportunity to network, establish partnerships and find potential partners to submit proposals to the coordinated call EUB1 (Horizon 2020) on cloud computing that opens on 15 October 2014. Details of this call are available in pages 92-93 of the call document  with a corresponding budget of 2 x €3.5 million.

Please contact Francisco Medeiros (Unit “Software and Services, Cloud” of the Net Futures Directorate, francisco.medeiros@ec.europa.eu ) for more details.

You are also welcome to suggest any other relevant European speaker for this event.

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