NOTIONES celebrates its First Year

September 2022 marked the first 12 months of NOTIONES project. A lot of work has been carried out by the Consortium during this time, but some key achievements of the project are highlighted below:

• The tasks related to Intelligence process and preliminary requirements were COMPLETED This part is fundamental for the success of the project as it identifies the real requirements of the practitioners. A series of interviews and surveys were carried out to collect practitioners´ perspective and needs; these were summarised in a final report. In addition, two further reports were created with the focus on the different phases of the intelligence cycle and the ethical issues concerning the intelligence activities. 

• Research and analysis of the state of the art of Technologies for Intelligence was COMPLETED. Various reports were provided with the review and categorization of state of the art of the different technologies for Intelligence. These include Technologies for IMINT and SIGINT, MASINT, OSINT and Web Analysis, HUMINT and Support Activities, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Mass Surveillance. 

• The Terrorist Process analysis was COMPLETED. This analysis encompasses different parts of the terrorist process such as ideology and narratives, behaviour, financing and means of attack. Understanding the terrorist process is key to identify and develop the appropriate tools for combating it.

• First round of Working Groups to be COMPLETED at end of October 2022. Several lessons learned through this first round of Working Groups as well as many insights gained through the various interactions and discussions among practitioners, academia and technology providers. The themes for the two Working Groups were:
  • WG1: Various challenges in monitoring and collecting data from the dark web
  • WG2: Technological needs, solutions, and improvements to the analysis phase of the intelligence cycle

• First workshop held virtually on the 15^th of February 2022. The workshop consisted of three co-creation rounds, where the mixed groups of practitioners, academia members, technology providers and other participants had the opportunity to examine four topics on intelligence activities. As a result, the workshop produced a vast number of topic-specific insights and comments that maintain at project partners disposal for future activities.

• A total number of 47 persons participated in the first conference held in person on the 15^th of June 2022 in Brussels. It was the first time the Consortium met in person. The main topic of the conference was ‘How can the existing and emerging technologies enhance or hamper the activities of European intelligence and law enforcement agencies ́. As part of the conference there was a keynote speech, a presentation on AI as well as several parallel sessions and working groups, where the participants had the opportunity to explore and discuss further the selected topics. Overall, the participants found the conference a success.

Thanks to everyone involved for the great effort and congratulations on the achievements. Nevertheless, this is only the first 12 months out of the 60 months of the project´s life cycle, therefore the Consortium is busy working on the remaining Work Packages and upcoming deliverables.

Author: Tecnalia