ROMA (ITALPRESS) – The increasingly pervasive spread of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and quantum technologies, require to define and update the evolutionary addresses of cybersecurity research. For this purpose, the Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) and the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), published the 2026 update of the Research and Innovation Agency for Cybersecurity.
The strategic document, the result of a joint activity, started in 2023 and promoted by the Minister of the University and Research (MUR), Anna Maria Bernini, and the State Secretary with a delegation to Security, Alfredo Mantovano, aims to bring out, stimulate and guide the choices of research and innovation (R&I) in the field of cybersecurity, as well as to govern and monitor investments in research and innovation.
In this framework the support programmes of the ACN, including the financing of doctoral grants, arrived this year at the third edition and which provides annually the selection of 30 projects and the financing of as many three-year grants, and the Cyber Innovation Network (CIN), launched in 2023 in support of innovative entrepreneurship and applied research, with the aim of supporting and enhancing startups and results of research in line with the priorities established by the Agen.
The Agenda identifies 6 interdisciplinary areas – Data security and privacy; Management of cyber threats; Software and Platform Security; Security of digital infrastructure; Company aspects; Government aspects – articulated in 18 sub-areas and 61 priority topics. The document also establishes a correspondence with the main Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDT), highlighting its links with the different domains of cybersecurity.
With the 2026 update, the Agenda renews and expands, strengthening the transversal system with targeted insights on the main technological transformations that are changing the cyber risk scenario: artificial intelligence general-purpose, quantum technologies and operational technologies (operational technologies).
In particular, 32 priority sub-arguments were introduced, designed to focus on the challenges of open R&I related to these technologies and offer specific directions of deepening, with a view to progressive updating and alignment with the evolution of the national and European landscape. The Agenda is aimed at all actors who work or benefit from cybersecurity research: universities, organisations and research consortia (also European and international), public administrations, enterprises and industrial associations.
-Photos Acn-
(ITALPRESS).
