Events for 17 October 2026

Join the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) for a day dedicated to European AI innovation in cybersecurity.

The ECCC and DG CNECT are organising the event “Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence: From Innovation to Impact” on 27 October in Brussels, Belgium. The event will bring together EU-funded projects, industry, researchers and policymakers to explore emerging technologies, strengthen collaboration and discover the forthcoming EU Grand Challenge on AI-assisted vulnerability remediation.

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in cybersecurity. It can strengthen cyber defence by supporting vulnerability discovery, threat detection, incident response and recovery. At the same time, it can also be exploited by malicious actors to automate and scale cyberattacks.

Participation is open, subject to venue capacity and applicable registration requirements.

Registration will end on Wednesday 21 October 2026, 17:00 (CEST)

The event will explore how Europe can harness advanced AI technologies safely and responsibly, strengthen cyber resilience, and reinforce its AI capabilities for cybersecurity. It will also showcase how EU investment, cooperation and project clustering can help build stronger European capacity in this field. The discussion will be framed primarily by the EU Action Plan on Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence, with reference also to other relevant European initiatives such as the Apply AI Strategy.

The programme will focus on two complementary ECCC workstreams: the ECCC AI for Cybersecurity Cluster and the EU Grand Challenge on AI-assisted vulnerability remediation.

The event will mark the first public gathering of the ECCC AI for Cybersecurity Cluster, bringing together three Horizon Europe flagship projects funded under the 2025 Horizon Europe call “Generative AI for Cybersecurity applications”

The Cluster aims to strengthen cooperation and complementarity among EU-funded initiatives, facilitating knowledge exchange and helping translate research and innovation into practical cybersecurity capabilities.

The participating projects will present their approaches to AI-powered cybersecurity, including generative and agentic AI, advanced threat detection, autonomous security operations and the security of AI systems themselves.

Dedicated discussions will explore opportunities for collaboration, common challenges and synergies that can strengthen Europe’s cybersecurity capabilities. Relevant EU funded projects under the cybersecurity calls of Digital Europe Programme where appropriate, may also be invited to contribute to the discussion.

The full-day event will bring together policymakers, EU-funded projects, academia, industry, public authorities and the wider AI community to discuss the evolving relationship between cybersecurity and Artificial Initelligence, EU policy and funding developments, and opportunities for collaboration from research and innovation through to deployment across Europe.

The session will provide an opportunity to learn more about the initiative and its ambitions ahead of its forthcoming launch.