Cyberagentur celebrates its 5th birthday in Halle (Saale) – Politics, science and business honor successes
The Agentur für Innovation in der Cybersicherheit GmbH (Cyberagentur) celebrated its fifth anniversary in Halle (Saale) on August 28, 2025. With a review of five years of research work, political speeches and the award ceremony for the HAL2025 ideas competition, the anniversary was a sign of Germany’s digital sovereignty of the day after tomorrow.
The Cyberagentur celebrated its 5th birthday with a festive event. Numerous guests from politics, science and business acknowledged the Cyberagentur’s role as a driving force for disruptive research in Germany.
The Cyberagentur was founded in 2020 as an in-house company of the federal government under the joint responsibility of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior. Its mission is to fund particularly high-risk but potentially highly disruptive research projects in the field of cyber security. Today, it is part of the National Security Strategy and a central platform for innovative security research.
In his speech, Research Director Prof. Dr. Christian Hummert recalled the development of recent years: from the first research programs to an agency with over 100 employees and a clear strategic expansion concept. He emphasized that resilience alone is not enough, but that vigilance – understood as proactive vigilance – will be at the heart of research funding in the future. “The Cyberagentur will increasingly fund projects that fend off attacks before they reach us – from classic cyberattacks to disinformation and propaganda,” explained Professor Christian Hummert.
In her speech, the new Commercial Director Bettina Bubnys emphasized the special team spirit that characterizes the agency’s culture: The motivation and innovative strength of the employees are the basis on which the agency will continue to grow in the coming years.
Political well-wishers then addressed the guests. A special companion from the very beginning was the Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, Dr. Reiner Haseloff, who emphasized the importance of the Cyberagentur for Halle as a location for research and innovation and continued in his greeting: “The founding of the Cyberagentur has set an important accent of modernity and innovation, which clearly underlines the joint commitment of the federal and state governments in this region of structural change. The issue of cyber security is of the utmost importance for the future of our country. This is another reason why it is important to further expand and strengthen cooperation between the Cyberagentur and the state’s own research institutions.”
In addition, Friederike Dahns, Head of Department at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, and Dr. Jan Stöß, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Defence [or General Michael Vetter, Head of Department at the BMVg], expressed the recognition of their institutions. They highlighted the expertise that the Cyberagentur has developed over the past few years and emphasized that it impressively demonstrates how innovative approaches can be used to fund disruptive research in Germany.
The festive highlight was the award ceremony for the HAL2025 ideas competition on the topic of “Autonomous systems in a swarm”. Minister President Dr. Reiner Haseloff presented the prizes to the winners together with project manager Dr. Eva-Maria Heinke. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heiko Hamann was able to convince the grand jury with his approach “Space interpreter: Robust communication and localization in a heterogeneous swarm” and achieved first place as well as a prize of 100,000 euros. Second place went to Martin Matt with “A.P.E.X. – Autonomous Perimeter Exploration Code”. Third place went to the AutoDrone team from the Fraunhofer IFF with the idea “SENSO – Swarm-intelligent sensor carrier system for cyber-secure risk assessment of major events in public spaces in the event of danger from CBRNE”. The envelopes were symbolically handed over by three autonomous robot systems, which delivered the winning messages directly to the stage.
At the end of the anniversary celebration, Research Director Prof. Dr. Christian Hummert looked ahead once again. He emphasized that in the future, the Cyberagentur will not only be a driver of innovation, but also an advisor for politics and society. With the aim of funding disruptive research, it wants to contribute even more to Germany’s vision of secure digital sovereignty – not only for the challenges of today, but also for those of tomorrow and beyond.