Project information
Project name: Governance and Operational support for the development of the European Cybersecurity Skills Academy
Project acronym: AKADIMOS
Schema: DIGITAL-2023-SKILLS-05
Project call topic: DIGITAL-2023-SKILLS-05-CYBERACADEMY
Financier: (1) European Commission – Digital Europe, (2) Government Information Security Office (URSIV)
Project number: 101189712
Project Timeline: 1. 1. 2025 – 31. 12. 2027
Project Budget: 3.999.660,00 €
Project Budget for UM FERI: 361.660,00 €
Project Coordinator at UM FERI: assoc. prof. dr. Marko Hölbl
Other project partners:
- Project coordinator: Hellenic National Cybersecurity Authority (NCSA) of the Ministry of Digital Governance
- Computer Technology Institute and Press “Diophantus” (CTI)
- Agenzia per la Cybersicurezza Nazionale (ACN)
- The University of Napoli (UNINA)
- The Government Information Security Office of the Republic of Slovenia (URSIV)
- The Digital Security Authority (DSA)
- IKERLAN S. Coop.
Project Team UM FERI
- assoc. prof. dr. Marko Hölbl
- prof. dr. Tatjana Welzer Družovec
- asist. prof. Marko Kompara
- Saša Grašič
Project Summary
The AKADIMOS project aims to support the creation and initial operation of the European Cybersecurity Skills Academy, which aims at a single point of entry that establishes synergies for cybersecurity training initiatives along with funding opportunities regarding the development of cybersecurity skills and thus contributing towards closing the skills gap of cybersecurity professionals across EU. AKADIMOS is a horizontal project and it will work towards the support and evolution of important instruments and outcomes envisioned by all pillars of the Academy, including the coordinated cooperation and involvement of all relevant stakeholders (EC, ENISA, ECCC, relevant EC-funded projects, cybersecurity training companies and industry, public entities and SMEs). The goal is to avoid scattered and redundant efforts, offering the opportunity to scale up and make a noticeable impact in closing the cybersecurity professionals’ gap. The project will enhance the European Cybersecurity Skills Framework and will also create tools for improvement and effective monitoring of the impact of existing and future initiatives. It will create an information system for cybersecurity curricula that will contain all course material, their metadata, and the registry of Trainers, and provide Services to various entities for scale-up and services for updating the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform and for validating content towards a solid and realistic plan for the sustainability of the Academy. The project will establish procedures for the efficient and effective decentralized operation of the Academy, towards making the Academy the unique EU reference ecosystem for cybersecurity professionals.
The specific objectives of the project are as follows:
- SO1: Initiate a Measurement framework to monitor the actions foreseen in the four pillars and measure their impact.
- SO2: Establish a framework of systematic engagement of key cybersecurity players across EU Member States.
- SO3: Establish a framework of systematic synergy and collaboration with key institutions (ENISA, ECCC) and relevant EC-funded projects.
- SO4: Develop an approach and tools for cybersecurity competence alignment, recognition and professional certification in the European market, based on ECSF.
- SO5: Establish a platform for the collection, promotion, and continuous update of cybersecurity curricula.
- SO6: Perform dissemination and communication activities regarding results, outcomes and impact of the actions of the Academy.
- SO7: Leverage the Digital Skills & Jobs Platform to support the Academy and integrate the existing best practices that will feed the Academy.
- SO8: Instantiate the governance structure of the Academy ecosystem, its operation, sustainability and Technological Governance.
The overall WP structure and tasks of AKADIMOS are listed below; the core work packages being WP3, WP4 and WP5.
Figure 1: Workpackage and task structure of the AKADIMOS project
UM FERI contributions
UM FERI will participate across the project’s work packages and tasks, but the majority of effort is concentrated on tasks T3.2 and T5.2 (which we also lead).
T3.2 – Measuring the cybersecurity skills gap and assessing cybersecurity skills
A variety of organisations have implemented cybersecurity skills surveys providing some insights regarding the “cybersecurity skills gap” which are based on the opinions and beliefs of the respondents (Examples include The 2022 Fortinet study, the (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study 2023, the ISACA State of Cybersecurity 2023, and others). They lack, however, a tangible method to actually measure the skills gap. This project firmly believes that further and more tangible information is needed in order to measure the cybersecurity skills gap, and this will also facilitate the measurement of the effectiveness of actions taken by the EU. Within this task, a methodology will be proposed regarding how – both theoretically and practically – cybersecurity skills could be measured at different proficiency levels. The design of this methodology shall draw from the examples of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), the testing of digital skills, and others.
The methodology will be implemented through a software tool. An organisation, a competent authority, an individual, or any other interested party will have the ability to utilize the tool in order to perform a test of theoretical and practical cybersecurity skills linked to the requirements of any ECSF role and divided into different proficiency levels. In the same framework, the use or deployment of a smart system component, matching the skills/competencies of trainees with their professional perspectives using ML techniques, will also be examined.
T5.2 – Academy Task Force Team for aid, assessments, and scale-up
A dedicated multidisciplinary task force team will be created by all partners participating in this task. The team consists of experienced cybersecurity professionals who have worked in ECSF roles themselves, skilled cybersecurity tool developers and pedagogical experts with a certain experience on technological projects. With the additional aid and knowledge from the main technological Governance tool of the Academy (Task 5.1), they are expected to be capable of assessing a wide range of final and intermediate products and offerings from both DEP and Institutional projects (Tasks 4.1) and from Pledges (Tasks 4.2). Examples include cybersecurity training (courses and curricula under development or update), cybersecurity tools and platforms and their setting environment for the courses, their metadata, etc. Such a team, in many cases, can provide early feedback, that can optionally be considered or not. The impact of the task should increase the knowledge transfer capabilities at EU level.
