We met Habtamu Abie coordinator of the ECSCI Cluster and chief research Scientist at the Norwegian Computer Center (NR).
The main objective of the ECSCI Cluster – https://www.ecsci.eu/ – is to create synergies and foster emerging disruptive solutions to security issues via cross-projects collaboration and innovation.
The core team of the ECSCI Cluster will be running a workshop entitled Implementing the European Directive on Critical Entity Resilience (CER Directive): Status, Challenges and International Context at this year’s Critical Infrastructure Protection & Resilience Europe conference, Brindisi, Italy October 14-16.
See more at https://www.cipre-expo.com/ecsci-workshop/
Ben Lane:
Hello. Great to meet you. You are on the committee of the ECSCI Cluster and leader of the core team. Could you describe a little about yourself, your career, and your involvement with the ECSCI Cluster?
Habtamu Abie:
My name is Habtamu Abie, and I am chief research Scientist at the Norwegian Computer Center (NR), and I have been involved in several EU projects. One of them was the FINSEC project, which established the ECSCI cluster. I have been coordinating the ECSCI Cluster for the past six years since its inception. I will continue to do so because of my deep interest in all aspects of critical infrastructure protection and resilience.
Ben Lane:
So we will start looking at some of the key areas of the ECSCI Cluster. You mention in your communications about cross project synergies and collaboration. Can you tell us in terms of ECSCI, how these synergies within the group are identified and managed by the core ECSCI team?
Habtamu Abie:
As you can see, ECSCI’s collaboration, as depicted in its logo, encompasses scientific collaboration, technical collaboration, communication dissemination, stakeholder alliances, and marketplace engagement. Based on this, the synergies are identified through continuous communication activities and goal alignment, partners’ networks, and the use of established D&C platforms like social media or ECSCI, and project management platform, which are developed by the member projects. We also provide visibility into overlaps and objective resources and technologies.
We are trying to establish clear communication protocols by holding regular cross team meetings and using large, shared tools such as documentation platforms and so on.
Beyond these structures and related tools, we focus on fostering a culture of collaboration and stakeholder involvement, ensuring synergies, and tangible outcomes such as joint publications, aligned methodologies and shared pilots as enabled by the ECSCI Cluster.
We have published three Open Access books, three consolidated stakeholder workshop proceedings, eight scientific workshop proceedings and several newsletters, to mention a few.
Ben Lane:
Great. Thank you. I want to look at some of the innovation in action schemes you adopt. Presently, what emerging technologies are being piloted within the group?
Habtamu Abie:
Emerging security technologies that are being piloted include AI-driven resilience for critical infrastructure, digital twins for simulation and housing security, edge AI, federated learning and real-time anomaly detection. All of these enhance proactive response and automation in both physical and cybersecurity areas.
Parallel to this, there are other technologies that are being piloted such as zero trust architecture, behavioral biometrics, blockchain, and even quantum computing. This is being adopted to strengthen identity, verification, encryption, threat detection, and secure data storage.
Ben Lane:
Okay, great. There is a lot going on there. Going back to the workshops and your engagement process, can you tell us how the workshops translate into tangible outcomes for the cluster?
Habtamu Abie:
In general, the most impactful and effective way of measuring workshops and engagement is by using outcomes based on metrics and so on. I will mention a few of them and map them to the ECSCI activity. These can be viewed as participant feedback and engagement methods, where we try to capture immediate feedback and active participation, show relevance and motivation. We also work towards knowledge retention, skill application, assessing the retention and the use of skills, and validating learning effectiveness.
We also track the behavior and performance chain, and assess shifts, highlights, and practical value. We look at business impact and research return on investment, comparing productivity, reduction and cost demonstration, and organizational return.
By combining these measures, workshops become catalysts for real performance improvement, either in a project, a training or an operational environment. Engagement is maximized when sessions are interactive and inclusive such as the ECSCI workshops that connect policymakers, CISOs, industry players and researchers to ensure cross-sector collaboration.
Ben Lane:
Very good, thank you. This takes us on to the EU policy alignment questions. We are looking here at policy, EU engagement, and governmental influence. The question is, how does ECSCI contribute to EU policy alignment?
Habtamu Abie:
ECSCI contributes to EU policy and alignment by fostering cross-project collaboration between EU-funded initiatives, policymakers, industry, academia, and the European Commission to protect critical infrastructures and enhance their resilience. Through international workshops, conferences, and joint research activity, ECSCI harmonizes approach standards and regulation while feeding field validated insight into the policy discussion such as the CER and NIS2 directives.
ECSCI’s activity ensures that disruptive security solutions and best practice directly support EU goals of digital sovereignty, cyber resilience, and strategic autonomy.
Just to mention a few examples, ECSCI organized a workshop on collaborative standardization, and policymaking for greater cybersecurity resilience in Europe, aiming to develop joint strategies for efficient and effective collaborative standardization and policymaking in this area.
Another example is the first International Annual Conference on Critical Infrastructure Resilience, titled “Reinventing European Resilience”, which we organized jointly with the EU-CIP Project and the ECSCI Cluster. The EU-CIP project (https://www.eucip.eu/) is a spin-off of the ECSCI cluster. These initiatives look at how we contribute to EU policy alignment through the workshops of this type.
Ben Lane:
The last point we want to look at is the impact of ESCI’s work in terms of metrics and measuring success. In terms of your role at ECSCI, what KPI’s, or key performance Indicators, are tracked and what are your key achievements? How can you identify your key achievements and what are they?
Habtamu Abie:
ECSCI does not publish specific KPIs, but its impact is measured through frameworks that emphasize stakeholder engagement, innovation outputs, cross-project collaboration, and policy influence. Its impact is measured via key achievements, including organizing international workshops on critical infrastructure protection, policymaking, producing joint scientific publications, contributing to standards and regulation, and fostering long-term collaboration across EU projects.
ECSCI’s success is seen in its operational and policy uptake through reference in EU strategies such as CER and NIS2 alignment with broader EU cyber resilience and critical infrastructure protection goals. ECSCI was selected by the European Commission’s DG Home and the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CoU/CERIS) as a success story of synergy building.
And there is EU-CIP (European knowledge hub and policy test bid for critical infrastructure protection), which is an EU-funded project, a spinoff from ECSCI, which expands ECSCI achievements and community to enhance policymaking and innovation across Europe in this field. And these are concrete. We do not call them KPIs, instead they are known as measurements.
ECSCI plays a key role in supporting ecosystem and alliances. ECSCI motivated and encouraged the establishment of a Norwegian ecosystem for secure IoT integration (NESIOT), which was a spinoff from the Norwegian Center for Cybersecurity and Critical Sectors (NORCICS). ECSCI is also linked with the Cyber Alliance, the International Alliance responsible for strengthening cybersecurity and privacy in healthcare.
These are a few examples which we can mention, where we measure, as I said, engagement, innovation input, cross-project collaboration, and policy influence.
Ben Lane:
A very good answer, thank you. Is there anything you would like to add to the conversation?
Habtamu Abie:
I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to highlight ECSCI’s perspective and I really appreciate your time. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration further.
Ben Lane:
We look forward to seeing you in CIPRE where the core ECSCI team are organizing a workshop entitled Implementing the European Directive on Critical Entity Resilience (CER Directive): Status, Challenges and International Context – see more at https://www.cipre-expo.com/ecsci-workshop/