Workshop on
Education, Training and Awareness in Cybersecurity (ETACS 2026)
with the 21th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2026)
https://www.ares-conference.eu

August 24, 2026 in Linköping, Sweden

Workshop Description:
The current lack of cybersecurity experts on the world job market is a significant problem that can be solved only by coordinated and focused development of higher education and professional training programs. All topics related to cybersecurity education, training and awareness will be considered for the Workshop on Education, Training and Awareness in Cybersecurity (ETACS). ETACS seeks for novel submissions from academia, government as well as industry contributing to cybersecurity education, training and awareness. The focus is on practical research into higher-education cybersecurity curricula, professional training, building of cyber ranges and their coalitions across Europe, methods to assess and raise awareness in cybersecurity, the implementation of systems, and lessons learned. Furthermore, the EU-wide agreement on the identification of skills necessary for cybersecurity work roles is one of the main interests of the workshop. The event aims to gather people form universities, professional training institutions, industry, government and EU agencies to discuss current problems and solutions for cybersecurity education and training.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Description and application of cybersecurity skills frameworks
• Comparison of existing skills frameworks, contributions to the EU Skills Framework
• Description of curricula related to cybersecurity
• Lessons learned from a training experience
• Lessons learned from the use of a given technology
• Publication of a tool related to cyber ranges
• Gamification, capture the flag, red/blue teaming,
• Piloting cybersecurity study programs and trainings
• Feedback on awareness campaigns

Important Dates
Submission Deadline May 1, 2026
Author Notification June 1, 2026
Proceedings Version June 13, 2026
Conference August 24 – 27, 2026



Program Chair/ Workshop Chair
General Chair:
• Jan Hajny (Brno University of Technology, CZ)

Co-Chairs:
• Pavel Loutocky (Masaryk University, CZ)
• Giuseppe Bianchi (Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni, IT)
• Rocco De Nicola (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, IT)
• Sara Ricci (Brno University of Technology, CZ)

Program Committee
• Pedro Adao | University of Lisbon, Portugal
• Rémi Badonnel | University of Lorraine, France
• Yianna Danidou | European University Cyprus, Cyprus
• Petr Dzurenda | Brno University of Technology, Czechia
• Letterio Galletta | IMT Lucca, Italy
• Magdalena Glas | University of Regensburg, Germany
• František Kasl | Masaryk University, Czechia
• Imre Lendak | University of Novi Sad, RS & Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
• Olivier Levillain | Télécom SudParis, France
• Raimundas Matulevicius | University of Tartu, Estonia
• Marc Ohm | University of Bonn & Fraunhofer FKIE, Germany
• Edmundas Piesarskas | Lithuanian Cybercrime Center of Excellence for Training, Research & Education, Lithuania
• Paolo Prinetto | CINI - Cybersecurity National Lab, Italy
• Joseph Squillance| The Penn State University, USA
• Kendra Walther | University of Southern California, USA
• Tanja Zseby | Vienna University of Technology, Austria

Submission Guidelines
The submission guidelines valid for the workshop are the same as for the ARES conference. They can be found at https://www.ares-conference.eu/.

Acknowledgement
The workshop is supported by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101087529 CHESS. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.