The Value of International Collaboration in International Peace and Security

This week, the United Nations hosted a multi-stakeholder meeting on ‘Developments in the field of information and communications technology in the context of international security’ in New York. The value of cybersecurity ecosystems for cybersecurity capacity building was among the topics discussed. The UK contribution specifically mentioned The Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) and Global EPIC for their role in facilitating international knowledge exchange as well as building research, economic and innovation collaborations worldwide.

The report mentions: “[The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast] played a key role in establishing the Global Ecosystem of Ecosystems Partnership in Innovation and Cybersecurity (Global EPIC) alongside the Hague Security Delta (Netherlands), Global Cyber Resource at Carleton University (Canada) and Cyberspark (Israel) and it now connects 28 such ecosystems around the world with the aim of facilitating knowledge exchange as well as building research, innovation and technical collaborations and capability in host regions.”

Click here to read the paper (see page 5)

Security is an important social and economic sector; innovation and job creation constitute two sides of the same coin in this respect. A condition for success is that the business community, knowledge institutes and government must collectively and continuously devote effort to this in ambitious and versatile ways, and with conviction. Security clusters play an important role in this by bringing together public and private sector stakeholders. Public-private collaboration is necessary but not self-evident. Cooperation must grow and cooperation must be learned. Through international collaboration best practices in this field can be shared and it also allows organisations within these clusters to benefit from the extensive international network.

Global EPIC
Global EPIC is an international collaboration between cybersecurity clusters. It has been designed to combat growing world challenges by facilitating global collaboration while enabling positive local cybersecurity and economic benefits. It does this by building a global community of innovation ecosystems that will collaborate on projects and share expertise through an expanding international network. The 28 ecosystems involved come from 15 different countries spanning 3 continents, reflecting the truly global nature of the partnership. For example, the Global EPIC Soft-Landing Program offers companies and entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to ‘soft land’ for a trail period in the market of one of the Global EPIC ecosystems. It provides a low risk entry trial to companies and entrepreneurs entering a new international market, accessing the resources they need to more readily tap into commercial opportunities.

Global Forum on Cyber Expertise

The Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), which was launched at the Global Conference on CyberSpace 2015 in The Hague, is a global platform for countries, international organizations and private companies to exchange best practices and expertise on cyber capacity building. The aim is to identify successful policies, practices and ideas and multiply these on a global level. Together with partners from NGOs, the tech community and academia GFCE members develop practical initiatives to build cyber capacity.