Executive Summary
This dissemination and communication plan defines clear objectives (adapted to various relevant target audiences) and sets out a description and timing for each activity. These communication activities call the attention of multiple audiences about the BIECO research project and address the public policy perspective and innovation funding by considering aspects such as:
• transnational cooperation in the BIECO European consortium.
• scientific excellence.
• contributing to competitiveness and to solving societal challenges.
Project Summary
Nowadays, most of the ICT solutions developed by companies require integration or collaboration with other ICT components, typically developed by third parties. Even though these kinds of procedures are essential to maintain productivity and competitiveness, the fragmentation of the supply chain can pose a high-risk regarding security, as in most cases, there is no way to verify if these other solutions have vulnerabilities or if they have been built taking into account the best security practices. In order to deal with these issues, it is important that companies make a change in their mindset, assuming an “untrusted by default” position. According to a recent study, only 29% of IT businesses know that their ecosystem partners are compliant and resilient concerning security. However, cybersecurity attacks have a high economic impact, and it is not enough to rely only on trust. ICT components need to provide verifiable guarantees regarding their security and privacy properties. It is also imperative to detect vulnerabilities from ICT components more accurately and understand how they can propagate over the supply chain and impact ICT ecosystems. However, it is well known that most of the vulnerabilities can remain undetected for years, so it is necessary to provide advanced tools for guaranteeing resilience and also better mitigation strategies, as cybersecurity incidents will happen. Finally, it is needed to expand the horizons of the current risk assessment and auditing processes, considering a much broader threat landscape. BIECO is a holistic framework that will provide these mechanisms to help companies understand and manage the cybersecurity risks and threats they are subject to when they become part of the ICT supply chain. The framework, composed of tools and methodologies, will address the challenges related to vulnerability management, resilience, and auditing of complex systems.
Introduction
The present updated version of the BIECO Dissemination and Communication Strategy (DCS) lists the planned dissemination and communication activities, tools, and channels and matches stakeholders’ categories and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Also, this document includes the achieved KPIs and the most important dissemination and communication activities.
This DCS will be the reference document for evaluating the impact of communication and dissemination activities defined by Task 9.2 and Task 9.3. DCS will be updated and adjusted during the project’s duration whenever it is needed.
The Communication and Dissemination Strategy aims to establish how BIECO project results are promoted.
The project DCS clearly defines the purpose, the message, the audience, the method, and the timing of dissemination. Particular emphasis is allocated to communicating tangible results, targeting the interested audience, including diverse communities/stakeholders and potential project beneficiaries.
This document defines the type of information that is going to be disseminated. One of the essential information that will be shared represents the results obtained within the project. In that respect, the consortium will adequately manage the underlying Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) over the methods, tools, platforms, etc., developed within the project. The communication and dissemination strategy covers both external and internal audiences.
Structure of the document
The deliverable is structured in six sections addressing the different aspects of the communication plan: the Dissemination strategy, Communication Strategy, Supportingother Work Packages, Quality of the Dissemination, Communication, and Conclusion.
Dissemination strategy
Dissemination activities will support all 9 Work Packages (WPs), ensuring maximum visibility, accessibility, and impact of the project activities. Dissemination activities are designed to make the project outcomes visible and accessible to different target stakeholders.
The dissemination strategy includes “what”, “whom”, “why”, and “how” is going to be disseminated.
“What“: The dissemination focus will be the results of the BIECO project and the internal activities and deliverables.
“Whom“: The dissemination is directed mainly to external audiences and internally to project partners. The external audience includes potential stakeholders, final users, and multipliers.
“Why“: The goals aimed to be achieved by disseminating a specific message, which spans commercialisation of the project results, policymaking, demand shaping, research feeding, etc., are described.
“How“: Defines the channels and how messages are disseminated to an external and internal audience.
Based on this Dissemination and Communication Strategy, every consortium partner will manage their plan according to their marketing strategy/annual plan.
BIECO project dissemination and communication actions will be linked to the exploitation of the project activities and results. Efficient publicity and broad exposure of the BIECO project and its achievements will increase stakeholders’ engagement and interests and use the project results beyond the financing period.
As WP9 leader, UTC manages dissemination activities following the DCS according to IPR, Quality Manual, and other relevant documents within the project.
Dissemination and Communication Strategy Timeline
WP9 covers dissemination and communication activities, and it is split into three tasks, as illustrated in Figure 1:
• T9.1: Plan for communication and dissemination (M4-M6).
• T9.2: Project website, communication activities, and online media management (M1-M36)
• T9.3: Dissemination, communication activities, and data management (M4-M36)
Figure 1 Dissemination and communication tasks
The dissemination and communication strategy timeline is set up to ensure that it will raise awareness of the project, disseminate scientific and technological outcomes, and present the final BIECO outcomes.
Figure 2 Dissemination strategy timeline
To ensure effective contributions to the impact described in section 2.1. of our project, the Dissemination and Communication strategy of BIECO has three phases that will be presented as follows, together with the dissemination objectives and the related communication activities.
Phase 1: Awareness (M1-M12)
Objectives: to raise the awareness of the project itself and its objectives.
Activities:
• Set up of project website (project information, links to similar EU research efforts, upcoming events, presentation of publications) as a leading information source for wide project publicity;
• Create Project/Team identity (Logo, the standard approach for presentations, reports, etc.);
• Identification of dissemination channels in each partner country and at EU and international level;
• Identification of stakeholder profiles;
• Set up of dissemination and exploitation strategy;
• Set up of social media strategy;
• Set up of Techno-Art Strategy;
• Dissemination material (brochures, newsletters, information material) for the scientific and broader audience to be also distributed at conferences);
• Involvement of stakeholders and target groups.
The achieved results are presented in the section “Dissemination and communication activities“.
Phase 2: Understanding (M12-M30)
Objectives: to disseminate technological outcomes and results and engage stakeholders.
Activities:
• Intensive presence in online and print media at local and EU/international level, including the publication of scientific papers;
• Arrangement of technical presentations and workshops;
• Enlargement and update of dissemination strategy at national and EU levels (internal evaluation of possible improvements or adaptations);
• Enlargement and update of social media presence (internal evaluation of possible improvements or adaptations).
The achieved results are presented in the section “Dissemination and communication activities”.
Phase 3: Action (M31-M36)
Objectives: To provide the final BIECO outcomes of integrating application/exploitation and to reach out to a broader stakeholder community in ICT at the European level.
Activities:
• Exhibit project results in 2 international conferences;
• Intensive presence in print and online media at local and EU/international level, including – the publication of special issues in International Journals and the publication of papers in the best international conferences in the area;
• Update of dissemination strategy at national and EU levels with regards to “after funding period” (internal evaluation of improvements and adaptations, incl. issues of maintenance, partners’ activities and plans);
• Update of social media presence and strategy regarding “after funding period” (internal evaluation of improvements and adaptations, including issues of maintenance, partners’ activities, and plans).
Disseminating Results to Industry & Society
BIECO addresses industrial targets within the European Union and the Associated States, exploiting contacts within the consortium, especially industrial partners and solution/software providers.
Research results will be communicated for creating external awareness and knowledge building within the targeted industrial communities.
Relevant project results will be disseminated as early as the first stage of development. Prototypes presentations will also be made available to support dissemination actions (in the form of demonstrations), comprising both technical dissemination and presentations at sectorial events, as well as through broader demonstration activities. Dissemination and demonstration activities to the industry will take into account industrial markets of reference, selecting best and most relevant events for dissemination, and for planning demonstration activities, and these events will be mainly centred on raising awareness and transfer of knowledge, solutions, and technology.
Disseminating results to industry & society will consist of presentations, distributing project dissemination material, and highlighting the project’s advanced solutions. Specifically, events with a potential interest to a large audience will be targeted. Both presentations and the provision of leaflets constitute the main vehicles for dissemination.
Scientific knowledge has a high value when it can be effectively communicated to industry and society. One of the main objectives of the BIECO project is to share knowledge within the society, to be shared and exploited.
Scientific Dissemination and Collaboration with the Stakeholders
Scientific dissemination and collaboration with the main policymaker represent one of the most important activities because it validates the results obtained in the BIECO project. Publishing scientific results through the appropriate channels to secure an optimal knowledge transfer to relevant scientific communities.
Because of restricted resources and time, the focus for participation in events will be on high-profile and focused scientific conferences, events, and related fields. Scientific conferences sponsored by international technical societies will be particularly targeted. This strategy establishes the basis for a multilateral knowledge sharing process with the stakeholders, involving a large number of different stakeholders in building a robust, evidence-based scientific understanding of the BIECO project.
Community Building and Liaisons with other Projects
Links with other EC and national projects in related fields and disciplines need special attention. Creating a community will strongly increase the BIECO project’s visibility to the international scientific community and disseminate knowledge to a non-specialised general audience and interested companies/agencies.
The website includes instruments to achieve newsletter subscription, feed data, the possibility to contact the BIECO team through a simple process, link to social media, etc., to create connections with other projects and a strong community.
An important component is social media, e.g., LinkedIn and Twitter. The KPIs and other specific objectives regarding social media are detailed in this document.
Software Dissemination
Open-source software of the BIECO components that can be published according to IPR will be available as open-source code to the developers’ community to maximise the potential dissemination and impact.
The software can be disseminated to conferences and IT-related events as specified in Table 9.
Dissemination Channels
This section defines the main channels of dissemination to industry & society. Dissemination channels are:
• Major industrial and trade events (e.g., RSA conference, International Meeting on Information Security (ENISE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) events, International B2B Software Days, European Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ECICT), ACM Computer Communications Security (CCS) conference, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES), Cyber Security for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) conferences, European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS), International Conference of the Advanced Computing Systems Association (USENIX), IEEE International Conference on Cyber Situational Awareness, etc.).
• Making press releases and publishing articles in specialised trade newspapers & magazines (e.g., IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine, IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, USENIX Magazine, etc.).
• Organising focused workshops and inviting the European/international community to discuss issues of interest for the project.
• Organising public relations events mainly targeted to industrial users.
• News releases and newsletters will be periodically produced, a regular awareness newsletter that will be sent to interested parties. This newsletter will provide project-related news, announcements of the project progress, events information, partners interviews, etc.
• Participating in projects’ events organised by the European Commission, for example, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) conference or projects’ cluster events, other clustering and/or concertation activities and exhibitions.
• International scientific conferences will be classified based on indexed international databases, ranking of the conferences and targeted audience, (for example European Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ECICT), ACM Computer Communications Security (CCS) conferences, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES), Cyber Security for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) conferences, European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS), International Conference of the Advanced Computing Systems Association (USENIX), IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (IEEE CNS), IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security (SAFECOMP), International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), International Conference on Emerging Security Information, Systems and Technologies (SECURWARE), International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Security for Information Systems (CISIS), World Conference on Information Security Applications (WISA), IEEE Secure Development Conference, International Workshop on Cyber-Security Threats, Trust and Privacy Management in Software-defined and Virtualized Infrastructures etc.
Specialised journals and open access publishing. The scientific results achieved within the project will be published in journals based on indexed international databases, with the targeted audience mainly related to security, IoT and CPS, and Software production, for example, IEEE Cybersecurity, IEEE Standards on Cybersecurity, IEEE Computers & Security, IEEE Network and Communications Magazines, Cybersecurity Journal, Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy, Journal of Information Security and Applications, IEEE Security and Privacy Journal, Journal of Information Security and Applications. Industrial Control System – Cyber Security Research (ICS-CSR) Proceedings, Journal of Cybersecurity Education Research and Practice (JCERP), Computers & Security, etc.
Open-source access to some BIECO software components;
Workshop at the EU-level focused on the project concepts and applications, will be organised and conducted as part of a conference in the field;
Website (www.bieco.org) is created by WP9 leaders to be user-friendly and interactive with the support of all partners.
Social media accounts are used to disseminate information regarding BIECO activities. These accounts are used on the following social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube.
