This retreat is organized by Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (https://www.santannapisa.it/en)  in the framework of SERICS – SEcurity and RIghts in the CyberSpace (https://serics.eu/), the Italian national partnership on cybersecurity and digital rights funded under the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan). SERICS brings together universities, research centers, and industry to advance scientific and technological innovation in cybersecurity and the protection of fundamental rights in the digital domain, with the broader goal of strengthening the resilience and security of the country’s cyberspace.

The workshop is an official SERICS dissemination activity, with a strong focus on the dissemination of results, ideas, and open challenges across different partners and communities. It is designed to foster intensive interactions among a selected group of top international researchers, both from SERICS and from related international initiatives.

SERICS: Security and Rights in the CyberSpace

The SERICS Foundation – Security and Rights in CyberSpace is a research institution established as the implementing body of the Extended Partnership “Cybersecurity, New Technologies, and the Protection of Rights,” within the Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR).

It promotes scientific and technological research in the field of cybersecurity and digital rights, with the aim of developing innovative strategies to address the challenges of cyberspace and generating tangible impact on the security of the country, with positive economic, institutional, and social effects at the national and European levels.

In this direction, the Foundation intends to act as a national cybersecurity research platform, consolidating its position as a leading scientific and industrial body. The Foundation provides specialized training courses through the SERICS Cybersecurity Academy, while also proposing technology transfer programs and initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship, knowledge dissemination, and public awareness of cybersecurity issues.

Through the involvement of its academic-industrial partnership, organized into 10 thematic spokes, SERICS adopts an interdisciplinary approach that integrates technical, legal, and social expertise. This allows for the development of sustainable and innovative solutions applicable to both institutional and production settings.

Venue

Borgo di Cortefreda is a charming relais located on a panoramic hill in the Chianti countryside, between Florence and Siena, surrounded by vineyards and cypress trees. It offers elegant Tuscan-style rooms and well-equipped meeting rooms suitable for both plenary and breakout sessions.

Assistance and Practical Information: The place is near Florence, so the Florence airport is the most suitable means of transportation. The 370A bus from Florence brings to the Hotel. To ensure your needs are met, we kindly ask participants to contact the venue directly for any special arrangements or logistical questions by visiting their contact page.

Programme

Our goal is to create a retreat-style environment where a small group of researchers can interact intensively, exchange ideas, and work together on challenging open problems rather than simply “broadcasting” finished results.

The workshop will combine:

  • Plenary talks to share ongoing work within the SERICS community and related initiatives;
  • Thematic working sessions in small groups, aimed at identifying concrete research challenges, seeds for joint papers, and possible follow-up projects;
  • Open problem and roadmap sessions, where we consolidate a shared agenda for future SERICS-related activities on cybersecurity and digital rights;
  • Informal time for discussions, reflecting the collaborative atmosphere of retreat seminars.

Partecipants

The event will feature European-level cybersecurity experts, including renowned researchers, representatives of research institutions and infrastructure, and European stakeholders. These figures are selected to foster a high-quality dialogue on the results achieved, consolidate the SERICS project’s position in the European cybersecurity landscape, and create new synergies and collaborations in research and innovation.