WP5 – Cooperation and Enhancement of Staff Expertise
A7 Upskilling of staff capacity and certification of trainers
The quality of any competence centre relies on the expertise of its people, which is why we place great emphasis on the continuous training and certification of our team of expert solvers and lecturers. Under Activity A7, our specialists completed a series of specialized training courses in cyber and information security, covering key technical and conceptual domains.
The educational program included working with security technologies such as Fortinet firewalls, cryptographic concepts, and VPN technologies, as well as advanced Cisco solutions for securing email (ESA) and web (WSA) communications. The training also covered modern SD-WAN and SDA network architectures, which form the foundation of a secure and flexible network infrastructure today. Special attention was dedicated to threat monitoring and detection tools: the Splunk SIEM platform and the GREYCORTEX Mendel system for network traffic analysis and anomaly detection. Our lecturers thus deepened the practical skills required for Security Operations Center (SOC) operations and effective incident response. The professional preparation was anchored in recognized security standards and frameworks, including ISO 27001, ISO 27701, NIST, and CIS Controls. The team also improved their skills in other areas, such as penetration testing and ethical hacking, cyber risk management and governance, cloud security (AWS, Azure, GCP), and digital forensics.
The acquired knowledge and certifications ensure that our lecturers pass on up-to-date and verified insights to partner secondary schools, students, and the professional public. Thanks to this continuous development, the centre is able to respond to rapidly evolving threats and meet cybersecurity legislative requirements, including the NIS2 Directive and the GDPR. Investing in the expertise of our human resources is thus a direct investment in the quality of all services and outputs provided by our competence centre.
A8 International cooperation
International cooperation is one of the strategic pillars of our competence centre, opening up space for the exchange of knowledge, the mobility of students and experts, and joint research in the field of cybersecurity. Under Activity A8, the Technical University of Košice has established partnerships with renowned academic institutions in several European and Asian countries.
- Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (India): We are cooperating on the exchange of information about research and educational programs, joint short-term courses, seminars, conferences, and workshops, as well as the exchange of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral students.
- Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (Malaysia) and its Faculty of Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security: We are developing student mobility, including summer schools and double-degree programs, joint research and innovation, and creative stays for academic staff.
- University of Montenegro in Podgorica: We have concluded a memorandum directly focused on cybersecurity, which includes the exchange of academics, researchers, and administrative staff, as well as the preparation of joint events, research proposals, and publications.
The cooperation with Škoda Auto University (Czech Republic) bridges the academic and industrial environments. In addition to mobilities, it covers a double-degree program, joint publications in journals indexed in Web of Science and Scopus, the preparation of joint international projects, and professional supervision of students during internships in production plants.
Thanks to this network of partnerships, our students and researchers gain access to international experience, the latest knowledge, and joint research projects extending beyond Slovakia's borders. At the same time, the partnerships strengthen the international reputation of the centre and its involvement in a broader European network of workplaces in the field of cyber and information security. The goal of the centre is to further deepen these relationships and gradually expand them with new partners from the academic, public, and industrial sectors.