Kick-off Brabant House of Cyber: collaboration on innovation, talent and cyber resilience

Innovation, talent development, and resilience combined

The Innovation Coalition brings together innovation, talent development, and resilience. It focuses on security-by-design, continuous learning pathways, and solutions that can be directly applied within manufacturing and high-tech companies. With more than €14 million in joint investments, it is building a secure and future-proof digital ecosystem in Brabant. Through collaboration with HSD, strong links are established with the national ecosystem and ongoing national programmes, while knowledge exchange with other regions and sectors is actively fostered. This cooperation contributes to knowledge sharing, scaling up, and stronger connections between organisations, sectors, and governments, with the shared goal of keeping the Netherlands digitally secure and future-ready.

A substantive programme with national and regional perspectives

The kick-off event on 28 January brought together policymakers, experts, and partners from various regions around a substantive programme combining policy context, strategic reflection, and practical deep dives. Following the opening by moderator Bert van Gestel, keynote speeches are delivered by Lokke Moerel and the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), addressing the changing digital threat landscape and the importance of public-private cooperation. This is followed by contributions from Leah Postma on national alignment, including the recently published NTS Cybersecurity Action Agenda, and from Martijn van Gruijthuijsen on the value and approach of the Province of North Brabant. The programme continued with an in-depth session on the Brabant House of Cyber, focusing on the interconnection between resilience, talent, and innovation.

Strengthening the national cybersecurity ecosystem

With the kick-off of the Brabant House of Cyber, cooperation between HSD and the Brabant region is further strengthened. This aligns with HSD’s strategy, which emphasises the importance of strong regional initiatives within a coherent national cybersecurity ecosystem. By connecting regional strengths with national collaboration, all partners work towards one shared ambition: a digitally secure and future-proof Netherlands.

Collaboration

The current content leads of the BHoC are the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), TNO, Avans University of Applied Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), and the Cyber Resilience Centre (CWB). In addition to the institutions mentioned above, participating partners include Smart Makers Academy, Summa College, Koning Willem I College, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS), and Tilburg University.

The business community is also strongly represented. High-tech and cybersecurity companies such as ASML, NXP, VDL, Signify, Neways, NTS, KMWE, Vencomatic Group, DAF/Paccar, Heijmans, Bosch, Philips, Simac, ESET, Compumatica, Emproof, Schuberg Philis, MindYourPass, and S2Grupo are all actively contributing.

Alongside the province and BOM, regional partners such as Brainport Development, MindLabs, the Municipality of Eindhoven, the Police, and the Regional Office for Integrated Security are also involved. Nationally, the initiative collaborates with relevant ministries and key (cybersecurity) clusters, including Security Delta (HSD), CVD, and Digital Holland.