EU-iNSPIRE: Building Europe’s Future Cybersecurity Workforce

By Mr. Stefanos Angeletos, Mr. Nikolaos Koulierakis, Dr. Vasiliki Danilatou

Europe’s digital transformation is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries, critical infrastructures are becoming increasingly interconnected, and cyber threats are growing in both sophistication and frequency. Against this backdrop, the European Union faces a critical challenge: how to equip its workforce with the multidisciplinary skills required to secure Europe’s digital future.

New opportunities with EU-iNSPIRE

The answer may lie in a new ambitious European initiative: EU-iNSPIRE – iNnovative multi-diSciPlinary Industry-focused cybersecurity education for upskilling and ReskIlling the EU workforcE. The project is supported by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA) under the DIGITAL Europe Programme. EU-INSPIRE brings together 23 organisations across academia, industry, cybersecurity, policy, insurance, and standardisation to create a next-generation educational ecosystem for cybersecurity, AI, and cyber insurance.

This four-year initiative officially began in January 2025 and will run until December 2028 under the coordination of the University of Piraeus Research Center in Greece.

Eunomia Limited, an  SME based in Dublin, Ireland, is proud to contribute to this groundbreaking initiative as one of the consortium partners.

A Pan-European Initiative Addressing the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

The cybersecurity skills shortage is no longer simply a workforce issue – it is a strategic challenge for Europe’s resilience, economic stability, and technological sovereignty. Organisations across sectors increasingly struggle to recruit professionals who possess not only technical cybersecurity expertise, but also understanding of AI governance, cyber-risk management, regulatory compliance, and cyber-insurance. The rapidly evolving digital landscape increasingly demands professionals with multidisciplinary skillsets who can navigate technical, organisational, ethical, regulatory, and strategic challenges, rather than relying exclusively on narrow domain specialisation.

EU-iNSPIRE was designed to address exactly this challenge.

According to the project description, the initiative aims to revolutionise higher education within cybersecurity by cultivating a new generation of specialists with expertise spanning the political, organisational, and technological dimensions of cybersecurity, AI, and cyber insurance. The project will also support continuous upskilling and reskilling for professionals adapting to evolving digital threats and industry demands.

The project is currently progressing towards the completion of course development.

Why EU-iNSPIRE Matters

Cybersecurity is no longer confined to IT departments. Every sector – from healthcare and finance to manufacturing, transport, insurance, and public administration – depends on resilient digital infrastructures.

At the same time, AI technologies are rapidly being integrated into cybersecurity operations. AI can improve threat detection, automate incident response, and strengthen resilience. However, it also introduces new risks including adversarial attacks, algorithmic vulnerabilities, and ethical concerns around transparency, accountability, and bias.

This convergence of cybersecurity and AI creates an urgent need for professionals who can work across disciplines.

EU-iNSPIRE responds through a three-fold approach:

1. Training cybersecurity professionals capable of leveraging AI-driven technologies to enhance resilience of systems, infrastructures, and digital processes.
2. Developing cyber insurance specialists who understand the relationship between cybersecurity, AI, and cyber risk assessment.
3. Empowering domain experts with sector-specific digital transformation expertise, particularly in conformity assessment and regulatory compliance.

The project goes beyond traditional academic programmes. It aims to create a sustainable ecosystem that combines:

• Master-level education
• Industry-focused curricula
• Continuing professional training
• Reskilling and upskilling pathways
• Certification frameworks
• Standardisation activities
• Cross-sector collaboration

Ultimately, EU-iNSPIRE seeks to establish the foundations for a long-term European cybersecurity academy capable of supporting Europe’s future cyber resilience ecosystem.

Within EU-iNSPIRE, Eunomia Limited contributes to the development of educational courses on privacy awareness, GDPR compliance and data protection impact assessment. In addition, acting as lead of the project’s Privacy and Ethics Committee, Eunomia Limited supports the integration of ethics, privacy, and EU values into the design of the EU-iNSPIRE courses and training materials, ensuring that these dimensions are embedded across the curriculum.

Eunomia Limited also leads  activities that support inclusive, equitable, and accessible cybersecurity education ecosystems across Europe. Towards that end, the project encourages educational pathways that are:

• Accessible to learners from diverse socioeconomic and professional backgrounds
• Supportive of gender diversity and underrepresented groups in cybersecurity
• Adaptable for lifelong learning and professional reskilling
• Relevant across different European regions and sectors
• Aligned with evolving accessibility, ethical, and fundamental rights standards

By integrating inclusiveness, ethics, and responsible innovation into curriculum development and training frameworks, the project aims to ensure that Europe’s future cybersecurity workforce is not only technically skilled, but also representative, diverse,socially resilient, and aware of the broader societal responsibilities linked to cybersecurity practice.

A Unique Multidisciplinary Consortium

One of EU-iNSPIRE’s major strengths lies in the diversity of its consortium.The partnership includes universities, cybersecurity companies, insurance organisations, standardisation bodies, research institutes, governmental organisations, and international institutions from across Europe including partners from Greece, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Spain, Cyprus, Italy, Finland, Romania, Belgium, Bulgaria, and France. This combination of academic and industry expertise strengthens the market relevance of the project’s educational outcomes, helping ensure that the courses are not only scientifically robust, but also aligned with real cybersecurity workforce needs, professional skills gaps, and evolving sectoral demands.

Looking Ahead

By combining cybersecurity, AI, cyber insurance, ethics, governance, and industry collaboration into a unified educational ecosystem, the project seeks to prepare a new generation of professionals capable of navigating the complexity of tomorrow’s digital world.

Through EU-iNSPIRE, Eunomia Limited contributes to shaping more inclusive, ethical, multidisciplinary, and future-ready cybersecurity education ecosystems.

As the world moves toward a more digitally interconnected future, initiatives like EU-iNSPIRE may prove essential not only for protecting systems and infrastructures, but also for shaping a resilient and trustworthy digital society.

EU-iNSPIRE (Project 101190054) is funded by the European Union under the DIGITAL Europe Programme.

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