Brussels, Belgium. The COcyber project, in collaboration with its partner Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), successfully hosted a High-level Dual-use and Synergy roundtable on 22 April 2026 at the Borschette Conference Centre in Brussels. The event brought together over 50 participants (42 in person and 9 online) from the cybersecurity ecosystem, including representatives from EU institutions, NATO, national authorities, academia, industry, and research organisations. More than one third of participants were alumni of the Executive Master in Cybersecurity Management at Solvay Lifelong Learning, underlining the programme’s role in connecting cybersecurity professionals working within civilian, defence, policy, and industry contexts.

The roundtable featured four panels covering the main dimensions of civil–defence cybersecurity cooperation.

1. “Building defence together: Strategic synergies for cyber and capability development”, moderated by Mario Beccia (Cybersecurity Associate, Solvay Lifelong Learning), with Carlos De Passos (European Defence Agency), Colonel Davide Dettori (NATO), and Major General Pierre Ciparisse (Belgian Cyberdefence Command), highlighted the importance of sovereign dual-use solutions.
2. “Synergy in EU Research and Education”, moderated by Professor Georges Ataya (COcyber Scientific Lead), with Giuseppe Zuffanti (European Security and Defence College), Niculae Iancu (Constanta Maritime University, Romania), and Ioannis Askoxylakis (European Commission), addressed the state of cybersecurity research, education, and frameworks such as the Belgian Cyber Fundamentals.
3. “Industry and defence: turning dual-use technology into operational advantage” moderated by Saskia Van Uffelen (Agoria), with Eric Viseur (Thales Belgium) and Cedric Genin (Sopra Steria) examined how dual-use technologies can be translated into practical applications.
4. “Digital Infrastructure: turning dual-use technology into operational advantage” moderated by Roberto Cascella (European Cyber Security Organisation), with Julien Blanchez (Google) and Gaëtan Desclée (Nexova Group) tackled the role of digital infrastructure and sovereignty in strengthening cybersecurity resilience.

The sessions addressed concrete areas of cooperation, including alignment between Belgian CyFun and NIST v2, shared cybersecurity skills frameworks, dual-use technologies in operational contexts, incident management, and threat intelligence exchange.

The roundtable also showcased the COcyber Platform, a central gateway to Europe’s cybersecurity landscape, providing access to key tools such as the EU funding sources, policy coach, best practices, and a trusted community to support collaboration and strengthen collective cyber resilience.

Professor Georges Ataya commented: “The COcyber roundtable held at the Borschette Conference Centre in Brussels brought together participants from defence institutions and industry. The final conclusions highlighted the importance of the sovereignty of dual-use tools and frameworks to ensure a stable and reliable foundation for any synergy between Defence and the civilian spheres in cybersecurity.”