The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of a temporary situation when critical infrastructure (CI) operators had to operate with continuously changing conditions. The role of cyber infrastructure during pandemics, for example for the remote work or access to critical systems, has also changed.

"Critical infrastructure operators across Europe must prepare their facilities, equipment, and personnel to operate under more strenuous conditions in a warming climate. 

It is widely known that we are living through a historic moment in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), capturing the attention of the entire world with spectacular results across multiple application fields, especially in text and image generation.

"Risk and resilience are interconnected concepts. In fact, one of our goals in SUNRISE is to integrate resilience metrics with risk metrics.

The CROSSCON is a research project that targets developing research ideas into practical techniques and supporting prototypes, and the level of ambition is to validate results in lab conditions that are representative of a complex IoT system (i.e., technology readiness levels TRL 4 and TRL5).

Cybersecurity ecosystem in EU is a hot topic, as it relates to the recent establishment of the EU Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC), the Network of National Coordination Centres (NCCs) and the Cybersecurity Community (CC).

With the increased digitalization and adoption of cost-effective off-the-shelf components and cyber connectivity, Critical Infrastructures (CI) operators have benefited in many ways, but the attack surface has also become larger.

This document details the strategy, the research needs, the critical importance of innovation in Artificial Intelligence and recommendations for future investments in Europe.