5 December 2024

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We are excited to share that the CONNECTOR Project was invited to present at the CERIS Workshop on Innovation Against Trafficking of Cultural Goods, held in Brussels on December 5th, 2024.

This interactive event brought together customs and security practitioners, policymakers, representatives from museums and UNESCO, and other stakeholders to explore innovative solutions and discuss the challenges of tackling illicit trade in cultural goods across EU borders.

At the workshop, CONNECTOR had the opportunity to:

• Showcase innovative tools and methodologies developed through the project that can support the fight against trafficking of cultural goods.

•  Demonstrate the project’s relevance and the tools’ adaptability in order to tackle new and pressing challenges, such as the critical domain of cultural heritage protection.

• Exchange ideas and foster dialogue with stakeholders to identify synergies for long-term impact.

 

➡️ Learn more about CONNECTOR: www.connector-project.eu

➡️ Event details: https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/whats-new/events/innovation-against-trafficking-cultural-goods-2024-12-05_en

 

#CONNECTOR_EU_Project #CERIS #CulturalHeritage #CISE #CE_CISE #CrossBorderSecurity #EUProjects #Interoperability #CustomsSecurity #Innovation

 

Home

https://www.connector-project.eu

 

Innovation against trafficking of cultural goods

https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu

03-07 November 2024 

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We are thrilled to announce that the CONNECTOR project was proudly showcased at Satways' booth during EURONAVAL 2024! 🚢 

 

📍 Held from November 3rd to 7th at Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center, this premier naval defense exhibition provided an excellent platform to present our cutting-edge innovations. 💡

 

We were honored to be part of the Greek Sector 🇬🇷, organized by SEKPY - Hellenic Manufacturers of Defense Materiel Association, and to engage with industry leaders and professionals throughout the event.

 

We would like to thank all visitors of Booth C45 for the insightful discussions.

 

 #CONNECTOR_EU_Project #EURONAVAL2024 #NavalDefense #CISE #CE-CISE #CrossBorderSecurity #EUProjects #Interoperability #CustomsSecurity #Innovation

 4 October 2024

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The CONNECTOR consortium gathered in Brussels for the mid-term review. This review served as a pivotal moment to assess our work and plan the next steps for the project's second phase.

CONNECTOR aims to contribute to the European Integrated Border Management concept and the EU Customs Action Plan by:
fostering the cooperation of Custom, Border & Coast Guard Authorities within the current and upcoming challenging and demanding environment of borders’ control, and by further involving Customs to the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) network, via the development of the Customs Extended Common Information Sharing Environment (CE-CISE).
With 17 committed partners from European, non-European, Schengen and non-Schengen countries, the consortium highlights a collaborative and inclusive approach to addressing shared challenges.

As we going through the next stages, we remain driven by our mission to deliver impactful results and contribute to improved border management across the region.

 16-17 October 2024

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We are thrilled to have been a co-organising project of the RISE SD 2024 conference, held in Chalkidiki, Greece, on October 16th-17th, 2024. The CONNECTOR coordinator, Dr. Souzanna Sofou, presented insights regarding further involving Customs to the Common Information Sharing Environment (#CISE) network, via the development of the Customs Extended Common Information Sharing Environment (#CE-CISE).

Our team had engaging discussions with stakeholders from across the European security community.

Special thanks to all project partners for their dedication and ongoing hard work! 🌍

📄 Presented Abstract: Customs extended interoperable common information sharing environment (CONNECTOR)

👉 Programme – Rise SD 2024: https://rise-sd2024.eu/programme/

 

#RISESD2024 #CONNECTOR_EU_Project #CISE #CE-CISE #CrossBorderSecurity #EUProjects #Interoperability #CustomsSecurity #Innovation

05 December 2024

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CONNECTOR has been invited to present at this interactive event in Brussels, which is organised by DG HOME. Along with other projects in this area, CONNECTOR will have the opportunity to showcase our work and current Results to an audience of customs and security practitioners, policy makers, industry and other key stakeholders.

 

The workshop will present and discuss European research and innovative solutions, as well as further capability needs that are relevant to countering trafficking and illicit trade in cultural goods across the European Union borders. 

 

https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/whats-new/events/innovation-against-trafficking-cultural-goods-2024-12-05_en

16-17 October 2024

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The annual Research and Innovation Symposium for European Security and Defence 2024 conference and exhibition is co-organised by project coordinator SATWAYS. 

 

The Symposium provides a forum for disseminating scientific results, supporting knowledge exchange and creating networking and clustering opportunities for security stakeholders of EU-funded projects in security and defence. Live demonstrations will take place on the last day of RISE-SD 2024

 

CONNECTOR will be exhibiting during the two days, providing an opportunity to discuss the project’s Results to those attending the conference.

 

https://rise-sd.net

19 Sept 2024

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CONNECTOR is joining the workshop on the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE), hosted by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The workshop will be held via videoconference on 19 September from 8:30 to 10:30 (WEST). 

 

In its third edition, the CISE Virtual Open Day will focus on the recently launched Operational Phase of the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) and how maritime operational centres can benefit from using CISE in their activities. 

 

REGISTRATION CLOSES ON 17 SEPTEMBER – FURTHER INFORMATION AT https://www.emsa.europa.eu/news-activities/item/5293-join-us-for-the-cise-virtual-open-day-on-19-september-2024.html

19 Sept 2024

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The second issue of the Herald newsletter has just been published by the WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe (RILO ECE). 

 

This issue contains articles covering a wide range of topics from ‘the importance of using detection dogs in the seizure of undeclared and illegal goods’ to an article from FRONTEX entitled ‘Ukraine-related smuggling before and after the Russian aggression’. Details of recent Workshops and Meetings are also included in Herald 2/2024.

11-12 Sept 2024

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CBRA will be representing CONNECTOR at the two day CISE-ALERT VIP Day on 11-12 September 2024. 

 

The event, which is being hosted at the Italian Space Agency’s headquarters in Rome, will provide a unique opportunity to view a demonstration of CISE-ALERT results and access first-hand information and knowledge about its services. 

 

Further information and registration details at https://cise-alert.eu/node/62

16 July 2024

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CERTH has submitted a paper for publications to IEEE Access journal, entitled ‘Survey on Graph Neural Networks’. The submission is currently under review – 16 July 2024.

11 July 2024

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CONNECTOR was presented by coordinator SATWAYS at this important workshop, organised by DG HOME’s Security Research and Innovation Unit. The event brought together 72 participants from customs and law enforcement, shipping and postal operators, small and medium-sized enterprises and large companies, as well as industry representatives, researchers and representatives from relevant Commission services and EU agencies.

 

The CERIS workshops provide an excellent opportunity for relevant research projects to disseminate their work directly to policy makers and interested stakeholders.

Further information is available at https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/news/e-commerce-security-and-countering-illicit-transactions-2024-07-19_en

1st July 2024

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The World Customs Organisation (WCO) RILO Eastern and Central Europe has just published the latest issue of its Herald newsletter. 

 

This issue introduces the new WCO Secretary general, Mr Ian Saunders, who took up his post on 01 January 2024. This issue has a report on the growth in the number of seizures reported by Member States 2020-2023. Interesting news items and articles include: container control in Bosnia and Herzegovina; cross-border crimes in Moldova; a WCO visit to Montenegro as part of the TENTACLE project; cocaine smuggling in RILO ECE countries. Reports are given of some of the recent key RILO meetings. Some of the interesting seizures made by Customs authorities complete this issue of Herald.

 

This issue will soon be available on the WCO website at https://www.wcoomd.org/en.aspx

3rd July 2024

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The CONNECTOR consortium partners are in Helsinki this week for two days of project updates and in-depth discussions between the technical teams and the end users. Some truly fascinating debates and very positive progress made, as we all move towards the important cross-border use-case trials next year. These three trials will allow the technologies to be tested and assessed using real life and challenging scenarios developed by the end users. 

 

The core objective of the project is to enhance European Integrated Border Management (EIBM) and the EU Customs Action Plan by strengthening cooperation between Customs, Border and Coast Guard Authorities. 

 

The aspiration is to expand the CISE networks and data models used by Customs administrations and other border agencies, at the same time improving the common operational picture and situational awareness between these various agencies and EU cross-border joint operations.

 

#CISE #Customs #Police #DGHOME #REA #HorizonEurope #CBRA

25th June 2024

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The CONNECTOR project was presented by coordinator Souzanna Sofou from Satways at the Project to Policy seminar, organised by DG HOME and REA in Brussels. 

 

This annual meeting has four distinct thematic breakout sessions with CONNECTOR participating in the Border Management one. The four thematic areas that are covered are:

1. Fighting crime and terrorism & Infrastructure (FCT/INFRA)

2. Strengthened Security Research and Innovation (SSRI)

3. Disaster-resilient societies (DRS),

4. Border management (BM)

 

The primary aim of the seminar is to raise awareness among the relevant policy DGs of the new research projects that have been launched, as well as to provide guidance to these new projects regarding the policy-related outputs, in which the policy DGs are interested.

 

An excellent couple of days and our thanks for DGHOME and REA for inviting us to be part of the seminar.

20 March 2024

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ISDEFE hosted the consortium partners at their offices in Madrid for this two day meeting that was organised by partner LAUREA. The meeting’s objective was the planning for the trial use cases, covered by WP2. On day 3, partners were able to visit the AEAT headquarters and Operational Centre.

 

With 35 of the project’s participating in stimulating discussions and with a full agenda over two days, it also provided a perfect opportunity for everyone to hear the latest news of the progress and achievements in the project to date. Much of the workshop focussed on the design of the three use cases and scenarios for the rigorous technology trials later in the project.

 5th January 2024

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CONNECTOR’s Work Package 2 is lead by LAUREA and focuses on the “Operational Landscape Analysis & Requirements Definition”. Since project launch work package partners have been very active, meeting in person at the Kick-off meeting in Athens as well as online on an almost weekly basis. The Bucharest workshop held from 18th to 19th December 2023 enabled partners to present and discuss their progress in person, as well as finesse their respective analysis of:

• the common operational landscape and data sources;

• ethics compliance and legal landscape;

• operational needs and requirements definitions;

• risk assessment and decision support mechanisms;

• use cases, scenarios, and trial definitions.

1st December 2023

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Border Security Report, Volume 33, Nov/Dec 2023, pp. 58-59

This month’s edition of Border Security Report – the Journal of border security and transnational crime – contains a two page report about the CONNECTOR Project. You can read it here for free.

30th November 2023

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The CONNECTOR project seeks to extend the Customs Extended Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) networks and data models for utilisation by Customs administrations and other border agencies (CE-CISE). It is thus important to work closely with CISE stakeholders and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). Many of CONNECTOR’s partners have long-standing expertise in the development and implementation of CISE-related initiatives.

The CISE stakeholder group meeting was held in Lisbon on 28th to 29th November 2023. This was a welcome opportunity for the CONNECTOR coordinator SATWAYS to formally discuss – in a dedicates slot on day two –all project details subsequent to CONNECTOR’s inauguration.

The event was attended by all CISE stakeholders, sponsoring government agencies, and the European Commission. More details about the meeting can be found on EMSA’s website.

16th November 2023

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The Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe (RILO ECE) was created on 15th February 1993 in Warsaw. This followed a decision taken in December 1992 at a meeting organised by the Customs Cooperation Council (now World Customs Organization) in collaboration with the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP). 30 years on, RILO ECE invited the CONNECTOR project partner CBRA to give a presentation about “The role of data sharing in combating customs crime” at its 30th Anniversary meeting, held in Warsaw on 15th November 2023. This was a welcome opportunity to showcase the CONNECTOR project, raise awareness amongst customs end-users, and also solicit feedback about operational data sharing requirements.

Additional information

• Czyżowicz, Wieslaw and Rybaczyk, Magdalena (2017), ‘Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) database perspective: A case study‘, World Customs Journal, 11 (1)

• The Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe(RILO ECE); explainer by Polish Customs

• Overview of WCO RILO offices

Image credits: RILO Brochure Cover Page

6th November 2023

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Project coordinator SATWAYS was delighted to have been invited to give a presentation about CONNECTOR to expert members of the CEN-CENELEC Sector Forum on Security (SF-SEC). The online event took place on 15th November 2023 and was an opportunity to raise awareness about the CONNECTOR project, but also explore:

• the need for standards specific to the sharing of information and data between border agencies;

• the foreseen common risk assessment mechanism; as well as

• the continuation of standardisation efforts towards the European Integrated Border Management Roadmap.

About the CEN-CENELEC Sector Forum on Security

“The role of the Forum is to coordinate the standardization work programme, establish liaisons with professional and technical associations and analyse the different policy initiatives, best practices, and security technologies to work out how standardization can enhance the EU security industry’s competitiveness, dissemination of security products, systems and services and ensure a higher level of internal security in Europe”. You can visit their website here.

Additional Information:

• FRONTEX’s “Technical and Operational Strategy for European Integrated Border Management” brochure

• The Horizon 2020 funded NESTOR project’s “Border Management Standardisation Roadmap“

8th November 2023

 

CBRA was invited to a European Space Agency’s “Spaceweek” workshop, which was held in Sevilla on 7th November 2023. This was a fantastic opportunity for building networks and exploring new space based technologies with relevance to CONNECTOR. It was also an opportunity for raising awareness about our research project and its engagement activities, including ambitions for enabling the sharing of operationally relevant border management data.

Image Credits: ©European Union Agency for the Space Programme

8th November 2023

 

CONNECTOR was delighted for the opportunity to present at the EU-HYBNET‘s “Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Workshop“. This event took place on 7th November 2023 at the Police Head Quarters in Valencia.

Project partner AEAT (the Spanish Customs Administration) proudly presented CONNECTOR at this event. The focus of workshop activities was on knowledge exchange, especially with regard to:

• future trends of hybrid threats;

• cyber and future technologies;

• resilient civilians – local level and administration; and

• information and strategic communications.

Participation enabled us to reach out to fellow European researchers and innovators, and discuss the CONNECTOR project in detail.

About EU-HYBNET

EU-HYBNET (Empowering a Pan-European Network to Counter Hybrid Threats) project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, and seeks to enrich the existing European networks countering hybrid threats and ensuring long term sustainability. Further details about EU-HYBNET can be found here.

27th October 2023

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Project partner CBRA was pleased to take an active role in PEN-CP’s inaugural Customs Training Network Workshop. This two day (25th-26th October 2023) event in Rotterdam was hosted by Dutch Customs and brought together customs professionals from various administrations, laboratories, and training facilities across Europe. Discussions covered a wide range of topics specific to customs training needs, innovative practices, and collaboration. Enabling the later is of course a core theme within the CONNECTOR project.

19th October 2023

 

There are always two sides of a border and it is good to explore how both sides can best work together. Such sentiment is particularly well reflected in the World Customs Organisation’s vision statement, which holds that “Borders divide, Customs connect“!

For CONNECTOR – which is a Horizon Europe funded innovation action – it is thus wonderful to have the Customs Service of the Republic of Moldova as one of our end-user project partners. Following the kick-off-meeting in Athens they issued this Press Release.

6th October 2023

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The Connector project was formerly launched at its Kick-off-Meeting in Athens, which took place from 16th to 17th October 2023. A great opportunity for all project parters to come together and convert the CONNECTOR proposal and subsequent grant agreement into an exciting research undertaking.

The packed agenda included a keynote presentation from the European Commission’s DG Home and practical guidance from the European Research Executive Agency. Presentations by project partners helped set the scene by outlining the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) and work plans for an extended CE-CISE that includes Customs, Coast Guards and Border Guards. Discussions, coffee breaks, and a social dinner helped participants get to know each other better and elaborate on their specific research ambitions.

10th October 2023

 

Project partner SATWAYS had an early opportunity on 9th October 2023 to prominently showcase the CONNECTOR research project at PEN-CP‘s “Penday”. This is a monthly event that showcases, discusses and boosts innovations with immediate relevance to the European customs community.

About PEN-CP

PEN-CP is short for the Pan-European Network of Customs Practitioners and is a EU Horizon 2020 funded Customs security practitioner project. It serves as a European Customs innovation boosting network and is powered by: an innovation-centric online platform; and tailored innovation intermediary services. PEN-CP focuses on accelerating innovation efforts across three core Customs technical areas: Data and risk management; Detection technologies; and Laboratory equipment.

 20th July 2023

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This is a big day for the CONNECTOR consortium. Details about the grant award can be found in European Commission’s CORDIS database.Image Credits: ©European Union Agency for the Space Programme

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