CERIS Expert Group: Annual plenary meeting wrap-up

CERIS provides a platform for policy makers, security practitioners, researchers and academia, industry and civil society to identify gaps & needs and solutions for civil security. Set up in October 2022, the CERIS expert group is the backbone of the CERIS community that counts 3100 subscribers.

The 65 members of the CERIS expert group have been selected in an open call for their specific knowledge in internal security, border management or disaster resilience. They are key in preparing and implementing the CERIS workshops as speakers, panellists, and moderators, which are open to the wider CERIS community and to the public. The 20 CERIS workshops and conferences carried out between November 2022 and December 2023, with around 2600 participants, covered topics such as child sexual abuse, bioterrorist threats, disinformation & fake news, community policing, artificial intelligence, disaster resilience, border management, corruption, but also methods to ensure that security authorities benefit from EU security research results. Several of these topics will be followed up in the upcoming 2023 CERIS annual report, showcasing how CERIS and EU security research as a whole help in making Europe more resilient to emerging and future security threats and risks.

On 4 and 5 October 2023, 56 out of 65 members of the CERIS expert group met in Brussels, under the steer of European Commission DG HOME.F2, for their annual – brainstorming meeting. During this meeting, the experts discussed the lessons learnt from the previous CERIS workshops and conferences. They also identified about 30 topics for future CERIS events, such as the impact of climate change and environment on security; the trafficking and illicit trade of cultural goods; and dual use technologies.

The emphasis of the meeting was on discussing the experts’ contributions to the first CERIS annual report that will come out in the first quarter of 2024. After sharing the most recent preparations in a horizontal meeting, experts split into separate sessions to continue working on specific topics, leading to a profitable exchange of ideas and perspectives.

Most members of the CERIS expert group participated in the annual event of the EU Innovation Hub for Internal Security on 3 October 2024, ensuring a coherent approach between CERIS and the Hub.

Coming from all over the Europe to participate in both events, the CERIS experts once again showed their dedication and full commitment to making our society more secure.