Interview with SYNYO GmbH

SYNYO are a partner in the NOTIONES project. What is your role within this network of police and intelligence agencies across Europe?

In NOTIONES project SYNYO GmbH (SYNYO) is the lead of the Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation (DEC) work package. As such the organization facilitates and ensures the uptake of the project´s core outcomes, insights gained and knowledge produced. In that respect, SYNYO designed and implements a plan to ensure that the generated know-how, as well as the relevant obtained results of NOTIONES are properly promoted to reach a broad audience and create a high impact beyond the project itself. Moreover, SYNYO established the means, channels and methods for achieving this goal. These include the creation of a distinct project identity as well as the setup and utilization of communication and dissemination channels such as the project website, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Thus, under the lead of SYNYO, the project implements a variety of actions to ensure sustainability of the produced outcomes and reach a broader range of stakeholders and thereby create valuable impacts during different phases of project implementation and beyond its duration.

What activities of the NOTIONES project are you currently progressing?

Currently SYNYO coordinates the promotional campaign for a webinar, which is planned for 15.09.2023. The event has the title “NOTIONES MATCHMAKING” und seeks to provide players in the security and intelligences fields from across Europe and beyond, with the excellent opportunity to exploit the potential for future collaboration with their counterparts, such as among others solution providers, law enforcement agencies (LEAs), policy makers and researchers, and benefit from the knowledge exchange. During this virtual event, providers of AI technology for policing, LEAs, policy makers and researchers will make a pitch on their offerings, present and discuss their needs. Parallel to this, the organisation oversees and supports the consortium activities, which aim among others, at the engagement with security and intelligence practitioners, dissemination of project’s results to the scientific community, enlargement of the NOTIONES pan-European network through the cooperation with related projects and initiatives, solution providers and policy makers, etc.

How will the engagement of SYNYO in the NOTIONES project support your business?

The outcomes from the collection and analysis of capability gaps and innovation needs in the field of intelligence and security will be utilised by SYNYO to build up the necessary knowledge and support effectively the uptake of existing innovation solutions in Europe. Moreover, SYNYO will seek to instrumentalise all collected contacts in the consortium organisations’ networks to engage with potential collaborators and set the ground for future project activities. The collection of related projects will be used to establish further connections beyond the funding period to relevant stakeholders in the field. SYNYO is very active in identifying relevant calls in the ongoing Horizon Europe programme as well as in other international and national programmes. Intelligence/security practitioners, solution providers/technologists and researchers are among the key partners when it comes to the development of innovation solutions in the field of intelligence and security.  SYNYO also seeks to make use of the insights according to the identified gaps and innovation needs, and connected assessments which will allow the organisation to establish for instance consulting packages to provide relevant insights to regional, national and international intelligence and security practitioners.

What are the benefits to SYNYO of participating in European security research and innovation projects?

For the last more than 10 years, SYNYO has been involved on European level in more than 80 research and innovation projects, of which it has coordinated more than 25 (FP7, H2020). As a result the organisation managed to built up an expertise and became a trustful partner in areas such as research, requirement analyses, application design, software engineering, data analytics, and information visualization. Beyond its research and innovation expertise, SYNYO has a dedicated software development team to carry out ICT related innovation from analyses to deployment. Furthermore, SYNYO established a vast network of technology providers, industry leaders, academic institutions, practitioners and city networks.

Are you engaging in other European research and innovation projects? 

SYNYO was and is involved in many security related EU-funded projects. In most of these actions, the organisation leads the DEC work package. As a part of the related plans to uptake the projects’ results, the organisation develops and implements Awareness Hubs on flexible software architecture, a dedicated content management system and a set of modules for boosting awareness on topics such as radicalisation or violent extremism and organised crime as well as putting a particular focus on the impacts of online hate-speech. Another specific cases of application of the Hubs would be for promoting new prevention methodologies and good practices, early prevention against radicalisation by disseminating alternative narratives, including material for first-line-practitioners such as teachers or social workers. However, of course the focus is always adapted to the overall project concept.

More information on the expertise and skills of SYNYO can be found in the dedicated brochure.

How does SYNYO assess which research and innovation projects to progress?

Dissemination and communication are crucial tasks in every security actions in order to increase the impact of the research project. This allows SYNYO to implement its broad expertise in many security related concepts and future projects. Major milestones in the DEC work package are the implementation of the project website as well as the launch of a dedicated communication and dissemination plan, which all partners follow. Ongoing monitoring by the dissemination and communication lead is crucial for ensuring that all partners are in line and that a common message is communicated. Last but not least, these tasks also include the collection, the solid documentation and comprehensive reporting of the activities as well as the networking with other projects and entities.

What experience do you bring to support the delivery of the NOTIONES project?

Our organisation has a lot of experience in the areas of dissemination, communication and exploitation of project results. Additionally we have graphic designers on our team. This means that the responsible project manager and the graphic designers can communicate directly and work fast. The designers also work closely with our developers, who created the NOTIONES project website. The collaboration of these three groups makes sure that NOTIONES project has a consistent identity and high-quality public outputs and channels.

What advice would you give to police, intelligence and security agencies seeking to engage in European security research and innovation? And what are the key lessons SYNYO have learned in delivering security research and innovation projects?

Law enforcement agencies (LEAs) should see their involvement in European security research and innovation as an opportunity to develop new capabilities and technologies in order to address more effectively today’s security challenges and anticipate tomorrow’s threats. Moreover, by participating in innovation procurement projects, for example, they can reduce the gap between research and the market and foster the uptake of security solutions. LEAs can exploit collaboration opportunities with other stakeholders across the EU, and thus promote the societal acceptance of security technologies by anticipating their undesired consequences and identify socially acceptable alternatives.

Contact details and online links:

Website: www.synyo.com

Email: alexander.nikolov@synyo.com