EUNITY

Introduction

EUNITY aims to encourage, facilitate and develop the dialogue between Europe and Japan on cybersecurity and privacy research and innovation trends and challenges, in order to foster and promote cybersecurity activities in both regions.

The objectives of the project are 3-fold:

1. encourage, facilitate and support the ICT dialogue between relevant EU and Japanese stakeholders on matters relating to cybersecurity and privacy R&I
2. identify potential opportunities for future cooperation between European and Japanese R&I ecosystems and policy makers
3. foster and promote European cybersecurity innovation activities and increase the international visibility of EU activities in cybersecurity

Who is the project designed for?

The final result of the EUNITY project, a EU-Japan Cybersecurity and Privacy Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, will need to join and evolve within the ecosystem of each of the parties. In Europe, the important corresponding bodies will be the European Commission, the European Cyber Security Organization (ECSO) and the CSA funded under scope 1 of this call. In Japan, the important corresponding bodies are the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), as well as NICT (Japanese associate partner of EUNITY) and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

The EUNITY project must also address the various constituencies that are parties to the cybersecurity research activities. The three core constituencies identified are researchers, industry and policy makers.
In the cybersecurity cPPP, researchers are identified through organizations classified as RTO or universities. Industry is identified either as large industry, professional organization (association of industries, either at the European level (e.g. EOS) or national level (e.g. ACN), clusters or SMEs). Policy makers are identified through national agencies (e.g. ANSSI, BSI) or local organization (e.g. regions). The interaction with European policy makers will happen through the partnership board of ECSO.

How will your project benefit the end-user?

The EUNITY project is answering positively to all questions. All segments of society and society as a whole have the potential to be impacted if the EUJ-C&P-SRIA topics are carried out. For example, ICT is one of the key drivers for energy efficiency, both for production and distribution. There are many example of electricity grid failures, where the impact is spreading because of interconnections. These interconnections are on the other hand a mandatory requirement for meeting the needs of society for sustainable and reliable enery. Similar examples can be found in e-health, transportation, or smart cities, to name a few.

The privacy aspect is also particularly important for EUNITY. In many aspects of our use of ICT technologies, end-users have to give up privacy in exchange for services. While sharing information is a definite improvement, and sometimes a fundamental requirement, for these services, it should not come at the expense of users.
Also, the perception of privacy is often a related to culture and age. Thus, examining the question from a combined angle, Europe and Japan, will be extremely important to propose new research topics that have the potential for widespread use and sustainable economic growth, while respecting privacy."

Please briefly describe the results your project achieved so far

During the first year of the project, the partners concentrated on 3 main tasks:

1. community engagement: it involved informing the community about the project and engaging them to participate in the workshop and provide feedback and insight on the agendas. We also identified the current research scenarios, the technological advancements and the state-of-the-art in both regions for the cybersecurity domain. The Japanese perspective is primarily provided by NICT and MIC. A deliverable will be delivered soon.
2. workshop organisation: a workshop was organized at the University of Tokyo on October 11th and 12th, 2017. The workshop featured a number of invited talks and dialogue sessions on the R&I, industry, CERT and legal and policy aspects. The proceedings and conclusions, drawn from the analysis of the discussions and related questionnaires, will be delivered soon.
3. oadmap analysis: the partners are actively analyzing existing roadmaps in the cybersecurity and privacy domains in both regions. We have prepared a methodology to analyze the materials collected and will perform analysis in terms of financing, priorities set , vision and research directions. A deliverable on the status and priorities of cybersecurity and privacy research and innovation activities in Europe and Japan will be produced.

What are the next steps for your project?

The second year of the project will concentrate on 2 main tasks:

1. cooperation: based on the preliminary roadmap analysis report, we will analyze existing and potential challenges in cybersecurity where relevant opportunities and strategies can be shared between Europe and Japan. One of the deliverables will be a strategic research and innovation agenda to be disseminated to ECSO and relevant constituencies in Japan for inclusion in research roadmaps.
2. workshop organization: a second workshop will be organized in Europe to transfer the research agenda, ensuring proper dissemination and offer an opportunity for dialogue between major European and Japanese stakeholders.