CHIEF, a new EU-funded initiative to enhance cybersecurity collaboration across Europe

A consortium of leading European institutions announces the launch of Cybersecurity Hubs
Interoperability & Cooperation (CHIEF), a new 36-month European-funded initiative, positioned to enhance cybersecurity collaboration across Europe by improving information sharing frameworks, interoperability, and governance between Security Operations Centres (SOCs), starting with National Cyber Hubs.

CHIEF will support and facilitate the development of: 

• Cross-border detection and response capabilities
• The establishment of a reference architecture for secure data exchange
• Integration of SOCs into a unified European Cybersecurity Alert System

This approach, leveraging on the collaboration with ENISA, will foster the development of EU standards and taxonomies to ensure seamless cooperation for national and cross-border cyber hubs.

“CHIEF is a flagship initiative for the implementation of the Cyber Solidarity Act and a key priority within the current ECCC Work Programme. It stands at the forefront of Europe’s efforts to turn policy into action and has strong potential to drive concrete innovation in the cybersecurity domain. From the outset, CHIEF must deliver solutions and frameworks that are open, scalable and designed for adoption beyond the project itself, enabling wider uptake and long-term impact across the European cybersecurity ecosystem.”

- Luca Nicoletti - Head of the Industrial, Technological and Research Unit (ACN, Project Coordinator)

“The Cyber Solidarity Act marks a decisive shift from a regulatory framework to concrete implementation. Through CHIEF and the European Cybersecurity Alert System, we are translating policy objectives into operational capabilities that can be deployed at both national and cross-border level. Close interaction with partners is essential, and we strongly encourage proactive engagement to build synergies, leverage existing results and ensure interoperability across initiatives.”

- Ivan SCANNAPIECORO, Team Leader – Cyber HUBs, European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC)

Key objectives 

The CHIEF Project has defined three specific objectives to increase engagement and stimulate collaboration]:

• Structuring cooperation among National Cyber Hubs, to serve as a basis for more cross- border information exchange and the involvement of other relevant Hubs at all levels
• Fostering public private cooperation, leveraging industry expertise to improve threat detection, response, and resilience
• Identifying potential solutions for integrating emerging technologies with a focus on HPC and AI into Security Operations Centres (SOCs), so to increase their efficiency and capabilities

The CHIEF Consortium is led by Agenzia per la Cybersicurezza Nazionale (ACN – Italy) and includes key institutional and research actors from across Europe: Bundesministerium für Inneres (BMI – Austria), House of Cybersecurity (Luxembourg), the National Cybersecurity Authority of Greece (NCSA – Greece) and The Lisbon Council (Belgium). Most of the Consortium Members are institutional representatives within numerous collaborative fora at European level (including the CSIRTs Network, the EU-CyCLONe Network, the NCCs Network as well as the ENISA Management Board). This strong consortium ensures a well-balanced collaboration between national authorities, cybersecurity institutions, and policy-oriented organisations.