SPARTA: a consortium for strengthening cybersecurity research, innovation and training in Europe

Changed on 09/11/2020

Cybersecurity is a serious and urgent collective challenge. Cyber threats, closely linked to the digitisation of society, increasingly affect our lives. It is therefore essential to ensure the European Union’s digital security and strategic autonomy by strengthening its most significant capacities. This challenge demands the coordination of the EU’s greatest skills to achieve common objectives in research and innovation.

SPARTA is a new network for cybersecurity skills that is supported by the EUH2020 programme and aims to develop and implement high-level collaborative research and innovation efforts. Guided by concrete challenges forming an ambitious Cybersecurity Research & Innovation roadmap, SPARTA will establish unique means of collaboration, leading the way in building transformative capabilities and forming a cutting-edge cybersecurity competence network across the EU.

Four research and innovation programmes will push the boundaries to provide advanced solutions to emerging challenges in the following areas:
   •   human activities (health);
   •   economics (energy, finance and transport);
   •   technology (ICT and industry);
   •   administrative activities (electronic and public administration).

Eight research teams from Inria (Celtique, Cidre, Eva, Infine, Inde, Grace, Resist, et Privatics), and two high-security laboratories will be involved with this project, particularly in the area of ensuring the security of the Internet of Things, a complex problem with major challenges requiring close collaboration between very different types of technology. This involves coordinating various projects within the SPARTA consortium with all the stakeholders and European organisations and associations (ECSO , ENISA , etc.).

The SPARTA consortium, led by the CEA, brings together a balanced group of 44 stakeholders from 14 EU Member States, including ANSSI , Institut Mines-Télécom , Inria, Thales and YesWeHack from France, combining scientific excellence, technological innovation and social sciences in the area of cybersecurity. Together, along with SPARTA partners, they aim to rethink the way cybersecurity research, innovation and training are carried out in the European Union through various fields and areas of expertise, scientific foundations and applications in the academic and industrial sectors.

By sharing experiences, skills, challenges and capacities, SPARTA helps strengthen the strategic autonomy of the European Union.