Cybersecurity certification is central to Europe’s digitalresilience. As frameworks such as the Cybersecurity Act, NIS2, the Cyber Resilience Act, EUCC and EUCS continue to evolve, organisations need practical ways to share knowledge, build capability and align implementation approaches.

Within the TrustBoost project, this work brought together National Cybersecurity Certification Authorities, Certification Bodies, evaluation facilities, vendors, universities and other stakeholders to exchange experience and identify transferable strategies.

Collaboration in action

Structured twinning exchanges, workshops and follow-updiscussions were used to compare approaches to certification implementation, accreditation, evaluation, supervision, vulnerability management, SME support and skills development. These activities helped partners understand where challenges are shared and where practical solutions can be adapted across national contexts.

Key outputs

A major result was a consolidated report capturing lessonsfrom the twinning exchanges, strategy workshop, partner feedback and cross-cutting challenges. The work also produced a curated strategy database, designed as a living resource for certification and capacity-building strategies.

Further outputs include a strategy ownership model, aproposed peer-review preparation checklist for National Cybersecurity Certification Authorities, and a skills and knowledge matrix for organisations
involved in certification and regulatory implementation.

Shared challenges, shared solutions

The exchanges showed that many cybersecurity certificationchallenges are common across Member States and organisational types. These include shortages of specialised expertise, the need for clearer training pathways, gaps in accreditation capacity, uncertainty around evolving regulation and the need for practical support for SMEs and vendors.

These issues were framed as ecosystem-level priorities.Effective certification depends on cooperation between public authorities, accreditation bodies, certification bodies, evaluation laboratories, industry, academia and European coordination structures.

A key lesson is that strategy exchange should not be aone-off activity. For shared strategies to remain useful, they need ownership, review cycles, validation and regular updates. The continuing work is moving from strategy identification towards practical implementation support.

The next phase will focus on validating draft tools,refining KPIs, updating the strategy database and ensuring that lessons learned continue to feed into practical improvements. By connecting partners across borders and functions, TrustBoost is helping build a more consistent, collaborative and resilient cybersecurity certification ecosystem in Europe.