Nicolas Bessot is the Head of Unit for Innovation and Security Research in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs, since March 2022.

In his current functions, Nicolas is responsible for the management of the Security Research part of the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, by setting the research agenda, in cooperation with the Member States, in the areas of Fighting Crime and Terrorism, Border Security, Disaster Resilient Societies and Infrastructure Protection.

Nicolas is also co-chair of the EU Innovation Hub since more than a year.

Nicolas Bessot has been working in the European Commission since 2006. He joined the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs early 2015 to prepare the Commission's policy response to the terrorist attacks of 2015, and then coordinated the implementation of the strategy within the Commission.

María Montserrat Marín López has held various leading operational and strategic roles for 26 years in a wide range of policing areas such as forensics, public safety, money laundering, drug trafficking, and irregular migration. She had been serving as Commissioner of Police since 2017. Ms. Marín López, who has broad experience in police training and education, studied Psychology and graduated with honours from the CEPOL European Joint Master Programme in 2019.

Isabelle Linde-Frech (née Frech) (female) is a biologist and Head of the Business Unit “Technology and Innovation Planning” for public sector clients at the Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis INT. Amongst others, she is a member of the CERIS expert group under DG HOME (subgroup on destination SSRI), member of the national Security Research Expert Group under the German Ministry of Education and Research and a Co-Chair of the EARTO Working Group for Security and Defense Research. Isabelle provides expertise in strategic planning support for security related capability development and innovation management and has worked as a leading project manager in several international and national research projects in the field of security/ disaster management.

Dr. Enrique Belda-Esplugues, Ph. D. at Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and a MSc. Civil Engineer at Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). He has completed postgraduate courses at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées of Paris, the École Nationale d'Administration (L'ENA) of Paris, the IESE Business School and the University of Navarra, as well as the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) and the Spanish Diplomatic School (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation).

Civil Servant in the General State Administration; he is currently the Deputy Director General of Communication and Information Systems for Security and Director of Security Technology Center in the Spanish Ministry of Interior. He has also held the position as: Deputy Director General on Road Traffic Technologies in the Ministry of Interior and Lecturer in the Superior Technical School of Civil Engineers of the Polytechnic University of Valencia; he has also worked in the private sector as Chief Engineer for the construction of public works and project management.

Throughout the more than 30 years of his professional career, he has received numerous distinctions, awards and recognitions (14), both national and international, from different Institutions, Associations, Foundations and Companies such as: the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the College of Civil Engineers, Canals and Ports, the Civil Guard, the National Police, the Ministry of Defense, Civil Protection, the Spanish Road Association, the ANTPJI-UDIJMA Chair, AUTELSI and the Company Dragados y Construcciones, S.A.

He has participated as a visiting professor in several Masters in subjects such as: Intelligent Transportation Systems and Cybersecurity and has published, as author or co-author, numerous articles, 19 of them in national publications and 6 in international publications.

Agnès Diallo has over 20 years of experience supporting government-level institutions and private sector organisations in France and across Europe in the areas of digital identity, data protection, security, as well as business transformation. Before joining eu-LISA in 2023, as an Executive Vice-President and a member of the Executive Committee at IN Groupe - a European leader in digital identity solutions -, she was in charge of the Group Business, Performance and Strategy (2021-2023), and Digital Identity and Services (2019-2021). Agnès has also held a number of senior management positions with global IT company ATOS and was an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company for over 10 years. She holds a degree in Political Science from the Institut d´Études Politiques de Paris, a master´s degree in Business Administration from Essec Business School and a master´s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Aija Kalnaja, Deputy Executive Director for Standing Corps Management, was serving as the Executive Director ad interim as of 1 July 2022 until 28 February 2023. Before taking up the position of Deputy Executive Director, Ms Kalnaja worked as the Director of Capacity Building Division, where she was responsible for pooling and managing the necessary capabilities from Member States and the agency to carry out operations at the external borders, in the pre-frontier area and in third countries. Prior to joining Frontex, she was Head of Operations Department and Head of Training Unit at CEPOL, the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training.

Ms Kalnaja has the professional experience of working in various public administration positions within the State Police of Latvia, including Deputy Chief of Police, Police Attaché to the United Kingdom in London, and Head of Sirene Bureau. Ms Kalnaja holds a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Latvia.

Andrei Lințǎ was born in Romania in 1985. He joined the Romanian Police Academy in 2003 and graduated as police officer in 2007, obtaining a degree in law and another in finance, as well as a Master’s Degree in ‘The Management of International Police Cooperation’.

This is not Mr Lințǎ’s first foray at Europol, as he previously served as the Romanian Member of Europol’s governing body, the Europol Management Board, from 2017 to 2023 and as Chairperson of the Management Board from 2019 to mid-2020.

Between 2007 and 2023, he served at the Romanian National Police, starting as a police officer and a European Affairs expert. In 2011, he became the Head of the European Affairs and International Relations Unit. From 2012 to 2015, Mr Lințǎ was the Head of the European Affairs Unit within the National Police, responsible for negotiating and implementing European policies and working with international experts to develop tools to enhance international police cooperation.

From 2015 to 2017, Mr Lințǎ was the Director of the Project Implementation Department, where he coordinated and implemented projects to further develop the police as an organisation. From 2017-2021, he was Director of the International Police Cooperation Centre which is responsible for the coordination of international police cooperation with the Romanian National Police.

In 2021, Mr Lințǎ reached the position of Deputy of the General Inspector of the Romanian National Police, taking responsibility for the direct coordination of operational and support departments within the police, strategic development and information management, as well as cooperation with international and EU partner agencies.

The Council of the EU appointed Mr Lințǎ to his current post as Deputy Executive Director of Europol responsible for the Capabilities Directorate. He took up his functions in August 2023.

PhD and a Post-Doc in Industrial Informatics. She coordinates several international projects (H2020, HORIZON, ITEA and Celtic) with the focus on artificial intelligence (AI) for enhanced cyber security, and on the security of AI, for critical infrastructures protection (Airports, Health, Industry, Telecommunications). She has published over 150 papers, more than 30 in international journals and books. She participates in several EC expert groups, such as European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) working groups on the Security of AI and on the Cybersecurity Skills framework, Community for European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS), and ISEP representative at European Cybersecurity Organization (ECSO). She participates in the technical and scientific committees of several conferences and is an active member of IEEE.

Seán Gaines is the Director of Intonational Projects at Vicomtech and the President of EACTDA. He holds qualifications in Electronics Engineering, Informatics and Business Studies. Prior to working in the Security, and later European Framework Programme Research areas, he held a number of positions internationally in it the field of software engineering.

Mr. Christian BRATZ assumed his current role as Assistant Director, Strategic Innovation of the INTERPOL Innovation Centre in June 2021. In 1992, he joined the Federal Criminal Police Office and served for 30 years in various national and international assignments in managing functions and on special missions. He was Deputy Head of the ‘Counterfeit Currency Section’, on mission on a kidnapping case in Costa Rica, he worked for two years for the Internal Ministry, responsible for Illegal Immigration, then five years for Europol in The Netherlands as Head of Unit, Illegal Immigration. He is a member of the German Disaster Victims unit and was assigned to a mission in Addis Ababa. In the last fifteen years, Mr. Bratz acted as bilateral Liaison Officer in Moscow, Libya and China and served in functions as Head of Section in Berlin of the following areas: Strategic Planning, International Police Missions and finally the last four years Strategic Country Analysis and cooperation with transnationally operating German companies.

Darek Saunders is the Head of the Border Security Observatory and a Senior Research Officer in the Frontex Research and Innovation Unit. He is responsible for coordinating Technology Foresight, Technology and General Research and the support provided to the EU Research and Innovation Programme (Horizon). He joined Frontex in 2010, and the Research and Innovation Unit in 2018. Darek previously served in the United Nations Security and Safety Service in New York and at the NATO Headquarters of Allied Command Operations (SHAPE) in Belgium. He is a graduate of the Military Academy of Technology in Warsaw and served in the Polish Army as a commissioned officer at both Operational and Strategic levels.

Martin Übelhör works in the European Commission, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) as Deputy Head of Unit for Innovation and Security Research. His unit manages EU funding for R+I in topics such as fight against crime and terrorism, critical infrastructure protection, border management, and disaster-resilient societies. Prior to that, he worked the Commission’s DG Connect as Head of Sector for Cybersecurity Industry and Innovation, i.a. setting up a European Cybersecurity Competence Centre and Network in Bucharest. He joined the European Commission in 2008, where we worked on various topics in relation to digitisation and helped set up and manage a number EU funding programmes, such as the Connecting Europe Facility and the Digital Europe Programme.

Martin studied political science and sociology in Mannheim, Baltimore and Bruges. His first professional experiences were in international affairs (United Nations HQ) and research (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovations Research).

Jennifer Woodard is the co-founder of Insikt Intelligence, a deep-tech startup researching applying AI and Machine Learning to unearth hidden insights within large datasets for customers in the government sector for fighting online crime, disinformation and counterterrorism; as well as the co-founder of Dataietica, a non-profit institute created by AI practitioners and researchers in the Security industry who want to fully realise the potential of new technologies for public safety and policing, while addressing the implications such innovations have in terms of ethics, privacy and human rights.

Jennifer is a recognized expert in the application of AI for counterterrorism and a frequent speaker on the topic at high-level events. Most recently she addressed the UN Counterterrorism Week on the benefits and human rights implications of AI for counterterrorism. She is also frequently called upon to speak on the topic of ethical AI for security and policing in the EU, US and Israel. She also works closely with UN agencies such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on events related to the application of AI in achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Her spare time is spent mentoring future female leaders and contributing to the advancement of European technological research through her work as an external expert for the European Commission Research Executive Agency and as a member of DG Home's CERIS Expert Group.

Petr Motlicek, Dr. has received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from Brno University of Technology (BUT), Czech Republic, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. From 2001 to 2002, he has been a Research Assistant at Oregon Graduate Institute (OGI), Portland, USA, contributing to the standardisation of distributed speech recognition technology. Since 2005, he has been at Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland, currently holding a position of Senior Research Scientist. His research interest include AI and large data processing using machine learning with applications to domain of spoken language understanding, combining technologies extracting meaningful information from voice, text and additional metadata resources. From 2016, he actively contributes with innovations to the field of security research. He has been coordinating ROXANNE EC FCT project which resulted in a free-SW (currently further commercialised by Aegis, Germany) available for LEAs to efficiently process, combine and visualise large quantities of data from criminal investigations. The research group at Idiap also contributes significantly to transfer profoundly tested machine-learning technologies to industry. From 2022, he holds a position of associate professor at BUT. From 2000, he has published internationally in conference proceedings and journals and filed several patent applications.

Dafni Stampouli (PhD) leads the Innovation Projects Office of the Europol Innovation Lab, which focuses on delivering concrete solutions to enhance the technical capabilities of Europol and EU LEAs. She joined Europol in 2014, and was responsible for the implementation of operational systems, such as the Europol Analysis System, EPE, ECR and other Europol initiatives. Before joining Europol, Dafni worked for Airbus Group, initially for the advance research department in the UK and later for Airbus Defence and Space, in France. Dafni holds a PhD in Computer Vision and started her career in academia, where we worked as a lecturer in UCLAN, in the UK.

Jurjen Jansen PhD (1983) is a senior researcher at the Cybersafety Research Group where he has been working since 2010. Jurjen’s work focusses on issues related to digital resilience of people and organizations. His research interests include human aspects of information security, cybercrime, victimization, human-computer interaction and behavioral change.

In 2018, Jurjen obtained his PhD in "behavioral information security" at the Open University of the Netherlands. His doctoral research focused on strengthening the online resilience of end users in the context of online banking. Jurjen also works on projects about knowledge and competencies of police officers regarding digital police work, managing cyber crises, smart cities and risk management, online fraud prevention and victimization, and much more. Before that, Jurjen was a researcher at the University of Twente from 2007 to 2010, where he conducted scientific research into electronic government. In 2007, he obtained his MSc in Communication Studies from the same university.

Peter Davis is a lawyer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen. His doctoral research focused on the regulation of encryption technologies, in which he examined the viability of legal options in the EU, US, and Australia to ensure or allow access to encrypted data by authorities.

Laurent BESLAY is a European Commission Official at Joint Research Centre, within the Directorate on Digital Transformation. Working as Scientific Portfolio Leader on Law enforcement technologies, he manages research activities on cybercrime and cyber-dependent organised crime, biometric systems and privacy safeguards. His team designed, developed and implemented the Europol decryption Platform hosted in the JRC. From 2004 to 2011, he was the scientific advisor of the European Data Protection Supervisor coordinating the activities on security and technology. He previously worked six years for the JRC - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies as a PhD candidate (Electronic surveillance: benefits and risks for the EU) and as a project officer in the field of cyber-security.

David Rios Morentin is a telecommunications engineer with more than 20 years’ experience promoting technology development and innovation for security. Decorated with the White Cross of the Order of Merit of the Spanish Guardia Civil, David has been a strong supporter of the new Security R&I strategy of the European Union. Currently, he is the Security Business Development Manager at Vicomtech. Prior to this role he was a policy officer in European Commission’s DG HOME.

Jorge Garzon is Deputy Head of Procurement Strategy and Performance Office at the French Ministry of Interior. He is also the coordinator of the iProcureNet, a Horizon 2020 project, which aims to create an ecosystem of procurers, prescribers, legal advisors and other key stakeholders of security procurement, to share procurement trends and needs, and open pathways for joint procurement

Eleni Lianou is a Supreme Court Lawyer- Research Associate at the Center for Security Studies of the Hellenic Ministry of Citizen Protection (KEMEA). She has 20 years working experience on procurement law as senior legal consultant of Greek and European public authorities, providing legal services and technical assistance related to the implementation of EU funded projects and public procurement at European and national levels, including public procurement of R&D and innovation and green public procurement. She is appointed by the European Commission, as innovation procurement expert to assist with assignments that include, inter alia, the evaluation of proposals and monitoring of projects.

Hans-Martin Pastuszka is Deputy Head of Department Technological Analyses and Strategic Planning and Co-Head of Business Unit for Defence Technology Foresight at the Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis INT. In his research, Hans-Martin focuses on analyses on defence and security research planning, comprising organisational and conceptual issues, the planning processes and related activities.

From 2009 to 2012, Hans-Martin was a member of the FP7 Security Advisory Group to the EC, and from 2012 to 2013 Seconded National Expert to the EC, acting as Policy Officer at DG Enterprise in the Unit which was responsible for the EU Security Research Programme. Since 2022, he again is a member of the EC’s Expert Group on the Community of European Research and Innovation for Security (CERIS), focusing on capability-driven approaches. Hans-Martin finally holds the rank LTC (reserve) and serves periodically as desk officer for R&T strategy at the German FMoD.

Ana Lucía JARAMILLO is an expert in European public procurement law and alternative dispute resolution. She has a master's degree in International and European Law from the University of Amsterdam and is a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. She is part of the CORVERS team that runs the European Assistance for the Public Procurement of Innovation (EAFIP). She has conducted research at Universiteit Leiden and UniZar.

Greg Mounier (PhD) is the Head of the Europol Innovation Lab, which leads research and development projects for innovative investigative tool with national LEAs. The Lab also hosts the EU Innovation Hub for Internal Security.
Greg worked as policy advisor in the office of the Director of Europol and led Europol’s External and Strategic Affairs team. Greg was also Head of Outreach at the European Cybercrime Center (EC3) where he was responsible for the cooperation with the private sector. He led Europol's engagement on Global Internet Governance (encryption, DNS, IP space) and represented Europol at ICANN, RIPE and IETF.

Eirik Gulbrandsen is a senior advisor in the Norwegian Data Protection Authority's Technology, Analysis and Security department. In the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, he works on identifying and analyzing key technology trends and their significance for privacy, in addition to work with supervisory and non-compliance cases, e.g., in law, police and defense. He has been a project manager on the Norwegian Data Protection Authority's regulatory sandbox to stimulate privacy enhancing AI, innovation and digitization since 2020.

In the years 2009-2013 she was Director for Immigration and Asylum, in the years 2014-2019 Director for Strategy and General Affairs in the Directorate- General Justice and Consumers.

Between 2004 and 2009 she was Deputy Head of Cabinet of the European Commissioner responsible for Regional Policy, Danuta Huebner.

Between 1996 and 2004 she served as First Counsellor in the Polish Mission in Brussels, then Polish Permanent Representation to the European Union.

In 1993 she joined the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she worked as Head of the European Law Section in the Legal and Treaties Department.

Born in Krakow and of Polish nationality, she graduated in Law and Languages from Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She obtained a Diploma in Community Law by the College of Europe in Bruges and in European law and policies by European College in Parma.

Ferre Pauwels is a policy advisor at the cabinet of the Belgian Federal Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne. With a focus on policy issues in the domain of national security, he has experience on drafting national legislation on data-retention and the access of law enforcement and intelligence services to encrypted communication.