The CHESS consortium comprises4 academic institutions (2 general and 2 technical universities), 3 private companies (1 RTD subsidiary of a large multinational enterprise; 2 innovative medium-sized enterprises owned by local capital), 2 government agencies (1 as full and 1 as AP), and 2 NGOs (associations of local administrations and universities serving as interfaces to other sectors, 1 full and 1 associated).
We chose this consortium structure to (i) ensure good coverage of regional excellent research in academia, as the starting point for strategy building, technology development, innovation, and deployment for the benefit of society, (ii) involve private companies engaged in EU-level cyber-security coordination: CYBER is a partner in CyberSec4Europe, GuardTime in CHESS, (iii) having built an extremely successful business model around an open-source platform, as Red Hat did, (iv) provide a strong voice, especially in strategy building, to governmental agencies coordinating and delivering cyber-security policies on the national level. Where possible, (v) we employ well-established supporting entities to deliver key transversal skills and business development support (JIC as associated partner, EAS as supporting entity). (vi) We involve CSH on South Moravian side, an umbrella organisation on track to become a cyber-security focused DIH, Teaming Centre of Excellence, and a EuroQCI Node –with the vision it may soon become a unique intersectoral crossroad.
Our vision for CHESS Excellence Hub was inspired by a real-case scenario of cross-sectoral collaboration between South Moravia and Estonia. A researcher from MUNI discovered security vulnerability on the chips used in the Estonian ID card. The issue was officially reported and immediately addressed by RIA, which initiated efficient response involving among others also CYBER and TalTech. This unique instance of using South Moravian academic expertise to increase the security in the digital society of Estonia has since provided ground for on-going cross-regional collaboration
Our partners
The whole is much more than the sum of it’s part. Meet our project partners!