EU Innovation Hub Wrap-up

The annual event of the EU Innovation Hub of EU Agencies for Internal Security took place in Brussels on 3 October 2023, together with the CERIS Expert Group Annual Event on 4 and 5 October. The event was co-organised with CERIS with support of DG HOME, in order to bring together the Hub and the CERIS experts.

The event gathered close to 180 participants, with EU Innovation Hub members, JHA agencies and EU bodies (Commission, Council secretariat), Member States’ practitioners (for example police forces) and representatives (Ministries, Permanent Representations), international organisations (such as Interpol), researchers, civil society (for example European Digital Rights) and industry, including small and medium sized enterprises.

The event was opened by the Hub Steering Group co-chairs Nicolas Bessot, Head of Security Research and Innovation Unit in DG HOME, and Enrique Belda Espulgues, Deputy Director General of Communication and Information Systems for Security and Director of the Security Technology Centre in the Ministry of Interior in Spain. In a high-level session, DG HOME Director Marta Cygan, eu-LISA Executive Director Agnès Diallo, CEPOL Executive Director Montserrat Marín López, Frontex Deputy Executive Director Aija Kalnaja and Europol Deputy Executive Director Andrei Linta underlined the importance of the Hub for their constituency, and their strong support for the Hub to continue its work.

The conference was then divided into four thematic sessions on “Key enabling technologies”, “Regulatory sandboxes”, “Encryption & access to data”, and “Bridging the valley of death: ensuring the uptake of outputs of EU security research”.

Several CERIS experts were speakers in the thematic sessions and ensuing discussions, making the most of the synergies between the Hub and CERIS. Key takeaways of this event are the need for the Hub and CERIS to collaborate even more closely, and the importance of EU security research as a pillar of security which requires a forward looking approach and long-term investments.

To find out more about the EU Innovation Hub, watch the video.