FORWARD is an initiative by the European Commission to promote the collaboration and partnership between Academia and Industry in their common goal of protection of Information and Communication Technolocy (ICT) infrastructures. Communication networks and computers are under constant Cyber-threats from malicious users and organizations that use viruses, worms, spyware, botnets, spam, and phishing, to harm the Europe's citizens and organizations.

The FORWARD initiative aims at identifying, networking, and coordinating the multiple research efforts that are underway in the area of Cyber-threats defenses, and leveraging these efforts with other activities to build secure and trusted ICT systems and infrastructures.

FORWARD is a workshop for specially invited people.