ECHO at the COcyber Final Event
8 July 2026
On 25th June 2026, Carr Communications presented ECHO on a panel at the COcyber Final Event in Brussels.
COcyber (Coordination between the Cybersecurity Civilian and Defense Spheres) is an EU-funded project that enhances the exchange, coordination and collaboration between civilian and defence cybersecurity communities across Europe, fostering a unified approach to tackling cyber threats. It is a sister project of ECHO and leads the COcyber Synergy network, of which ECHO is a member.
ECHO project partner Dr Sean Travers presented ECHO on a panel entitled ‘Need for Speed: From Policy to Practice in Strengthening Europe’s Cyber Posture’, which explored how European cybersecurity initiatives are turning collaboration into practical action. Also on the panel were representatives from the CHIEF Project, CyberHubs – European Network of Cybersecurity Skills Hubs, and SPECTRO – Specialised Education programmes in CybersecuriTy and Robotics.
On the panel, Sean presented the ECHO Resilience Strategy and technologies for multi-hazard threats, and the policy gaps addressed by both.
The ECHO Resilience Strategy is a plan for how to prepare for, respond to and recover from challenges and crises. It is informed by ECHO’s local and EU workshops, in which local, regional and EU actors analyse the state of Critical Infrastructure and propose improvements, ensuring the strategy’s holistic co-creation. Based on these workshops, the strategy will include procedures and recommendations for: multi-hazard, cross-stakeholder resilience assessment; management and sharing of resources; and suggestions for cost-effective monitoring, improvement, and adaptability of the strategy based on different territories, new threats and technologies, lessons from past events, and regulatory changes.
ECHO’s suite of integrated interoperable services are designed to address the full spectrum of multi-hazard, multi-sector disruptions that no organization can prepare for in isolation, especially the small and medium-sized municipalities, local emergency services and regional authorities. These entities are the most exposed to the current compounding and converging risks, but are frequently the least equipped to manage them. In response, ECHO will develop accessible technologies that will work together across the resilience lifecycle, from anticipation and prevention through response to recovery. Because these technologies are built on open data, open models and open-source software, they will be accessible to Critical Infrastructure stakeholders regardless of their type, size, location, budget and readiness.
Sean explained that through the Resilience Strategy and technologies, ECHO contributes to Critical Infrastructure at both operational and systemic levels. The strategy will provide a structured basis to embed these priorities into governance, planning processes, and long-term resilience development and investment decisions, which support their sustained adoption and scaling. Likewise, the ECHO tools will be validated and demonstrated in four pilot sites, where they will address both multi-hazard threats and concrete policy gaps. These gaps include: the lack of strategic and operational cooperation across essential service providers in Italy; the lack objective assessment frameworks for multi-hazard threats in Slovenia; cross-border cooperation agreements excluding essential service providers in the Italian Slovenian cross-border region; and disparities between municipalities of different sizes and resources in Spain, whereby there is no mechanism for smaller municipalities to meet the expectations set by EU frameworks.
The event provided a valuable opportunity to showcase the ECHO Project and its plans to enhance urban resilience planning and management.
