22 October 2026 08:00–17:00
Piraeus, Greece
Europe’s cyber resilience depends not only on technology, but on the capacity of its professionals, and in particular its SMEs, to put cybersecurity knowledge into practice. Over the past three years, the NERO project, supported by the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre, has worked to close this gap by making cybersecurity tools and training accessible to those who need them most. NERO’s free Marketplace now brings together more than 65 cybersecurity solutions, complemented by a training ecosystem of over 30 courses that has already equipped around 450 professionals and students. Its use cases span healthcare, finance, and transportation and logistics.
On 22 October 2026, NERO will mark the conclusion of its journey with its final event, held alongside the 6th CyberHOT Summer School at the Cybersecurity Research Lab of the University of Piraeus, Greece. The event will present the project’s key results and policy recommendations and set out how cybersecurity can be strengthened across European SMEs, while offering participants the rare opportunity to work directly with the tools and methods the project has developed.
What to expect
The programme, running from 08:00 to 17:00 (local time), combines strategic reflection with hands-on practice. It opens with an overview of NERO’s three years of achievements, lessons learned, and policy recommendations, followed by practical sessions on phishing detection through a serious game, AI-based intrusion detection with DeepGuardian, and incident response with the AI4SOAR and Cymph tools. A live demonstration of the NERO Marketplace, accompanied by a poster session, will show how organisations can discover and adopt the solutions that best fit their needs.
Why register
This event is designed for SMEs and business leaders, cybersecurity professionals and IT teams, technology providers, educators and training providers, students, and policymakers, including stakeholders in healthcare, finance, and transport and logistics. Participants will leave with more than a summary of results: they will have worked directly with operational tools, gained applicable skills in detection and incident response, and gained insight into the resources available to strengthen their own organisations’ resilience. For policymakers and training providers, it offers a consolidated view of what three years of practice-oriented work have shown about closing Europe’s cybersecurity skills gap, and where the next priorities lie.
Practical information
The event takes place in person only, in the Orange Auditorium (ground floor) at the Cybersecurity Research Lab, University of Piraeus, Karaoli & Dimitriou 80, Piraeus 185 34, Greece. Participants are asked to bring a laptop with web access for most sessions. The DeepGuardian session additionally requires a Linux/Debian terminal, with Docker, GitLab, and kubectl advised, while the AI4SOAR session requires Ubuntu.
Venue: Cybersecurity Research Lab (UPRC), University of Piraeus, Greece