CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY BELGIUM 2.0 – 2021-2025 3.1.3 Foster expertise and knowledge To meet the need for greater security and more security professionals, more has to be invested in expertise and knowledge. Educational institutions make a significant contribution to the cybersecurity landscape. They not only play an important role in increasing knowledge by conducting research, but also by contributing to the development and provision of relevant training. There will be further investment in Research & Development (R&D) in the area of Cybersecurity. The private sector and educational institutions such as universities and colleges will work closely together. European initiatives in this framework will be evaluated from this objective. Security managers of public institutions should be trained to an adequate level of security, through training programmes for public officials. To address the lack of information security professionals, both within the government and private sector, more young people should be encouraged to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses. This requires establishing contacts with communities and defining a coherent policy on the subject in collaboration with relevant partners. For example, awareness and information materials can be provided to schools or mentoring programmes can be organized. 3.1.4 Cybersecurity Certification and Labelling of Products, Services and Processes Belgium will create a framework to allow companies to evaluate and certify the security of ICT products, services and processes. This framework will be aligned with the EU Cybersecurity Act 2019 and developments underway at the European level. The EU Cybersecurity Act aims at a European recognition of delivered certificates, as well as maximum alignment with existing European and international reference frameworks. To this end, as required by the EU Cybersecurity Act, Belgium will establish a National Cybersecurity Certification Authority (NCCA). The NCCA, in consultation with, among others, market surveillance authorities, other sectoral authorities and the National Crisis Centre, will coordinate the necessary expertise in cybersecurity certification, authorize certificates with high security requirements and establish close cooperation with 22