The Projects to Policy Seminar introduces newly launched security research projects to policymakers in Brussels

Once more, this year’s Projects to Policy Seminar introduced the newly launched security research projects under Horizon Europe Cluster 3 to some of the most relevant European policy makers in Brussels. The event took place on 4 and 5 June and drew close to 150 participants from more than 30 projects, 6 EU agencies and 7 Commission DGs for two days of presentations and discussions.

The Projects to Policy Seminar (PPS) is co-organised by DG HOME and the European Research Executive Agency. It takes place on an annual basis, as one of the activities of the Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS). The objectives of the PPS are twofold: to update project representatives on the latest EU policy developments; and to make policy officers aware of the latest research results and of upcoming innovative solutions.

Presentations in plenary touched on diverse subjects of interest to projects, among them ethics, dissemination of project deliverables and innovation uptake. EU agencies, including Europol, CEPOL, Frontex, EUDA, eu-LISA and the EU Innovation Hub, presented their research activities, while DG HOME presented ProtectEU: The European Internal Security Strategy and DG ECHO showcased the Preparedness Union Strategy. This was followed by more concrete examples of platforms that can contribute to the implementation of the strategies: DG ECHO introduced participants to the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network and DG HOME presented the European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats. CERIS expert Umut Turksen shared his personal experiences and lessons learnt from managing EU security research projects in the past.

The sessions in plenary were combined with break-out sessions in smaller discussion groups, first according to the thematic area of each project (border management; disaster-resilient societies; strengthening security research and innovation; and the fight against crime and terrorism, including critical infrastructure protection). On day 2 the groups were mixed up across four thematic areas to give participants opportunities to network and to discuss topics such as emergency response and crisis management, or advanced surveillance detection and robotics.

In conclusion, this year’s edition of the PPS confirmed once again the importance of this networking event bringing together on a regular basis project leaders and managers of newly launched security research projects and policymakers. All participants were invited to continue cooperating bilaterally as well as in the framework of CERIS.

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