NLO terms of reference

In 2017 the Management Board of ENISA has adopted guidelines on missions, principles and functioning of the NLO network offering a roadmap to improve its efficiency and impact

Structure of the NLO network

The NLO network consists of (at least) one NLO per MS. NLOs should have expertise on the NIS policy area and should typically:  

NLO network

  • Work in the field of NIS, either in the public sector (e.g. ministry), or the private sector (e.g. IT/Telecom);
  • Be well-connected in the field of NIS and have a large network of relevant contacts in this field;

In coordination with the MB representative, it may be decided to apoint multiple NLOs for one MS – particularly when the country is large, or when there are multiple discreet communities (e.g. private, public, industry) that have a pronounced interest in NIS. The MB representative chooses whether and how to provide addiitonal information to the NLO regarding ENISA.

The role of NLOs & good practices

Community building:

  • NLOs manage and develop a contact list, or mailing list of relevant experts and stakeholders in NIS in their MS. In this case, NLOs act as brokers between ENISA and the community in their country.
  • NLOs can further leverage social media for the purpose of community building (e.g. Linkedin, Twitter)).

 Dissemination/information:

  • ENISA keeps NLOs informed about its activities, news, etc. by means of targeted emails. The scope of these informative actions is to bring to the attention of the NLOs ENISA deliverables, projects and policy priorities, with a view to have them further disseminated within the NLO managed community in the MS.
  • From time to time (e.g. in 2-3 month intervals, or otherwise agreed),  NLOs send an update about ENISA’s activities to their local communities.
  • NLOs may – and are encouraged to – keep ENISA and the NLO network informed about events with NIS interest in their MS.
  • NLOs overview NIS developments in their country and submit national news on NIS for possible publication on the ENISA website (‘News from the Members States’section).
  • ENISA seeks to set up a private portal for information sharing with NLOs. This portal shall become the main database for ENISA NLO cooperation and coordination. Following the setting up of a portal, ENISA will consider additional measures to increase contact and engagement between NLOs in the interest of improved information flow on roles and good practices.

Surveys:

  • For specific projects, ENISA may carry out surveys that NLOs would disseminate to their constituencies and in some cases take part themselves as well, in order to collect requirements, assess impact, etc.
  • NLOs can distribute surveys to their local community; ENISA can collect responses.

 Calls for participation:

  • For specific projects, ENISA may want to involve experts and to this end it may send a call for participation in expert groups through the NLO network.
  • NLOs liaise with their local communities to disseminate surveys, calls for participation in expert groups, events, tenders, vacancies and any other ENISA announcements that should be further disseminated. 

Feedback from local communities:

  • NLOs may collect feedback from their local communities on the ENISA work program. This suggests that NLOs could both retrieve information on ENISA related topics and activities in their local communities e.g utilisation of deliverables produced by current (or past) work programs, and request information to ENISA triggered by the needs in their country.
  • NLOs may collect ideas and requirements about ongoing NIS issues in the interest of the MS or of an industry sector, or a public service, etc.  
  • From time to time, ENISA collects this feedback and sends it to the PSG and MB for consideration and information.

Workflow

ENISA appoints a single point of contact and NLO network co-ordinator, as it is communicated from time to time.

In order to ensure a good level of coordination and coherence in the interactions between ENISA’s project managers (PM) and the local communities in the MS:

NLOs should address their new requests to the NLO network co-ordinator, and refrain from contacting ENISA’s PM directly at the kick-off of a project. Once liaison has been established for a particular matter or project, they can then contact the PM directly keeping in copy the ENISA’s NLO network co-ordinator.

The NLO terms of reference are also available in PDF.