Brabant invests over €14 million in cybersecurity

The province of North Brabant and its partners are jointly investing nearly €14.5 million in the Brabant House of Cyber (BHoC). This innovation coalition brings together businesses, educational institutions, and government bodies to achieve a single goal: making Brabant businesses more digitally secure. The province is contributing just over €3 million to the initial projects.

The BHoC is the first implementation of the Action Plan Mission Security, which was presented earlier this year to better protect Brabant companies and institutions against digital threats.

Cyberattacks are rapidly increasing and affect everything that is digitally connected: from smart machines and chips in cars to medical equipment and power plants. Such incidents cost companies billions worldwide and can halt production, cost jobs, and slow down innovation.

“But cyber security can also be an accelerator,” says Deputy Martijn van Gruijthuijsen (Economy, Knowledge, and Talent Development). “Technology in a secure environment gives companies the confidence to innovate faster. With these steps, Brabant is showing that we are not waiting, but leading the way.”

Digital security is a basic requirement for strong companies and international cooperation. “With the Brabant House of Cyber, we are ensuring that Brabant companies are not only secure, but also have a strong position in technology that makes a difference worldwide.”

Innovation, talent, and resilience

The BHoC combines innovation, talent development, and resilience. The innovation coalition is therefore focusing on developing new security technologies, training courses that prepare more people for cybersecurity, and solutions that are easy to implement across many companies and chains to enhance their digital security.

The partnership is guided by a program office that directs all projects. Within the theme of Innovation, work is underway on a program to develop technologies that secure products from the design stage onward. We call this security-by-design, and it greatly reduces the risk of malfunctions and sabotage. This is good for companies and for the people of Brabant: it prevents production from coming to a standstill, protects jobs, and ensures reliable technology.

The Talent theme is working on continuous, modular learning pathways for education and business, which can also be used for further training and retraining. This approach is unique in the Netherlands. The Resilience theme focuses on practical, scalable solutions that demonstrably make companies and chains safer.

Collaboration

The main drivers of the BHoC are currently the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), TNO, Avans, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), and the Cyber Resilience Center (CWB).

The entire regional education sector – from vocational education to higher professional education and university education – is affiliated. In addition to these institutions, Smart Makers Academy, Summa College, Koning Willem I College, Fontys Hogescholen, Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS), and Tilburg University are also participating.

The business community is also strongly represented. High-tech and cybersecurity companies such as ASML, NXP, VDL, Signify, Neways, NTS, KMWE, Vencomatic Group, DAF/Paccar, Heijmans, Bosch, Philips, Simac, ESET, Compumatica, Emproof, Schuberg Philis, MindYourPass, and S2Grupo are actively contributing.

In addition to the province and BOM, regional partners such as Brainport Development, Mindlabs, the Municipality of Eindhoven, the Police, and the Regional Office for Integral Security are also involved. At the national level, there is cooperation with the relevant ministries and critical (cybersecurity) clusters such as Security Delta (HSD), CVD, and Digital Holland.