The European Defence Agency (EDA) has launched its first Cyber Defence Pooling and Sharing Project, the agency announced on 12 May.

The Cyber Ranges Federation Project is the first of four Cyber Defence Projects launched so far under the pooling and sharing agenda. Contributing member states include Austria, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden, with the Netherlands, Finland and Greece acting as co-leads.

The aim of the project is to increase the availability of existing and emerging cyber range facilities, increase the occupation rate and efficiency of cyber ranges and platforms, and improve cyber defence training, exercises and testing at the European level. These objectives will be achieved over the next 36 months in a spiral approach.

The project is expected to include a total of 30 work packages, divided between two spirals. Work on the first spiral, composed of 19 different work packages, will begin under the leadership of the Netherlands. Spiral one is expected to be completed within 18 months. The remaining packages will be completed after a review of the results of spiral one under the leadership of Finland in spiral two.

The work is expected to contribute to the development of cyber defence related education, training and exercise formats for all stakeholders in Europe. This will be achieved by providing wide ranging and capable technical platforms and establishing a European community of experts on cyber defence training and exercises.

The Cyber Ranges Federation will also be supported by an EDA developed web-based Cyber Defence Training and Exercise Coordination Platform, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2017. The cyber ranges can be effectively employed in the areas of research and modelling, simulation and testing.

Future projects including the improved Cyber Situation Awareness, Advanced Persistent Threat detection and pooling of member states' demand for private sector-provided cyber training are still in the preparation phase.